New Yorkers are a hard people to please but Gov. Kathy Hochul’s decision last week to send hundreds of National Guard into the city’s subway to check bags for weapons is proving particularly unpopular, for just about everyone.
The move has been met with skepticism from elected officials on the left and the right, fears of racial discrimination from civil liberties groups and rider advocates and vexation from the powerful Transport Workers Union of America, leaders of which argue that sending soldiers underground is not a long-term solution to the systemic social issues behind assaults.
The governor made little secret in her Wednesday announcement that the deployment is perhaps rooted more in political theater than in public safety. She said she wasn’t there to discuss crime statistics in the subway, which have decreased after a January spike, but was instead there to “take action.” Some state lawmakers worry National Guard soldiers in the subway sends a troubling message to New Yorkers and those beyond the city’s limits.
“We have data showing crime is going down; it’s still too high but it’s going down,” said Democrat State Senator Liz Krueger, who represents Midtown and the Upper East Side. “But if you tell everyone it’s so dangerous that you need the National Guard with giant guns everywhere, you pretty much convince people they ought to not go in the subways.”
Krueger described the National Guard deployment as “a bit of an overreaction” and said that the bag checks do not address the random acts of violence, such as being pushed into the tracks, that most worry her constituents.
“These are not the folks that you’re going to catch in a bag check. So does the response actually match the issue? I don’t think so,” said Krueger.
Overall, crime is up 13% year-to-date on the subway and is mostly driven by grand larcenies or non-violent property theft, NYPD data shows. That comes after major crimes in the subway increased year-over-year in January by 45.4% — 221 incidents were reported, up from 152 — but have since dropped by 17%. Mayor Eric Adams beefed up the NYPD’s presence beginning in February with 1,000 additional officers assigned to patrol the system.
Some fear the bag checks will disproportionately target riders of color. Democrat Assembly member Latrice Walker, whose district includes Brownsville, said sending soldiers into the subway for bag searches “raises concerns about a veiled return to the stop-and-frisk era.”
“Decades of failed policies tell us who gets stopped at random bag searches,” Walker said in a statement. “We must reject policies like this that distract from the data-driven strategies we know truly improve public safety.” Walker pointed to a need for greater investments in mental health care, social services, community-based violence intervention programs and housing.
Hochul’s decision, some political strategists say, is designed to show her administration is tough on crime — regardless of if that’s driven by public perception or data. Hochul won her 2022 gubernatorial election by 6 points, a historically slim margin for New York governor; her opponent, Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin, focused almost entirely on crime during the campaign.
“This is a play for suburban votes, unquestionably so, in the 2026 election,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a longtime political consultant. “It’s an attempt to, for example, get Long Island to pay attention and say, look, she’s tough on crime and we don’t have to worry when we go into the city. She’s showing that she has guts.”
Hochul said as much during an interview on MSNBC on Thursday: “I’m also going to demonstrate that Democrats fight crime as well. This narrative that Republicans have said and hijacked the story that we’re soft on crime, that we defund the police — no.”
Staten Island Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican, who has been supportive of law enforcement in the system, said Democrats are feeling the heat on immigration and are “desperately trying to figure out a way to look like they’re doing something.”
TWU international president John Samuelson, who has called for greater safety measures to defend transit workers, argued that the surge of National Guard into the subway creates a culture of fear for transit workers, and does nothing to address attacks on bus operators.
“Militarizing the subway is not the solution,” said Samuelsen. “We’re hearing from workers on one hand that, finally, there’s a recognition that we’re in crisis and a response, and then also, my gosh, now the workplace is militarized, and there’s a high level of discomfort with that.”
Caroline Spivack , 2024-03-11 21:59:59
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