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Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
NYC subway assaults up 19% — with many of the attacks coming against police officers, stats show
More subway riders have reported being punched, kicked and stabbed so far this year than last — and many of them were police officers, the NYPD said. Felony assault is up 19% in transit, from 214 incidents at this point in 2025, to 255 as of Sunday, according to NYPD statistics. Out of the 255 assaults so far this year, 93 — or 36% — were on city police officers and MTA workers. In the same span of 2019, 44 of the 154 people assaulted — or nearly 30% — were performing law enforcement duties, the spokesperson said. Such incidents have skyrocketed a stunning 66% when compared to 2019, before the pandemic, when 154 straphangers reported being assaulted. Retired NYPD detective and John Jay College adjunct professor Michael Alcazar blamed the uptick in assaults on the number of mentally ill in the subway and the criminal justice system. 'It's all these things, the homeless population, the EDPs (Emotionally Disturbed People), the warmer weather, prosecutors not able to keep them in jail,' he said. 'It emboldens the criminals. They get out and they're back at it the next day.' A woman-hating goon with 20 busts under his belt was the perfect example of a recidivist assaulter when he allegedly shoved a 70-year-old grandmother to the ground in a Midtown subway station on May 12. 'What are you doing here?' Sherlock Arana sneered at Janet Parvizyar, an LA resident before shoving her into a wall and to the floor, she said. 'I don't understand, why did they let them go like this,' Parvizyar told The Post after learning of her attacker's criminal history. 'I mean, they have to do something about this. He's going to kill somebody.' Arana, 37, was arrested two days later after cops recognized him. He remains locked up at Rikers Island correctional facility on a second degree assault charge in lieu of $45,000 bail, records show. He pleaded guilty to assaulting two women inside separate Queens subway stations nearly a decade ago because he thought they were of Indian descent, prosecutors said. At least one was actually Bangladeshi. The most recent of his nearly two dozen prior arrests was in 2023 for a robbery, law enforcement sources said. The disposition of the case was unknown. The notable increase in assaults come as other transit crime has dropped 6% so far this year, including murders, shootings, robbery, burglaries and grand larcenies, the data showed. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch has attributed the crime drops in transit to an increased police presence underground, including the addition of two cops on every train overnight and hundreds more working overtime shifts. A longtime Bronx police officer attributed the increase in assaults to mental illness and crowding on trains which have been busier since congestion pricing went into effect in January. 'You have a lot more unstable people who are on the trains,' the cop with more than 20 years on the job said. 'Congestion pricing plays a part because the trains are also more crowded.' The police presence could also be adding to the uptick in the number of assaults, especially those against officers, a retired NYPD detective said. 'People don't like when police enforce drinking and minor offenses and they get aggressive,' the retired officer said.
New York Post
5 days ago
- New York Post
NYC subway assaults up 19%, with police officers often targeted
More subway riders have reported being punched, kicked and stabbed so far this year than last — and many of them were police officers, the NYPD said. Felony assault is up 19% in transit, from 214 incidents at this point in 2025, to 255 as of Sunday, according to NYPD statistics. Out of the 255 assaults so far this year, 93 — or 36% — were on city police officers and MTA workers. In the same span of 2019, 44 of the 154 people assaulted — or nearly 30% — were performing law enforcement duties, the spokesperson said. 5 Andrew Pashinin, 19, was arrested for allegedly shoving a man onto Brooklyn subway tracks in December — and told reporters he did it because the victim 'said mean things' to him. Gregory P. Mango Such incidents have skyrocketed a stunning 66% when compared to 2019, before the pandemic, when 154 straphangers reported being assaulted. Retired NYPD detective and John Jay College adjunct professor Michael Alcazar blamed the uptick in assaults on the number of mentally ill in the subway and the criminal justice system. 'It's all these things, the homeless population, the EDPs (Emotionally Disturbed People), the warmer weather, prosecutors not able to keep them in jail,' he said. 