On the morning of April 12, Frank James filled a Manhattan-bound R train with smoke before firing 33 rounds into the crowd of passengers. Amazingly, no one was killed. The attack was an isolated instance of ideological terror, but it could not have come at a worse time for New York’s struggling subway system—and passengers fearful of returning because of the higher day-to-day risk of violent crime.
Subway ridership plummeted during the Covid pandemic, dipping as low as 6.5% its normal levels, but violent felonies—murders, rapes, robberies, and assaults—rose both per rider and in absolute terms. For over a decade prior, there were, on average, just 1.43 murders underground per year. But without the “safety in numbers” effect or the benefits of proactive policing, seven New Yorkers were killed on the subway in 2020.
But even as ridership increased in 2021 to 59% of normal, violent crime did not drop in tandem. The city was shaken by another seven subway murders. And there have already been two thus far in 2022, including the headline-grabbing death of 40-year-old Michelle Go, shoved from a Times Square subway platform by an apparently mentally ill and homeless man who had repeatedly violated parole for a 2017 violent felony conviction.
In January 2022, Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul announced a joint state–city plan to secure the subways. But as of mid-March, transit crime is up 80.3% over last year. And the palpable fear of Big Apple commuters and tourists intensifies the problem by keeping ridership low and increasing the opportunities for violent crime. What can be done to restore trust and safety underground? Please join us for a discussion featuring new leaders focused on these questions: John McCarthy, Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chief of External Relations, and NYPD Transit Chief Jason Wilcox. Joining them will be Manhattan Institute senior fellow Nicole Gelinas, whose newly released report details NYC subway crime rates and policies over the past year—building on her analysis earlier in the pandemic.
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