Gov. Hochul’s deployment of the National Guard into the subway with their M4 machine guns didn’t last more than a day or so. The heavy weapons, designed for maximum killing power on the battlefields of Ukraine or the Mideast, are not suitable for the underground transit of America’s biggest city. The scary-looking carbines (we don’t know if they were loaded or not) were quickly ordered stored.
Now let’s see how long the Guardsmen in their camo uniforms remain at post at the fare control of Grand Central and Penn Station. We thank them for their devotion to country and duty, but we anticipate that their underground tours will be short.
When this display of strength began last week, the local cable channel NY1 ran a video of two Guardsmen (without long guns) and one state trooper decked out in his grays with purple necktie and tan felt Stetson at Grand Central. What went unremarked on was a man behind the trio hopping over the turnstile. Stopping fare beaters is evidently not part of the mission of Hochul’s task force.
But that funny moment (and the $2.90 theft of service from the MTA) is what is wrong with the initiative. While Hochul is absolutely right that subway crime — and the fear of subway crime — must be addressed, the real solution is an expensive one: more transit cops. Transit cops prevent farebeating and they prevent crime and they ameliorate fear when you see them.
In October 2022, when Hochul was facing a tough challenge from her Republican rival in what would be a closer than expected election, she brought some significant money to the matter that Mayor Adams and the NYPD then used to put more transit cops on platforms and on trains. But those millions dried up and police OT has long been a budget problem for City Hall.
Likewise the bag checks, which were designed for — and won federal court approval for — warding off bombers, not muggers, aren’t the right fit in this situation.
While a suicide terrorist with a bomb trying to inflict as much damage as possible in a busy station or on crowded train, as occurred in 2004 in Madrid and in 2005 in London, might be intercepted, a mugger with a knife or a gun isn’t stashing his weapon in a bag, but in his pocket or waistband. It’s a lot easier for that mugger to just walk to the next station, something a terrorist with a sensitive bomb wouldn’t risk.
The random nature of the bag checks also gives an edge to the bad guy carrying a blade or a pistol.
Also of questionable value is the proposed banning of offenders from transit. The ban isn’t exactly a ban, as people aren’t checked before riding, like with airplanes. It’s more like back before retail shops started putting everything under lock and key, when stores would catch shoplifters and not prosecute but instead let them off if the offender agreed in writing to not enter the store again. If they did come back, they could be charged with a crime of trespassing and face a more serious penalty.
Hochul wants to make the subway safer and we’re glad that she does. But it comes to transit cops and someone has to pay for them.
