The more the merrier.
Governor Kathy Hochul announced on Wednesday that the holiday season and beyond will see an additional 250 National Guard members stationed in New York City’s subways.
The new soldiers would bring the New York Army National Guard’s total subway deployment to 1,000 troops as a projected 8 million visitors jingle their way into the Big Apple for the holidays, the governor stated during a news conference at Grand Central Station.
While the deployment overlaps with the Christmas and Hanukkah seasons, Hochul stated that there is no plan to withdraw the troops because their purpose is to establish safety in the subways.
“I want them to know when they walk through the turnstile they will be safe,” she said of straphangers.
“I’ve heard from many people that the presence of the National Guard has made not just a physical difference, but a psychological difference in how they feel about safety. When people see a person in uniform, NYPD, MTA, transit, even our national Guard, they feel more secure than why it’s a deterrent to those who would break our laws and threaten other riders.”
“They see that sense of security that if they have a problem, there’s someone there to help.”
Hochul claimed that her contentious first deployment of National Guard troops into the subways in March resulted in a huge decrease in transit crime.
“It’s about continuing this strategy that has proven its success,” she said.
“Subway crime is down 10% just since last March,” Hochul said. “Only two years since the year 1970 have we had fewer subway crimes than we had this past year.”
However, Hochul acknowledged that despite the statistical decline in crime, New Yorkers and visitors may remain apprehensive about traveling on the rails due to high-profile subway attacks, regardless of their frequency.
Just a few days ago, an unidentified creep randomly shoved a 72-year-old man onto the rails at the bustling Herald Square station.
Major crime in the subways is down about 12% since the pre-pandemic year of 2019, but a closer examination of NYPD transit crime data reveals that many violent incidents have increased.
The report indicates that the number of murders and felony assaults has increased by 200% and 55% respectively compared to 2019.
The data indicated that the only significant transit crimes to decrease over the previous five years were robbery and grand larceny.
When a reporter inquired about increases in violent crimes, Metropolitan Transportation Authority executive Janno Lieber stated that certain criminal categories still involved a “very small” number of real instances.
“We can talk about individual categories, but the point is the overall effort has been paying dividends,” he said.
Hochul highlighted that the National Guard deployment is only one factor in making people feel secure on the train.
Hochul and Lieber assert that the state has completed the installation of cameras on all metro vehicles.
