Imagine this: New York City's subway crime has gotten so bad that it's now the butt of jokes on "Saturday Night Live. " In a recent episode, Michael Che jokingly said the city's five days without a shooting was "just way more fun to push people onto the subway tracks. " This is no laughing matter, though. Last year saw 10 subway murders, the highest in 25 years. The most shocking case was the death of Debrina Kawam, who was burned alive on a Brooklyn F train, allegedly by an intoxicated illegal migrant from Guatemala.
The situation got so grim that Governor Kathy Hochul had to address it. She promised to boost police presence on overnight trains. However, the MTA boss, Janno Lieber, downplayed subway crime, saying it's "in people's heads. " But riders aren't imagining things. There's been a string of random shoving attacks, with strangers being pushed onto tracks without warning. This has scared riders so much that they're hugging station walls instead of standing near the edge.
