By Lora Kallenberg
Content warning: Mentions of violence, sexual assault, and police intimidation.
As a frequent and long-time subway rider in New York City, I have felt unsafe in a number of scenarios beneath the city streets. I’ve been followed, catcalled, groped, flashed, and antagonized on the subway (sometimes all in one day). In all these situations, I have never considered a cop to be my first point of contact for safety and, unfortunately, have had to tough it out on my own. But, of course, this has only made my already-worried parents more terrified; they often ask me to stay home and not take the subway. These days, I have never felt more unsafe in my own city despite being older and more capable than the young 13-year-old who took the train home by themself every day from school.
On March 6, the New York State National Guard was deployed in NYC to help the NYPD combat growing crime rates on the MTA Subway system. As ordered by Governor Kathy Hochul, around 750 soldiers are stationed at the most high-traffic stations in the city to conduct random bag checks on potential riders and bolster security efforts. The intent is to limit the amount of dangerous weapons among commuters in response to several attacks on train conductors that happened in February. The Governor’s announcement caused a lot of panic and confusion among New Yorkers who have already been experiencing an increase in police presence on the subway since Eric Adams’ election.
Giulia Heyward, a news reporter at the Gothamist, discusses the presence of the National Guard and how many are questioning the effectiveness of the increase in security. I, too, am skeptical of this move, unsure of how this is the next logical step to improve conditions on the subway. Since the election of Mayor Eric Adams three years ago, police have been on practically every subway platform with little change to observed safety statistics. Later in the article, Heyward notes specific numbers given by the police commissioner of the city, Edward Caban, describing that “overall crime in the transit system declined by 3% in 2023, including an 8% drop in December.” While these numbers seem promising at first glance, I believe that they aren’t an accurate reflection of what is actually happening in cars and on platforms. In my experience, the majority of incidents go unreported and are not represented by these figures. Thus, our understanding of safety in the city is only really known by those who are witness to it.
Since I am no longer a commuter in NYC like I used to be, I consulted my sister, Ana Kallenberg, for their impressions of the subway climate as of late. They said, “it feels like a temporary solution to a bigger problem.” Ana takes the subway every day to get to work and, like me, took it every day to get to middle and high school. In our discussion, we agreed that we haven’t seen much real help from police officers in tense situations. What we have observed is officers mainly keeping eyes on potential fare evaders and ensuring that offenders are ticketed. While we understand that fare evasion is a problem, ticketing kids who hop the turnstiles doesn’t address the root of the problems of rising fare prices and poverty levels. Unfortunately, this policy mirrors what we’re seeing with increased security. “What I’ve seen is […] a lot of arguments and fights started with people who are unwell and homeless [people] who need housing, support, and treatment,” Ana added. Even with Mayor Adams’ attempts to address concerns about the mental health crisis in NYC, many don’t agree that his directives have improved the way officers are responding to incidents of mental health crises or that cops should be involved at all. Continuing to reevaluate the roots of crime and violence and how they can be addressed without causing excess unease or panic would be much more productive than threatening kids and hardworking New Yorkers with a fare evasion ticket.
This new security regimen has not improved conditions on the subway. Just this past Thursday, a disagreement between two men escalated into a fist fight, then a knife fight, and, finally, an all-out shooting. The bag searches didn’t prevent this from happening because they only occur at the ‘busiest’ stations, so someone could get on the train with a gun at a local stop, travel to Time Square and shoot people on the platform without ever coming in contact with a member of the National Guard. Simple work-arounds like these are all-the-more telling of how the real problem is not being addressed.
Fighting fire with fire just creates more fire.
Leave a Reply