'It emboldens the criminals. They get out and they're back at it the next day.' 5 Police released a photo of a man who allegedly pushed a 39-year-old victim onto the subway tracks at the Sutphin Boulevard and Archer Avenue subway station on May 22. A woman-hating goon with 20 busts under his belt was the perfect example of a recidivist assaulter when he allegedly shoved a 70-year-old grandmother to the ground in a Midtown subway station on May 12. 'What are you doing here?' Sherlock Arana sneered at Janet Parvizyar, an LA resident before shoving her into a wall and to the floor, she said. 'I don't understand, why did they let them go like this,' Parvizyar told The Post after learning of her attacker's criminal history. 'I mean, they have to do something about this. He's going to kill somebody.' 5 MTA employees on a subway platform where a person was pushed into a train. Gregory P. Mango Arana, 37, was arrested two days later after cops recognized him. He remains locked up at Rikers Island correctional facility on a second degree assault charge in lieu of $45,000 bail, records show. He pleaded guilty to assaulting two women inside separate Queens subway stations nearly a decade ago because he thought they were of Indian descent, prosecutors said. At least one was actually Bangladeshi. The most recent of his nearly two dozen prior arrests was in 2023 for a robbery, law enforcement sources said. The disposition of the case was unknown. 5 Police released photos of a man who allegedly randomly pushed an elderly man onto the subway tracks at the 74th Street and Roosevelt Avenue station in Queens on April 23. DCPI The notable increase in assaults come as other transit crime has dropped 6% so far this year, including murders, shootings, robbery, burglaries and grand larcenies, the data showed. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch has attributed the crime drops in transit to an increased police presence underground, including the addition of two cops on every train overnight and hundreds more working overtime shifts. A longtime Bronx police officer attributed the increase in assaults to mental illness and crowding on trains which have been busier since congestion pricing went into effect in January. 5 Police released photos of a man they said shoved a 33-year-old man onto the train tracks on Dec. 7, 2024, after a fight at the Atlantic Avenue- Barclays Center subway station. DCPI 'You have a lot more unstable people who are on the trains,' the cop with more than 20 years on the job said. 'Congestion pricing plays a part because the trains are also more crowded.' The police presence could also be adding to the uptick in the number of assaults, especially those against officers, a retired NYPD detective said. 'People don't like when police enforce drinking and minor offenses and they get aggressive,' the retired officer said.
New York Post
10-05-2025
- New York Post
Dope drops gun in front of NYPD officers
This was no criminal mastermind. Two cops patrolling a Brooklyn subway platform last week were stunned when a strapped-hanger exited a train and dropped loaded Ruger pistol right at their feet. He scooped it up and ran — and proceeded to fall down a flight of stairs. The male and female partners eventually caught up to Stanley Spencer, 39, after the 3:30 p.m. fumble on May 2 at the Pennsylvania Avenue Station. 3 Stanley Spencer was arrested after a gun fell out of his waistband in front of two cops who were patrolling the subway, cops said. Obtained by the New York Post 'I bet he was trying to adjust [the gun in his waistband] so they can't see it and BOOM he drops it,' said retired NYPD detective and John Jay College adjunct professor Michael Alcazar. 3 Officers Rosanny De Los Santos and Luis Perez got the gun (pictured) and made the arrest, police said. With the cops hot on his heels, Spencer fell while while descending the station's stairs but made it outside and tried to hide the 9mm pistol under a car, according to police and a complaint filed in Brooklyn Criminal Court. The gun had seven bullets in the magazine, the complaint states. Spencer was charged with gun possession, police said. He has 14 prior arrests that are all sealed, police sources said. One of the arrests was for weapon possession, the sources said. 3 Police officers patrol at the Pennsylvania Avenue Station, where Spencer allegedly dropped his loaded weapon, police said. Robert Mecea Gun arrests in the city's subway system are down 28% overall so far this year over the same period in 2024, from 25 to 18, NYPD data show. Alcazar said additional officers assigned to the subway system by Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch were acting as a deterrent. 'I would attribute the gun arrests being down to the additional officers in the subways,' Alcazar said, noting that the cops are stopping so-called 'fare beaters.' 'You don't want to jump a turnstile when you have a gun.'
