By Carol Tannenhauser
On Tuesday at around 9:45PM, a 49-year-old homeless man, seated on a northbound #2 train approaching the W. 72nd Street/Broadway subway station, was “slashed across the bridge of his nose with a sharp object,” by a man who was unknown to him and “unprovoked,” an NYPD spokesperson told West Side Rag.
According to police, the alleged attacker (pictured above) was yelling before he struck: “You good? You straight?” The victim was taken by EMS to Mount Sinai Morningside hospital in stable condition.
Anyone with information in regarding this incident is asked to call the NYPD Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/ or on Twitter @NYPDTips. All calls are strictly confidential.
Is it me? Or are these subway attacks a lot more than they have been in the past? Seems like there’s a news story every day about an attack, and for the first time in 20 years, I’m wondering if (and when) I’m going to fall victim to something like this. I come home on that line every night around 10PM. How do I protect myself? And is the fear unfounded? Are we just hyper aware and posting stories compulsively, or is there a significant uptick on these types of altercations? I don’t want to be paranoid, but things seem like they’re reverting back to 1998 on the UWS.
Even if it only happens to one person, it’s a big deal. And if it’s you, it’s a big deal. Don’t be ashamed of being vigilant. Just don’t allow it to stop you from going out.
I live through the disgusting 70’s in the City and on the UWS. There was crime then. Chain-snatching was the thing. But there were muggings on the street too. My neighbor was held up at gunpoint a block from home. But back then there were bad guys on the streets mixed with a smattering of insanity. TODAY – there are many more mentally unbalanced people on the streets. Combined with criminals. Until we can answer the problem about how we treat and how to treat mentally ill, unhoused, desperate people we’ll continue to have these problems. Are we our brother’s keepers? It’s a tough question to answer interms of ethics, morals and social responsibility. But it’s MORE than that. It’s how to balance that with the safety of innocent people trying to live their lives.
Ever since it was decided that the Federal and State governments would no longer pay for treatment and containment of those who are a danger to themselves and society there is a huge problem with crime and insanity. Sometimes they go hand-in-hand.
We have to decide how we want to live.
Amount of media mentions/News stories about NYC crime are at all time highs. Actual crime is still near all time lows.
Incorrect, if you look more carefully at the data. Murder is down. But the kinds of quality of life crimes that I think many of us fear more — rape, assault, robbery… those are up.
Agree. And where the subway is concerned, considering that one million plus ride every day, the odds of being one of the unfortunate few who are attacked are miniscule. One is as likely to fall down an open manhole or stumble into an open street level storage area. There are dangers, yes, but hardly out of control, even less so in an affluent neighborhood like the UWS.
‘An affluent neighborhood like the UWS.’ I stopped carrying a purse and wearing a watch after the first time I was robbed. I was robbed again at knifepoint just a block from my home and the guy was furious because I only had $5 on me (and no phone). He said, ‘you live in Manhattan and you don’t have any ******* money?!’ Then he took my 10 year old coat. And I know that I’m just one of many, so I don’t think any particular block is safer because you or I are more affluent.
Wrong. Talk with those who know like the cops or the trauma doctors treating victims. It is out of control worse than the 80s. As a native New Yorker and a trauma doctor, it is only getting worse. That’s the reality.
I disagree. I live 500 feet from this station. have seen this happening in ‘real time’ since 2018. At the station, on the train, on my block, all the way from the 60’s to 86th street. The media/news isn’t fabricating stories or producing fake photos/videos of victims. We just have more resources to view it now. : (
Many ppl share your feelings and concerns. However, not as many of them seem to show up at the polls, which seems to be the only mechanism we have in place to affect change.
Perhaps it’s just that many people don’t share those feelings and concerns and instead are cognizant of the disconnect between actual crime and the amount of news coverage it generates.
Certainly possible as is the possibility that the crime is real but ppl don’t feel empowered to change it? It’s also possible that those who can spend significant time in other places outside the city to balance out their needs for personal quality of life? Lots of possibilities just how one chooses to look at things and what they see? It’s all abt risk tolerance. I do think there is a different tolerance now for this whereas in the 70s and 80s the crime and anti social behavior got a person locked up. Now it is something law abiding people just need to accept lest you be shamed or called names.
