How Bad Is Crime in the Subways?
New York TimesMar 07
National Guard Troops Deployed to NYC Subways
The Facts
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday announced plans to deploy 750 members of the National Guard along with 250 law enforcement personnel from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to help protect New York City subways after a rise in violent crime in the transit system.
The National Guard would assist the New York Police Department (NYPD) in performing random checks of passengers' bags at entrances to busy train stations to ensure that weapons like guns and knives aren't brought onto the subway.
The Spin
Pro-establishment narrative
While the recent attacks on the NYC transit system may make it seem like the subway is becoming increasingly dangerous, the governor is ensuring its safety, deploying the National Guard, and proposing comprehensive public safety measures to address criminal activities in NYC's subways.
Establishment-critical narrative
NYC's subways aren't safe anymore. Three people have been fatally shot, and several others have been violently slashed, stabbed, beaten, and shoved while riding the trains or waiting in the subway station in recent months. Hochul's measures are an eyewash to hide the failure of the existing anti-crime initiatives in the subway.
Cynical narrative
The policy of deploying National Guard forces does not ultimately enhance public safety nor does it show a failure of current law enforcement services. Instead, it continues a post-9/11 trend of militarization of policing activities across the US. The discourse must refocus on the alarming public acceptance of automatic weapons and omnipresent surveillance cameras in our everyday lives.
Nerd narrative
There's a 13% chance that the number of homicides in New York City will exceed 1.5K in any year before 2050, according to the Metaculus prediction community.