Murder Up, Ridership Down As Leftist Leaders Run NYC Subway System Off Rails

Every day, some 3.8 million commuters move through the concrete and steel arteries of the New York City subway system.

The 472 subway stations and trains that flow in and out of the heart of Manhattan to almost every extremity of the Big Apple make up the lifeblood of the city. But for the last few years, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is hemorrhaging that lifeblood.

They are projected to lose $500 million in subway revenue this year due in large part to the rising tide of violence underground.

Ridership Down 40%

As of October 2022, ridership in the NYC subway system is down almost 40% from pre-pandemic levels. But despite that drastic reduction in ridership, homicides are at a 25-year high. So far, this year, there have been nine murders in the subway. Since 2020, there have been 23.

That is more than the total number of subway killings for the prior 11 years from 2008 to 2019 combined.

In a recent speech addressing the uptick in transit violence, our flailing mayor and former transit cop, Eric Adams, blamed the media for the ‘perception’ that the system is unsafe. He accused them of highlighting a handful of sensational crimes to create that perception.

‘I Felt Unsafe’

But his tone was very different ten months ago when, on his first day in office, he rode the train from his home in Brooklyn to work and said…“I felt unsafe. I saw homeless everywhere yelling on the trains. There was a feeling of disorder.”

He promised to address the problem…“ We’re going to drive down crime and make sure New Yorkers feel safe on our subway system.” Unfortunately, he has been a spectacular failure at both.

The numbers don’t lie. Violent crime is up over 40% downstairs over last year. In addition to the murders, there are countless other victims — people shoved onto the train tracks, assaulted and robbed.

One only has to peruse social media sites to see the mayhem whether it’s a crew of women dressed in Green Goblin outfits beating and robbing passengers, a homeless man pooping in a Transit Authority mop bucket or a mentally ill vagrant smearing feces in a woman’s face. Tell the victims of those crimes and the families of the murder victims that chaos in the subway is based on a perception created by the media.

When recently challenged by reporters on subway crime, Adams doubled down, boasting, “We have an average of less than 6 crimes a day on a system with over 3.5 million riders.” 

If you ride the subways everyday you know that number is absurd and if Adams were being honest he would acknowledge that his number only reflects the seven major index crimes like murder, rape, robbery and felony assault. It does not include, crimes like sexual abuse, pickpockets, the mentally ill menacing and harassing passengers, Assault 3, disorderly conduct or a slew of other crimes.

So Why Is Subway Crime Up So Dramatically?

Like most other criminal justice issues facing the country, the same woke, liberal politicians who created the problem with their soft-on-crime policies are now scratching their heads pretending to wonder how they can fix it.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, head of perhaps the most prestigious and important prosecutor’s office in the country, is one of the main culprits behind the violent crime spike. Everyday, the blood of innocent victims stains his reputation as he continues to behave more like a defense attorney than a prosecutor. 

When he took office in January, Bragg gave subway riders the green light to evade the fare by announcing loudly and proudly that in the name of equity his office would no longer prosecute crimes like fare evasion and other misdemeanor crimes a direct contradiction of the oath he took to enforce the laws of NY State. 

If he knew anything about fighting crime in the subways or anywhere else, he would have known this was a colossal mistake that goes against everything we’ve learned in the last twenty-five years of policing in New York City.

I was a Transit cop for several years before our department merged with the NYPD. It was my experience that the average, law abiding citizen pays their fare and obeys the law. Stopping people who jump the turnstile, urinate or even defecate in public, or commit other minor crimes, was and is a very useful tool in catching the real criminals who move through the system.

Targeting Minorities

Bragg and other, clueless, social justice warriors, argue that targeting turnstile jumpers and other minor offenses is an injustice that disproportionately affects the minority community, a premise that is as absurd as their disastrous policies.

No matter what the corrupt media or these race-baiting politicians tell you, police officers enforce the laws without regard to race. The mostly minority NYPD is no exception.

Are there officers who abuse their authority? Sure, but having served two years as