Being a 22-year-old college student born and raised in New York City, riding the train is a big part of my everyday life.
I’ve seen just about everything. The subway performers announce it’s showtime, a lusty couple kiss and grope one another in the corner of a packed train car, and a drug addict takes a hit in front of dozens of strangers. I’ve seen it all…so I thought.
I got on the Uptown 5 train at Nevins St. in Brooklyn Monday evening, and a middle-aged man who looked like he was coming from work in construction clothes was obnoxiously bothering the woman sitting next to him. At first it was funny because he kept calling her his girlfriend in a lighthearted manner, but it wasn’t until she moved her seat that I realized she wasn’t really his girlfriend and this situation wasn’t funny.
A woman sitting next to me, annoyed by his obnoxious behavior, reached her breaking point and finally told him to shut up. The man said, “What?” She said, “You heard me, your ass is drunk and annoying everyone,” she continued to yell at him, which eventually led to her insulting his father. The mildly humorous subway banter then did a complete 180.
The loud, belligerent man stood up and said, “What you said about my father?” He got up from his seat, walked over to her (which is now in front of me) and stood over her (us).
I stood up and left my seat because I didn’t know what was about to happen. I had a foreboding feeling that whatever it was, it wasn’t going to be good.
The crazed man asked again, “What you said about my father?” The woman stood up to him and then he began to pummel her. Hit after hit. Punch after punch. No one stopped him. Ironically, above their heads on the wall of the train car was the stupid MTA advertisement that read, “We’re serious about safety—your safety.” Lies.
A man from a neighboring train car saw the assault in progress and came to help the now battered woman. At the time, we were in between 86th and 125th Streets, and if you know anything about the gap in between these two stops, you know it’s one long ride. In the time it took for the train to get from one stop to the next, he began to punch another woman who was also in the train car. Several men from the other train car managed to burst through and wrestle him away from her. But when the 5 train finally pulled into the station, there were no police on the platform, no MTA employees, no one that could help. The deranged man jogged out of the train car and ran up the stairs. As quickly as it began, he was gone. No one, including myself, thought to press the intercom to alert the train conductor; we were all in shock.
What’s most frustrating to me is the lack of surveillance while underground. There is no cell phone service to call 911. There are no cameras in the train cars to record illegal activity – nothing. If the man decided to pull out a gun, all passengers present could’ve been seriously injured – or dead.
More recently, police officers have made it their duty to “crack down” on those “pesky” train dancers, but when it really counts, they’re nowhere to be found. When it comes to crime in the New York City subway system, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton told The Daily News:
“It’s extraordinarily safe, compared to what crime was in the ’90s, the ’70s and the ’80s,… “I think we’re in very good shape, and in position to get in even better shape going forward.”
Really, Mr. Bratton?
Where were the police Monday evening when two women were being attacked? Exactly how many more attacks go unreported on the subway system? The whole sickening 15-minute ordeal highlighted everything wrong with the NYPD surveillance system on public transit.
What are we paying tax dollars for if the police or MTA Transit police can’t thoroughly monitor the subway platforms and trains? Oh, that’s right because when they actually are on the trains, they arrest sleeping passengers that aren’t harming anybody.
Let me know what you think about your own subway experiences in the comment section below.
SOURCE: The Daily News | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images
