NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Subway safety fears are growing after several high-profile violent incidents.
Surveillance videos shows a man arguing with an MTA clerk just before police say he lit several matches and threw them into the booth’s money slot in an attempted arson. Another image appears to show him making a menacing gesture with his hand, as if pointing a gun.
“It is definitely scary,” one rider said.
It happened Wednesday at the Fulton Street station. But for some riders, it’s yet another example of wild and dangerous behavior on the subway that has left them uncomfortable and nervous, CBS2’s Scott Rapoport reported.
“Scary, scary. Truthfully, scary. You just don’t know what to expect,” said another rider.
Subway safety fears are growing after several high-profile violent incidents. (Credit: NYPD/Tahysi Kyng/NYPD)
Last Friday, a dog attacked a woman after she asked its owner to take the animal off the bench next to her.
Later that night, police said a man in a “Make America Great Again” hat started fighting with another man before pushing him onto the tracks at Union Square.
Some riders say it’s just too much to think about.
“I can’t think about it,” one woman said. “Because if you think about it, then you will be afraid to leave your house.”
“I think that riders are scared and they’re frustrated, because they don’t know what to expect on the train every day,” said Jaqi Cohen, of Straphangers Campaign.
The NYPD insists the number of reported crimes on the subway is down 9.5 percent over last year.
Still, many riders are uneasy.
Security experts say they should be proactive about their safety from the moment they get on the train – be aware of their surroundings and keep their eyes and ears open.
“Know who they’re sitting next to. If they feel that something is going to happen, move,” security consultant Ray Phillips said.
He also said to pick a middle car. That’s where conductors usually ride. And it can’t hurt to stand near the door and where there are other people who might intervene if there’s trouble.
The MTA declined an on-camera interview but said in a statement the NYPD is responsible for keeping the subway safe.
It’s a liberal paradise…and I’m sure they’ll find a way to blame President Trump.
They need to have their right to carry restored. I understand they have a lot of crazies in NYC, so you just don’t let THEM get to carry. That little doubt about whether you might get shot if you try to commit a crime against someone goes a LONG way to keeping people nice and civil around each other. And yes… I’m from Texas. Deal with it, BEETCHES!!!!!
They need Rudy – he took care of business.
You voted for this when you voted Democrat, gun control and made it a sanctuary for illegal criminals. Now the criminals have the guns, cops cannot be everywhere and you are disarmed.
This is the bed you made. Enjoy sleeping in it.
It’s always been a tough city, but great city with more than its’ share of punks and losers.
Unfortunately,the NYPD can’t be everywhere and local judges aren’t keen on leveling tough prison sentences,
Considering this it’s kinda nice to no longer live there but really, it’s still the city against which all other cities are measured!
gee the people keep voting the same party year after year
NYC scared? These ain’t NYers
Ya’ll come down to Texas to see us, hear? Hey, hey, hey…
NYC subway is powered by electrified third rail. Almost amazing that more chaps of this sort do not slip and fall onto them.
Am I the only one who sees the guy in the vid looks exactly like Vincent D’Onofrio, minus a few baths?
Liberals are weird they protect the bad guys and mentally Ill. And let the innocent hard working people to fend for themselves without weapons of any kind.
Those suffering from mental illness are guilty of something? Like what? Breathing? If liberals do anything it’s promise to provide treatment (as Obama did after Sandy Hook) and never deliver. Conservatives simply wish they would all die while promoting criminally insane policies both foreign and domestic (like cutting benefits to the mentally ill which brings us right back to this!)
Between BART in San Fransicko and the subway in NY ya wonder why people like living in this environment…me…I love the advice: “Be this, be that, be aware..sit here, sit there…don’t sit…keep your eye out……etc etc…who want to live in fear? I guess if you live there like living there you do…to me..your mayor should stop this crap…but not in liberal enclaves like SF or NY…crime is now part of your lives…and these liberal autocrats don’t want to put anybody in jail..it’s just too much trouble LOL..this is the truth..happening in Cali, Oregon and Washington…madness.
Seems to be a common element causing the trouble…..
“Where have you gone, Bernhard Goetz, NYC turns its frightened eyes to you….woo woo woo.”
Bernie Goetz, yes, Bernie Goetz. A thin white man with glasses who had enough and wasn’t going to take it any more. The memory lives in the hearts and minds of millions of New Yorkers.
Keep voting Democrat, folks.
So glad I left that cesspool. You couldn’t pay me to live anywhere near NYC – anywhere in the Northeast for that matter.
Everyone is going nuts.
Crime states cooked – no reports taken w/o enormous effort by victims, and then for lower level offences. De Blasio loves fabricated stats and grifter living. DNC voters love their corrupt masters. So all is well in Stanlinyork.
Subway = Colon.
In an all white society we would not have a problem with safety in public places.
Ain’t diversity great?
Wonderful city that Commissar De blasio has built. The voters of NYC must be so proud.
No one in the US is safe. America is dysfunctional and dystopian. Too many mass murders, too much police brutality, too much venality, too many warmongers. It just goes on and on! Someday the whole corrupt system will breakdown and I want to be as far away from the US, as I can be when that happens!
I left few years ago, best of luck, take care.
New York and most other cities run by Democrats are liberal cesspools so they get what they voted for in my view!!
But by all means don’t allow law-abiding people to carry guns.
Crime is down so the only people spreading the fear is the media.
It’s true, statistically violent crime is down but everything is on video and the media stirs people up into a frenzy.
Thank God Democrats only attack Democrats. Republican rule number one: Pack heat 24/7
Carry your safe space, concealed.
Well its a sanctuary city so i bet things are gonna get worse. Also, why dont people arm themselves pepper spray would have taken care of a lot of this stuff happening and a simple pocket knife would have helped,
Wouldn’t be happening if Rudy Giuliani was mayor. Bill de Blasio, whose real name is Warren Wilhelm Jr., won’t be content until NYC is another Chicago. Hence, the recent mass hiatus from NYC, heartbreaking.
The environment of this giant cesspool is what is causing their troubles. Drug use is normal and accepted and the amount of racial haye and divide is so large it defies measure. The people living in this cesspool have themselves created this mess and it is so bad there is no going back. Maybe they will be lucky and the place will just disappear.
Down 9.5%? How many subway attacks occurred? I’m sure those victims are not concerned with percentages.
And recall Bernard Goetz was brought up on weapons charges because in NYC and NY state, only perps and cops carry.
Welcome to Comrade de Blasio’s NYC.
Bernhard Goetz in 1984 taught us how to travel among super predator killmongers.
What a cesspool. Could not live in a city that affords no protection for it’s citizens and before you say police protection remember that when seconds count the cops are minutes away.