Rikers Island is basically empty, Where do you think all the people who should be in jail are? That’s right walking the streets.
I know it’s tough for any publication or website to fact check reader comments, but I wish such obvious misinformation (ne nonsense) was not approved/published.
Jail Population In New York State
2016 – 25,059
2021 – 15,254
https://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/crimnet/ojsa/jail_pop_y.pdf
As far as the city is concerned:
https://criminaljustice.cityofnewyork.us/individual_charts/average-daily-jail-population-in-nyc/
Rikers Island is basically empty? Documentation please.
“City Jail Population Drops Below 4,000 for First Time Since 1946”
https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/278-20/city-jail-population-drops-below-4-000-first-time-since-1946
Facts matter. Please don’t source an article from 2020 which cites info from the pandemic. The population at RI is now 5,940. The all-time high was in 2009 (11,355). https://comptroller.nyc.gov/services/for-the-public/department-of-correction-doc/dashboard/
Of course facts matter.
I’m not denying the emptying of the jails started with Covid. Why are you being confrontational?
The facts remain, Covid or not, the good percentage of jails population is out.
As well the trend is downward according even to the link you posted.
This article was written in April 2020. Can you think of what else might have been going on then that might have caused this?
Of course it started with Covid. However Rikers population has never reverted to what it was. 2022 numbers are slightly up to compare to 2021 but overall trend is downward.
You can Google it yourself, there are multiple sources.
I’m wondering why this report mentions that the victim was homeless. He was riding the train “seated” not wandering around or showing other unseemly behavior and at an hour when many of us ride the trains. He is a victim not a category.
I love this. Stop naming the races and genders (and even ages) of victims and cops in crimes.
The fact that the victim was homeless means that after he’s treated for his injury, he has no safe home to go to. Imagine enduring a knife attack and then being back out on the street, traumatized.
There have been so many violent attacks by mentally-ill homeless people in the last year that it’s important to be reminded of how vulnerable and peaceful most homeless people are.
Is this considered a misdemeanor? Trying to understand if the slasher will just be released and left to do this again with not a thought in the world about consequences.
In addition, one can notice a police car posted almost 24/7 outside the station, and a parade of officers standing guard most of the time. This corner is a magnet for trouble.
…and most of those I see are talking to each other, texting and never walking a platform to make their presence known to potential troublemakers.
I’ve seen cops on trains, actively looking about as well as cops on platforms, walking the length, eyes open. And I’ve also seen them near the turnstiles chatting with each other. I’m not sure what this proves. On the whole, I am pleased to see any police in the subway.
I wonder whether one way through the complications of this dilemma might be for Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul to put together a strong piece of legislation creating a well-funded and professionally staffed residential mental health center to which individuals could be referred for evaluation and long or short term treatment. The trap to avoid is creating a Willowbrook – that mental health facility in Staten Island that became a hopeless storehouse and inarceration institution for those desperately needing mental health services. The failed efforts of the DiBlasio administration have to be analyzed and studied to understand their abysmal failure in an effort to find a pathway to a successful response for those in desperate need of physical and psychological healing.
We need in-patient and out-patient facilities for the multitudes of people who are dangerous to themselves and others. There has to be a system of medical professionals who evaluate who is whom. What people are a danger to themselves and what people are a danger to others. Jail is not the only answer. There needs to be a series of step-down facilities so that the worst, possibly paranoid scizophrenics who may never recover can at least function in a safe environment and perhaps given a trade to earn money. Then those who, with medication and therapy can live outside a facility. And those who are totally independent but maintain contact with a psychological professional.
It beats the hell out of throwing all of them into jail or turning them all out on the streets.
There has to be answer.
It all comes down to people taking meds but you can’t force people to take them. One day in the distant future there will be a cure to schizophrenia but for now we’re just kind of stuck in limbo.