NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – A day after laying out a five-point plan to combat subway crime that includes sending the National Guard into the transit system, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Thursday that the crackdown shows Democrats aren’t “soft on crime” as Republicans claim.
“I'm also going to demonstrate that Democrats fight crime,” the governor told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“This narrative that Republicans have said and hijacked the story that we're soft on crime, that we defund the police—no,” she added.
“We care about civil liberties. We don't want over policing. We want to make sure that police operate within certain restraints, protect our citizens’ rights,” Hochul continued. “But by God, I'm going to protect their lives and protect their sense of safety and security here in the City of New York.”
As part of the plan, New York is sending 1,000 state personnel—including 750 Nation Guard members and 250 officers from the state police and MTA police—into the transit system to help with bag checks.
Hochul has tried to mount a more aggressive public safety messaging strategy after Republicans campaigned on crime concerns and performed well in House races in the New York City area in the 2022 elections.
The New York Civil Liberties Union criticized her plan, saying it’s “another unfortunate example of policymaking through overreaction and overreach,”
“These heavy-handed approaches will, like stop-and-frisk, be used to accost and profile Black and Brown New Yorkers, ripping a page straight out of the Giuliani playbook,” the NYCLU’s executive director, Donna Lieberman, said in a statement.
MSNBC host Rev. Al Sharpton echoed the concerns over potential stop-and-frisk tactics, telling Hochul, “We don’t want over-policing, but we need people protected.”
The governor said National Guard members won’t be personally inspecting bags, instead acting as “deterrents” to crime. She said the bag checks are done by police officers and that riders are chosen based on a “schedule” of every so many people.
“Not who the person is, not how they look, but there is a thought-out process to make sure that we're not selecting individuals, we're not profiling people,” Hochul said.
“None of that's going to happen here,” she added. “And if it does, I'll stop it because that's not the objective.”
Also included in the governor’s plan is the acceleration of an effort to get cameras in every subway car—and now every conductor cabin—by the end of the year, and a "Subway Violence Strategic Partnership" that aims to increase coordination between the state, the NYPD, and D.A.’s offices.
The state will also add more outreach teams to help people get mental health and housing support. Additionally, the governor said she’ll propose a bill that would ban anyone from riding the subway or buses for at least three years if they’re convicted of a violent crime against a passenger.
“We're going to make sure we take back our subways, make you feel safe again,” Hochul said.