New York City Mayor Eric Adams says he will reinstate bag checks for subway riders after a 13 percent increase in crime, more than a decade after a similar “stop and go” policy register” of the city was considered unconstitutional.
Recent criminal activity on trains making headlines includes a cellist who was hit on the head by a stranger wielding a water bottle while performing, as well as a shooting that killed one person and injured five others.
“We know people feel unsafe,” admitted Adams, a former traffic police officer.
The mayor said he will bring back methods that have been used previously in times of great suspicion.
‘We are reestablishing baggage controls. “There are several things we are reinstituting into the system,” Adams added, with the NYPD reportedly searching bags for weapons such as knives, switchblades, clubs and guns.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams says he will increase police presence at subway stations and bring back bag and backpack checks after a 13 percent increase in crime.
Those protocols were originally brought to the MTA after the 2005 London attacks.
However, it may bring back memories of the city’s “stop and frisk” policy, which ended in 2014 after being deemed “unconstitutional.”
That year, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio announced he would no longer fight a lawsuit filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights and ended the policy.
De Blasio’s announcement came at a press conference in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, where police arrests were especially frequent. Lawyers for plaintiffs who sued the city for stop and frisk joined city officials at the event.
Addressing the Christian Cultural Center, a historically black church in Brooklyn in 2019, Bloomberg admitted, “I was wrong.”
Bloomberg said the practice often led to the disproportionate detention of blacks and Latinos, adding that it “can’t change history.”
But he said if police stopped anyone by mistake: “I apologize,” adding: “Our goal was to save lives.” But the fact is that too many innocent people were arrested while we were trying to do it.
The city asked New York’s Second Circuit Court of Appeals to return the case to a federal judge “so that the parties can explore a resolution,” according to a court filing.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced he would no longer fight a lawsuit brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights and ended the stop-and-frisk policy in 2014.
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg reversed his long-standing support for the controversial “stop and frisk” policing strategy ahead of his failed presidential bid.
De Blasio’s predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, apologized for his long-standing support of the strategy before his failed Democratic presidential bid.
Adams, a Democrat, is teaming up with New York Gov. and fellow liberal Kathy Hochul, who says she will send state officials to help solve the problem after the two met with MTA officials last week, according to NBC New York.
‘Governor Hochul has made historic commitments to make our subways safer, from security cameras to mental health staff, and tomorrow she will unveil new legislation to protect riders, new state staff to help New York police York with bag screening and other new measures to keep New Yorkers safe,” a spokesperson for Adams said.
Hochul plans to reveal his own plans to protect subway riders on Wednesday, which should increase funding for police overtime as well as mental health outreach.
He also plans to introduce legislation to add state personnel to help the NYPD with bag enforcement.
With crime up double digits compared to this point in 2023 and civilians and employees being targeted, the Transit Workers Union has criticized its bosses to the MTA for failing to protect them.
“We stand ready to help Local 100 confront this plague of violence, and the transportation executives who are inept or indifferent to the harm inflicted on their own employees day and night,” said TWU President John Samuelsen.
‘When it comes to workplace safety, the MTA has been an abysmal failure. Assaults against transportation workers in the subway increased almost 60 percent last year.
“We know people feel unsafe,” admitted Adams, a former traffic police officer.
The mayor said he will bring back methods such as bag checks that have been used previously in times of heightened suspicion.
Adams, a Democrat, is teaming up with New York Gov. and fellow liberal Kathy Hochul, who says she will send state officials to help address the problem after the pair met with MTA officials last week.
Crime on the subway has been on the rise lately, with 2023 seeing the highest number of assaults on the subway since 1996. There have been three homicides on the tracks to start the year, compared to none at this time last year.
The NYPD’s Transit Chief has made his own efforts to address the problem, adding more than 1,000 police officers to the transit system and crediting it with a 17 percent crime reduction in February.
Subway riders and even artists are trying to make their own voices heard, led by a recent victim of a subway crime.
Iain Forrest, 29, a medical student and musician, was playing his electric cello at the 34th Street Herald Square station on the night of February 13.
In a shocking moment caught on video, an unidentified woman walked up, picked up the metal water bottle he had left on the ground, and smashed it over his head. The bottle fell to the ground as Forrest clutched his head in pain.
Forrest announced on Instagram early Sunday that he formed a coalition with his fellow musicians called Subway Performers Advocacy Group (SPAG) but he says that for the moment he will no longer perform underground.
“It breaks my heart that this is something that has to stop indefinitely, barring some type of systemic change with protections for subway performances,” he said.
The cellist who was hit in the head by a stranger wielding a water bottle while performing on the New York subway last week says he is done performing on the platforms.
SPAG’s stated goal is to ask the MTA and the NYPD to track crime statistics against subway musicians so that police resources can be “intelligently allocated where needed to prevent attacks.”
Forrest, who said his escaped attacker has not yet been captured, told the New York Daily News He didn’t understand what exactly had happened to him until the attacker literally hit him.
“I couldn’t get my bearings and it was only when I saw my metal water bottle rolling across the floor and saw the crowd’s face – with amazement, disbelief and shock – that I realized, I think someone just broke my back. head with my metal water bottle,” he said.