Gov. Kathy Hochul still can\u2019t protect New Yorkers from subway violence, as last week\u2019s unprovoked knifing murder on a Queens J train reminded us.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And crime is magnifying another peril: the risk that a train will run you over.<\/p>\n
To address both risks, Hochul should direct the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority to update union work rules and make everyone safer. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Last week, with no warning, an \u201cemotionally disturbed\u201d person repeatedly stabbed<\/a> construction worker Mesias Lojano as the train both were riding neared Woodhaven Blvd.<\/p>\n Lojano, 59, was the subway system\u2019s sixth murder victim of the year. \u00a0<\/p>\n His death is yet another reminder that subway carnage remains far worse than it was before 2020.<\/p>\n From 1997 to 2019, the\u00a0decades before Albany implemented criminal justice \u201creforms,\u201d New York City experienced an average of two transit murders<\/a> each year. \u00a0<\/p>\n But from 2020 through last year, perpetrators have killed an average of seven mass-transit riders annually \u2014 and we\u2019re on track to meet or exceed that figure for 2026. \u00a0<\/p>\n Through August, felony assaults are up 10% from last year, to 435 \u2014 a total that\u2019s 84% higher than the comparable figure from 2019. \u00a0<\/p>\n One problem is that the state and city still go too easy on repeat offenders.<\/p>\n In this latest case, police had arrested alleged killer Jyrell Thomas <\/a>just weeks before, for theft from a Bronx Target and for attempting to flee.<\/p>\n But he went free, even though petty theft often isn\u2019t an economic crime, but a cry for help from a disordered mind. \u00a0<\/p>\n The pervasive atmosphere of violence has impacted subway staff, too.<\/p>\n Through July, subway workers have suffered 42 assaults, up from 37 for the same period last year, and skyrocketing from just 16 in the first seven months of 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n Workers terrified of violence can\u2019t do their jobs.<\/p>\n Last Monday subway passenger Yaw Boahene, who appeared to be disabled, was killed after being dragged along the platform<\/a> when he tried to exit the A train at Brooklyn\u2019s Utica Ave.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not yet clear what happened, but the train may have snagged upon an object that Boahene, 57, was holding, pulling him along and under.\u00a0<\/p>\n The conductor should have been looking out his car\u2019s window to prevent just such a tragedy.<\/p>\n But according to Gothamist, the conductor on this train had suffered a previous on-the-job assault \u2014 and so was wary of poking his head out of the car.\u00a0<\/p>\n The fear is justified: Last year, a repeat offender slashed conductor Lynette Pierce as she performed this safety check, and in 2024 another attacker slashed a different conductor<\/a>\u2019s neck. \u00a0<\/p>\n The governor could cut crime and protect transit workers by asking the Transport Workers Union to revise the conductor\u2019s role. \u00a0<\/p>\n As the MTA continues to add technology that allows trains to all but run themselves, train operators could use full camera coverage on platforms to ensure that passengers are clear of the moving cars. \u00a0<\/p>\n The conductor, meanwhile, could be tasked with scanning full camera coverage inside the train to look out for the dangers that rightly make passengers fearful: people smoking and using drugs in train cars, panhandling, menacing riders or otherwise acting strangely.<\/p>\n Police at stops further down the line could remove such offenders. \u00a0<\/p>\n Unusually, the federal National Transportation Safety Board is investigating last week\u2019s passenger death, as well as last month\u2019s death of a subway worker, track flagger Moet McCullum.<\/p>\n