Hochul’s Christmastime boast of safer subway came amid string of alarming violent attacks
In the days since New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared New York City’s subways had improved in safety, a woman was burned alive, a man was pushed in front of an oncoming train and gangs of illegal immigrants have robbed straphangers.
Just before Christmas, the Democrat took to X to claim that, since March, she has taken action to make subways "safer for the millions of people who take the trains each day."
"Since deploying the [New York National Guard] to support [the NYPD] and MTA, safety efforts and adding cameras to all subway cars, crime is going down, and ridership is going up," she wrote on Dec. 22.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), while mostly serving the five boroughs, Long Island and Lower Hudson Valley suburbs, is a state-operated, not city-operated, agency.
However, in that short time, an illegal immigrant allegedly set a woman on fire on an F train, a man miraculously survived being shoved in front of a 1 train and Venezuelan gang members have been robbing straphangers at will.
In Coney Island, Guatemalan national Sebastian Zapeta was charged with murder after allegedly lighting a Toms River, New Jersey, woman on fire while she slept on board an F train at the Stillwell Avenue Terminal. That incident occurred the morning of Dec. 22, hours before Hochul's post.
The victim, Debrina Kawam, once worked for Merck Pharmaceuticals in the early 2000s but had more recently lived in a New York City homeless shelter.
Zapeta’s arraignment has been set for Tuesday. He told the NYPD he overindulges in alcohol and "doesn’t know what happened," according to NBC News.
"My office is very confident about the evidence in this case and our ability to hold Zapeta accountable for his dastardly deeds," Kings County Democratic District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said of the case.
Earlier this week, 23-year-old Kamel Hawkins of Brooklyn allegedly shoved an unsuspecting straphanger into the path of a South Ferry-bound 1 train at W 18th Street Station in Chelsea.
Hawkins initially got away but was soon caught near Columbus Circle and Central Park, according to reports. The injured victim’s survival was lauded as a miracle, as he fell into a "trench" between the tracks as the train ran over him and was ambulanced to a hospital with head injuries.
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Hawkins had prior arrests for body-slamming a police officer in Queens. His father, Shamel Hawkins, told the New York Post, "We think somebody put something in his weed."
Shamel Hawkins said Kamel had been "acting weird" recently and that he "needs help" but continues to refuse to seek it.
On New Year’s Day, WPIX reported two separate unprovoked subway stabbing incidents during daylight hours on the West Side. A 30-year-old man was reportedly stabbed in the head and hip awaiting a 1 train at 110 Street and Broadway. The station is in otherwise one of the safer areas of Manhattan, near Columbia University, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and the diner made famous in the sitcom "Seinfeld."
Another man was stabbed while awaiting a 2 train at 14th Street and 7th Avenue that same day, according to the outlet.
Meanwhile, authorities found 22 Tren de Aragua migrant gang members during a raid on a residence in Crotona Park, Bronx last month. Federal law enforcement had tracked the ankle monitor of Jarwin Valero-Calderon – a Venezuelan national originally arrested in Nassau County and under a deportation order – to the building.
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Hochul said in an X video on her account, called "This Week in New York," that her "five-point plan to improve subway safety" has led to overall subway crime dropping 10% since March 2023.
Hochul also said she will deploy 250 more National Guard members to take part in Joint Task Force: Empire Shield.
In its December report on November’s crime stats, the NYPD listed subway crime as having decreased 15% that month from 240 reported incidents to 202 and a year-to-date decrease of 6% from 2,137 to 2,002.
The NYPD said the subways saw their safest year-to-date figure in more than a decade.
"We are all in this together, and while the downward trends in violence and disorder across New York City are highly encouraging as we enter the final month of 2024, we have a lot more work to do to deliver the public safety that New Yorkers deserve," NYPD Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch said in a Dec. 3 statement.
However, New Yorkers overall felt less safe on the MTA as of late.
"Kathy Hochul needs to resign," commentator Chaya Raichik – or "LibsOfTikTok"—wrote on X after chronicling some of the recent subway incidents, and claiming some of the recent underground robberies were committed by Tren de Aragua gang members.
"Of course she won’t resign. These people care only about their power and the perks," FOX Business host David Asman wrote in a reply. "Only New Yorkers can get rid of her."
"Daniel Penny for governor," another X user commented, referring to the man acquitted in the death of a crazed straphanger who had been menacing passengers earlier this year.
MTA Chairman Janno Lieber pledged during a March transit board meeting "we are not going back" to the mid-20th century when the subway was incredibly unsafe. "This is a nightmare for New Yorkers," he said after learning Carlton McPherson – whom neighbors described to the Post as "a little off" – had recently fatally shoved a man in front of a Woodlawn-bound 4 train on 125 Street in Harlem.
Mayor Eric Adams also addressed the public sentiment in remarks earlier this year.
"Public safety is the actual safety and it's how people are feeling," he said in March. "We know we have over 4 million riders a day and a reliable system. We know we have approximately six felonies a day out of those 4 million riders. But if they don't feel safe, then we're not accomplishing our task."
"Stats don't matter if people don't believe they are in a safe environment," he said, according to WNBC.
Lieber said at the March meeting he would not be "surrendering our city to anyone."