NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) — After Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that she was deploying 750 members of the National Guard and 250 officers from New York State Police and MTA Police into the NYC subway system to crackdown on transit crime earlier this week, she determined that soldiers searching bags would not carry long guns.
Sources confirmed to 1010 WINS/WCBS 880 that immediately after she announced their deployment, Hochul directed New York National Guard soldiers to not carry long guns at bag-check stations. Presumably, soldiers not working at the stations will still be allowed to carry the weapons.
Images from the first days of the deployment showed National Guard soldiers in the subway system dressed in camouflage uniforms, wearing military gear like bulletproof vests and holding long guns.
Hochul, who said on Wednesday that “there’s no right to take our subways, it’s a privilege,” wrote in a statement announcing her five-point plan that the deployment is intended to keep New Yorkers safe and “restore [their] peace of mind.”
Random bag checks are being conducted at the city’s most heavily trafficked stations, specifically to look for weapons, officials said. Riders are able to decline bag checks, but run the risk of being denied entry.
The governor has received some pushback regarding the plan, which also includes the installation of more surveillance cameras and legislation efforts to ban repeat offenders from the transit system, with critics calling it a restriction of rights.
“This is another unfortunate example of policy making 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,” New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman said in a statement following the Subway Safety Plan announcement.
The NYCLU did not immediately respond to 1010 WINS/WCBS 880’s request for comment regarding the restricted carry of long guns.
Lieberman did comment to the New York Times that the long gun ban was a “relief,” but the presence of National Guard soldiers in the transit system remained “an unnecessary overreaction based on fear, not facts.”
The implementation of the new system was in response to a 13% spike in transit crime in January and February when compared to the same months last year.
High-profile attacks have fueled concerns over transit safety, including the slashing of a conductor’s neck last month and several recent fatal shootings on the subway in the Bronx.
Just this weekend, a 29-year-old woman had her feet severed when her boyfriend pushed her onto the tracks in a Manhattan subway station as a train approached.