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
How faculty lounge ideologues attacked Big Apple's dip in murder rate
By the mid-1990s, a thousand butts were being covered in the faculty lounges of America. Sociologists and criminologists were impotently dissing the miraculous plunge in crime and murder in New York, America's largest and most storied city. Starting around 1967, the murder rate in the Big Apple began soaring from 746 that year to a terrifying 2,245 in 1990. During that period, New York also suffered a bleed-out of blue-collar jobs, white flight and a drug epidemic. The problems plaguing New York weren't worse than many other American cities, but the Big Apple became the poster boy for crime and urban decay because of its size and the glare of the media. 'There was a 50% reduction in murders. Sociologists and criminologists in academia were saying 'it's not happening,' author Peter Moskos told the Toronto Sun. ''Who knows what's causing it?' they said. All the 'experts' in the field were wrong.' Moskos — a criminology professor at John Jay College in New York — has written a new book that boasts a rave review from author David Simon, whose works spawned the hit TV series Homicide: Life on the Street and The Wire, no less. The book is called Back from the Brink: Inside the NYPD and New York's Extraordinary 1990s Crime Drop. What Moskos — who lives in my old Astoria stomping grounds — did was talk to cops who were there. But the average faculty lounge criminologist does not talk to cops, typically doesn't like cops and is firmly ensconced in an ivory tower with faddish ideas Instead, they posited that the criminals aged out, Roe v. Wade meant fewer unwanted kids coming into the world ready for mayhem, leaded gasoline was banned and suggested we, uh, look at 'root causes.' 'It was the cops,' Moskos said. 'The other things played a role, sure, but mostly it was policing.' In his book, Moskos tells the tales from the front lines and explores the strategies the NYPD used in their war against crime and how cops gave New Yorkers their city back. The book is out Wednesday. Unlike many academics who study crime and policing, Moskos put his money where his mouth is: While doing his PhD, he joined Baltimore Police for a birds-eye view. And because of his blue bona fides, police officers would talk to him, whereas they remained rightly suspicious of the faculty lounge types. Even as murders and crime in general began tumbling in the Big Apple, Moskos' criminology colleagues remained in disbelief. They were wedded to an ideology that remains prevalent in those circles today. 'For starters, they generally don't like cops and they didn't want to give the police any credit,' he said. Still, Moskos said the NYPD benefited from the ebbing of the crack epidemic that ravaged big North American cities in the 1980s and early 1990s. The dealers and users were either in prison or the morgue. The NYPD itself was handcuffed by its inertia. There was little accountability even as the bodies began stacking sky high. That is until the arrival of Jack Maple and William Bratton. Maple had been a subway cop riding the rails and was somewhat of an idiot savant when it came to crime. As commissioner of New York's transit police, Bratton saw a diamond in the rough. Crime fell first on the subway system and then Bratton became NYPD commissioner and brought Maple along for the ride. 'There was little accountability and they demanded it. They cleaned house. Then everything changed,' he said, adding that the NYPD became very good at problem-solving. 'Only sociologists were still saying that the police didn't matter … but they couldn't explain the crime drop away.' CRIME HUNTER: New Mafia movie Alto Knights focuses on Costello-Genovese war HUNTER: Will junk justice be Mark Carney and Liberals' soft underbelly? Like the cops themselves, Moskos said sociologists and criminologists were privileged, believing they were different. 'But they weren't on the streets seeing what was happening … and sometimes their views were offensive, even though data was disputing their ideas,' he added. 'They did not like the conclusion, which was you can police your way out of something like this. 'The adults took charge.' Moskos said he doesn't intend his book to be an ode to Bill Bratton, America's most celebrated cop who not only cleaned up New York, but Los Angeles as well. But Moskos fears there are signs that some of the problems with the cops and the city itself are again plaguing the NYPD. He blames uber-progressive former mayor Bill DeBlasio, whose disdain for the police is well-known. 'Bratton got rid of a lot of the corruption, but now it's back. After the turnaround, police were getting in people's s— which is how you cut crime. Under DeBlasio, the streets were surrendered,' he said. Now, New York has what Moskos calls the Taj Mahal of homeless shelters, packed with illegal immigrants, many of them Venezuelan gangbangers. 'They (the NYPD) are not supposed to enforce that and so you're again seeing a drop in the quality of life,' he said, adding the subways are again dangerous. 'They gave up enforcing the rules on fare evasion and bail reform is a big problem. New York gave up a decade of progress.' Moskos has some advice for other cities like, say, Toronto if they want to eliminate crime. 'Don't let the ideologues have a seat at the table,' he said. 'These are people who want to destroy policing at all costs, most are in the pro-criminal direction.' Canada knows this all too well. bhunter@ X: @HunterTOSun
