How was a subway hijacking teen arrested 12 times and let go by judges 5 times in just a year? Toxic empathy

New York Post

3 days ago

Empathy can be toxic.
Judges let 18-year-old subway hijacker Justine Randall-Pizarro go, not once, not twice, but five times this calendar year in an apparent bid to show mercy.
But all they've really done is allow a clearly troubled teen to rack up a rap sheet of more than a dozen arrests this year, cause havoc on the transit network, inconvenience commuters and harass already overworked MTA employees.
Randall-Pizarro was busted for commandeering a locked N train at 4am in June, wearing a black hat and Crocs, then driving it one stop from the Broadway station in Astoria to 36th Avenue.
'I went to Broadway, and behold – there was a lay-up train there. Still on FaceTime with my homeboy, so I drove it while I was on FaceTime with him,' she told investigators. 'And, I don't know, we was just fooling around, turning up on FaceTime like while I was driving it.'
5 Justine Randall-Pizarro has been arrested a dozen times in just 2025.
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A teen wandering the streets at 4am and hijacking subway cars is begging for help.
Clearly something is very wrong on an individual level. Not to mention, she poses a massive danger to herself and others. That joy ride easily could have collided with another train. And this isn't even her first go around. Why was she out and about?
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told The Post Randall-Pizarro, who is transgender and listed on all paperwork as female, has been arrested twelve times… just in 2025. The Post was able to confirm 17 total arrests since September of 2024 when she turned 18.
'This person is basically a transit recidivist who keeps breaking into trains,' he said. 'When she breaks into them, she moves them, she steals items – train keys, things of that nature.'
5 Randall-Pizarro allegedly took over an N train and went for a joy ride.
Christopher Sadowski
All these arrests appear to be in vain. Every time the police nab Randall-Pizarro, the justice system seems hellbent on letting her go with a slap on the wrist.
On June 23, she entered a train cabin and allegedly stole a female conductor's bag. Prosecutors asked for $20,000 bail or a $60,000 bond, but a judge released her on her own recognizance.
On June 1, she supposedly took control of a different train in Brooklyn. For that, a $25,000 bail or $50,000 bond was requested. Yet again a judge set her loose on supervision.
On May 26, she was accused of pepper spraying an MTA worker in the face on board an R train. And yet again she was granted a supervised release, in spite of a request for bail.
5 Randall-Pizarro was let go on supervised release and on her own recognizance by several judges.
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And, again, in a May 15 case that saw her supposedly steal a backpack from a motorman's cabin with keys and an MTA escape mask, a request for a mere $2,000 cash or $4,000 bond was denied, and a supervised release was once again granted instead.
In yet another April case involving a stolen backpack containing MTA keys and an MTA radio, a judge denied a request for supervised release and instead let her go on her own recognizance.
Assistant District Attorney Olivia Mittman has also said in court they have video of Randal-Pizarro subway surfing on the top of a train.
How has she not been banned from the transit system?
What a waste of police time and resources. What an unnecessary ongoing menace to MTA workers (what ever happened to the promise 'assaulting MTA New York City Transit subway personnel is a felony punishable by up to 7 years in prison' written on signs all over?) How much travel has she personally disrupted?
And what a disservice to Randall-Pizarro herself. An 18-year-old should not be enabled to produce such an extensive criminal record in her first year of adulthood. There's really no justification for this suffocating leniency.
5 Randall-Pizarro says she found an idle subway car at the Broadway station in Astoria.
Wikipedia
There should be consequences for your actions, and opportunities to learn from them. Unfortunately, the only lesson learned here is: do what you want, and even if you get caught, and it won't catch up with you.
Especially since the pandemic, our culture has adopted an all-out hostility towards the justice system and consequences being doled out as they are intended by law.
We've been told that crime is the product of social constructs and systems of oppression, and that it is merciful to shield its perpetrators from any consequences.
5 Justine Randall-Pizarro's cases will all be consolidated into one, according to the DA.
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But it's plain to see this utopian world where crimes are forgiven and everything is fine and dandy is simply a fantasy. Recidivism is real, and consequences are what keep a society from succumbing to lawlessness.
On August 5, Randall-Pizarro was arrested for skipping out on a court appearance and hauled before court, where all her cases are now consolidated into a charge of felony burglary and misdemeanor reckless endangerment. Her bail was set at $50,000 and she is being held in the women's jail at Rikers.
The court has also ordered a mental health evaluation, after an earlier one expired.
Toxic empathy has allowed Randall-Pizarro to continue this self-destructive spiral. And it also put MTA workers and innocent travelers at unnecessary risk, too. Hopefully finally facing justice and getting help will be the wake up call she needs.