Random mayhem continues to plague the city’s subways. Monday morning, a commuter standing on the 42nd Street uptown platform was shoved face-first into the side of an arriving 1 train, which smashed her nose and bruised her entire body. The victim’s deranged assailant, who has been identified as 29-year-old Anthonia Egegbara, was unknown to her, and video of the incident shows that there was no interaction between the two women to precipitate the attempted murder.
This episode — which was complemented aboveground by a shooting a few hours later — is exactly the nightmare scenario that terrifies subway riders, that defines the national image of New York City to tourists and business travelers, and which must be addressed vigorously and immediately by a responsive and effective municipal leadership if we are ever going to get things humming again.
Unfortunately, we have Mayor de Blasio, whose tepid and irrelevant comments about the subterranean savagery betray his lack of urgency to cure it.
“Well, yesterday was a great, great day for New York City,” he announced at the start of his prepared comments during his Tuesday media appearance, at which he elided any mention of Monday’s attack. When asked about it directly, de Blasio explained, “the Times Square area obviously has been reinforced intensely, there’s huge amount of police presence, and overwhelmingly, of course, that has succeeded in improving the environment there in every way and making it safer.”
Is the mayor high? The Midtown South precinct, which encompasses Times Square, is in the middle of a crime surge. Felony assault is up 144 percent year-to-date, and there have been 11 times as many people shot as last year. Robbery, burglary, and grand larceny are all elevated. Hate crimes, a leading indicator of street barbarism, are up a staggering 833 percent in the “improved environment” of the neighborhood.
De Blasio continued his fantasy version of our new normal, insisting, “we also surged a huge number of NYPD officers into the subways. We had one of the highest levels of NYPD deployments in the subways in the last two decades . . . We have seen a much-improved situation.”
Oh, really? Until recently, there were typically one or two murders in the subway annually. Last year we had seven; so far this year we’ve had four. Assaults and other felonies in the transit system are still running well above normal. If there really is a record number of cops in the subway — with ridership still at about 60 percent of pre-pandemic norms — then in what sense is the situation “much improved”?
Last October, following a spate of subway pushings, Mayor de Blasio was asked how his signature ThriveNYC program would address the specific problem of severely mentally ill and dangerous individuals underground. “Thrive is here to cover the whole range of mental health challenges,” the mayor explained impertinently, encouraging everyone with a concern to “pick up that phone and call 8-8-8-NYC-WELL so we can get the help that you need.”
It’s now a year later and de Blasio continues to offer smarmy, canned responses to serious questions about the collapse of public safety in New York. We are undergoing a failure in confidence across the city as people grow accustomed to being frightened of their surroundings. New York City will not come back until order and quality of life are restored to its streets.
Seth Barron is the author of “The Last Days of New York: A Reporter’s True Tale.”