January 21, 2022
A Gazette Editorial
It’s not yet known if the brutal murder of Michelle Alyssa Go last week in the Times Square subway station was an ethnic hate crime, but it comes amid a sharp increase in attacks upon Asian Americans. It also intersects with a sharp increase in street crimes in general and especially transit attacks. Further, it comes amid rampant homelessness and apparent mental illness throughout the City and subway system. It’s not unusual to see people literally shooting up in broad daylight on the streets of Midtown South. The Gazette rode public transit several times this week and observed aggressive, possibly mentally ill and/or homeless men menacing subway riders on more than half of those trips. In two instances, a train conductor was notified and asked to summon police. In zero instances were any police officers observed either on the train itself or on the station platform where the notification was made.
Mayor Adams is still just moving into City Hall this month but he needs to make getting a handle on this crisis an immediate priority. A police surge into the transit system would be one fairly obvious response to the rash of murders and other violent crimes down there. It’s inexcusable that a week after Michelle Go was killed there appears to have been no perceptible increase in subway patrols by NYPD.
