Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams may have thought he was delivering a punch line, only no one laughed. He claimed with apparently a straight face that the city’s beleaguered subway system is the best and safest on Earth.
During a Wednesday crime briefing, Adams declared that “New Yorkers are safe on our subway system.” He said he rides the rails and hears from passengers asking him why the transit system has a nasty reputation.
They allegedly tell the mayor, “Eric, can people stop saying we [are] unsafe down here? It’s the best subway system on the globe.”
BREAKING: NYC mayor, Eric Adams claims that NYC subway system is “the best system on the globe” and “the safest” system on the globe. pic.twitter.com/wv3wPmXC2u
— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) April 4, 2024
This is the same system where on Monday a man in East Harlem was shoved to his death in the path of an oncoming train. Three individuals were stabbed in three separate events in recent days.
And on Tuesday, a female NYPD officer had her nose broken when she was struck by a transient. She was attempting to prevent her alleged assailant from skipping the fare.
But to Mayor Adams, these daily occurrences are merely outliers that do not reflect the safety and tranquility experienced by NYC subway riders. He did everything including blaming the media for reporting these violent incidents for the “misperception.”
Adams lamented that New York City being the safest large metropolis in the U.S. does not drive headlines. Then he noted that “it becomes challenging when someone writes a story that says homicides are up 150%.”
The mayor apparently was referring to a recent Daily News column. Adams told the gathering that the city is “winning on being safe” but losing the perception war.
A total of 2,000 additional officers now patrol the transit system. NYPD officials responded in January to increasing violence by assigning 1,000 officers to ride the rails and attempt to keep the peace.
Then, in early March, Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul provided a contingent of another 1,000 to enforce the law.
She drew from the New York State Police, MTA police and MTA National Guard to conduct baggage checks to keep weapons out of train cars. Despite the added personnel, highly publicized incidents continue to mount and force leaders to tout the “safety” of the system.
