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New York|Subway Violence Stubbornly Defies All Efforts to Quell It
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/01/nyregion/subway-violence-stubbornly-defies-all-efforts-to-quell-it.html
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A string of attacks has riders devising their own strategies to stay safe, even after years of official efforts to make New York’s vital transportation system secure.
Jan. 1, 2025, 10:15 p.m. ET
A woman was set aflame in a subway car in Brooklyn the same day that a man was stabbed to death on a train in Queens. A man was shoved in front of a train in Manhattan on New Year’s Eve and fractured his skull. And on Wednesday, as the new year began, two men were stabbed 17 minutes apart in unrelated attacks at Manhattan stations.
The New York City subway system — that crucible of confined space, deadly machinery and the frequent presence of people capable of lashing out — feels more dangerous these days.
Statistics show that it may not be just a feeling. While violent crime in the subway has fluctuated in the past few years, there has been a substantial increase in key categories since before the coronavirus pandemic.
Felony assaults in the system are up 60 percent since 2019. Murders rose from three in 2019 to at least 11 in the year that just ended. In 2024, people were pushed to the tracks at least 25 times — about once every two weeks — compared with 20 times in 2019.
All this is happening after years in which the mayor and governor tried solution after solution: more police, more National Guard members, more outreach teams directing more homeless riders into shelters, as well as officers and medics who move people — sometimes by force — to hospitals if they behave erratically enough.
Elijah Encarnacion, boarding a Manhattan-bound M at the Myrtle Avenue station in Brooklyn on Wednesday afternoon has, like many riders, developed a safety routine: eyeballing other straphangers for threats, keeping his head on a swivel and knowing where he’s going.
