Shortly after Gov. Kathy Hochul introduced on Wednesday that a whole bunch of National Guard soldiers would be deployed to patrol the New York Metropolis subway system and verify riders’ luggage, her workplace made an adjustment: Troopers looking out luggage wouldn’t carry lengthy weapons.
The change was ordered by Ms. Hochul on Wednesday for implementation on Thursday, in keeping with a spokesman for the governor. Ms. Hochul issued a directive that Nationwide Guard members could be prohibited from carrying lengthy weapons at bag-check stations, he mentioned. Troopers not working on the stations would presumably be allowed to hold them.
Donna Lieberman, the chief director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, known as the ban on lengthy weapons at bag-checking stations a “relief,” however mentioned the Guard’s presence underground remained “an unnecessary overreaction based on fear, not facts.”
“Deploying military personnel to the subways will not make New Yorkers feel safe,” Ms. Lieberman mentioned. “It will, unfortunately, create a perfect storm for tension, escalation and further criminalization of Black and brown New Yorkers.”
Early pictures of the Nationwide Guard’s deployment confirmed troopers standing close to turnstiles within the subterranean system, carrying camouflage and navy gear and holding lengthy weapons.
Ms. Hochul, a Democrat, mentioned the transfer to flood the system with reinforcements — 750 members of the New York Nationwide Guard, and a further 250 personnel from the State Police and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority — would assist commuters and guests really feel protected.
Subway security, a perpetual concern for New Yorkers, has been a difficult problem for public officers, who will be as delicate to the notion that mass transit is harmful as they’re to an precise rise in crime.
In February, following a forty five p.c spike in main crimes within the first month of the 12 months in contrast with the identical interval final 12 months, Mayor Eric Adams ordered a further 1,000 cops into the subway system. Reported crime charges within the system declined that month, in keeping with metropolis information, and the general rise in main crimes for the 12 months as of March 3 was 13 p.c, Police Division information reveals.
Ms. Hochul’s announcement this week drew criticism from public officers and from some members of her own party.
Jumaane N. Williams, town’s public advocate, warned that the plan would “criminalize the public on public transit.” Emily Gallagher, an assemblywoman and democratic socialist from Brooklyn, said that Ms. Hochul’s move was a “ham-fisted and authoritarian response” that validated “G.O.P. propaganda about urban lawlessness in an election year.”
John Chell, the Police Division’s chief of patrol, cited latest statistics suggesting that transit crime had dropped.
“Our transit system is not a ‘war’ zone!” he wrote on X.
