NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — MTA officials on Thursday escalated calls for the NYPD to send more police officers to patrol the city’s underground following a series of attacks in the subway system.
Over the last week, there have been a series of assaults in the subway, including a possible anti-Asian hate crime, a violent robbery on a subway platform and a stalking incident that resulted in a couple being injured.
According to WCBS 880’s Steve Burns, since Wednesday, there have also been additional incidents in which a man barricaded himself inside the conductor’s cab of a J train, another man was stabbed in the stomach on a D train and now an off-duty conductor was slashed in the face on another J train.
Transit Workers Union Local 100 President Tony Utano say Gerard Sykes, the off-duty conductor who was attacked, remains in critical condition after multiple surgeries.
“He's all bandaged up. He's on a respirator. He’s all sliced up,” he said.
MTA Chairman and CEO Pat Foye says the attack is terrifying.
“This is frankly everybody's worst nightmare come to life,” he said. “This unprovoked attack is outrageous.”
The MTA has been calling on the NYPD for weeks to send more police officers into the city’s underground to help put an end to the violence and harassment, but the NYPD has refused.
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One official even accused the MTA of “fearmongering,” noting that crime is declining on the city’s subways.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has agreed with the department, saying that he encourages his own children to take the subway daily.
“I wouldn't hesitate at all to take the subway. I will be taking the subway a lot. My children take the subway all the time,” the mayor said.
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Though, Utano and MTA heads say the reality is quite different.
“Every day, on my phone, I get messages from command: ‘Our members are getting spit on, they’re getting punched, they're getting stabbed, they’re getting murdered,’” Utano said. “And then you have a mayor that says there’s no problem. There is a problem.”
New York City Transit Interim President Sarah Feinberg has been extremely vocal about her desire to send more officers and mental health experts into the subway system over the last few weeks. And on Thursday, she renewed those calls, saying the growing issue cannot be ignored.
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“Pretending that there's no problem is not a way to lead the city and it’s not a way to lead the city into the recovery that we need,” she said.
Feinberg notes that while customers may not be the target of harassment and attacks, transit workers are facing danger every day.
“Of course [the subway system] is safe for the vast majority of people who are using the system but, it is not currently safe for all of our transit workers and it's not as safe as it could be,” Feinberg said.
The NYPD released its monthly crime statistics on Wednesday showing that transit crimes dropped by about 10% in April, as compared to the same period in 2020.
Mayor de Blasio sees this as a good sign and is throwing his trust behind the NYPD.
“Let's believe in our city, Let's believe in the NYPD. Let's believe we can move forward,” he said.
The mayor concluded by saying that he has no immediate plans to increase police patrols in the system.
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