A thousand units of the New York State National Guard, the equivalent of the military, and the police of this state will be deployed in the subway of the American megacity to fight against crime after a series of incidents, Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday.
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This announcement follows a shooting in mid-February in a station in the Bronx, in which one person died and five others were injured.
At the end of February, a subway conductor was also stabbed in a Brooklyn station.
The number of serious crimes in the transport network jumped by 50% in January compared to the same month in 2023.
“These heinous and brazen attacks on our subway system will not be tolerated,” the governor said.
AFP
This deployment of National Guard soldiers will notably aim to help the New York police strengthen checks of passengers’ bags in the busiest stations.
The mayor of New York, Democrat Eric Adams, a former police captain elected in 2021 on the promise of bringing security to the city after the Covid pandemic, also announced a strengthening of these controls.
Kathy Hochul promised the deployment of additional video surveillance cameras and announced the plan to more easily prohibit access to the metro for people convicted of attacking a transport system employee.
Before the series of incidents that have occurred in recent weeks, the most serious episode dates back to April 2022, when a man opened fire on a train in Brooklyn, during rush hour, injuring several dozen people.
He was sentenced to life in prison in October 2023 for terrorist acts.
