Eight hours after a woman was burned to death on a New York City subway on Dec. 22, 2024, Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., had the temerity to boast in an X post that due to her efforts crime has declined on the transit system.
"In March," she declared, "I took action to make our subways safer for the millions of people who take the trains each day. Since deploying the National Guard to support NYPD and MTA safety efforts and adding cameras to all subway cars, crime is going down and ridership is going up."
Hochul is delusional.
An F train subway car camera did not stop a 30-year-old Guatemalan migrant from allegedly setting a woman on fire.
Nor did cameras stop another subway murder later that same day.
Reacting to Hochul’s comment, a top aide to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., Melissa DeRosa, aptly stated, "Two people were murdered in the subway today. The governor of the State of New York is a tourist who can’t even bother to read a newspaper while she’s in town."
What the Empire State's 57th governor has failed to grasp is that crimes committed on subways in 2024 are 14% above 2019, the pre-COVID-19 year.
At the end of October 2024, subway shootings compared to 2023 had doubled and victims of gunfire were up an incredible 175%.
With 12 people murdered on subways this year, the total killed since 2020 stands at 43.
"For decades prior to 2020, after having stomped out underground violence beginning in 1990 by stopping small crimes before they escalated to big ones, New York clocked one or two subway murders a year.
"Before 2020, it took 20 years — going back to the new millennium — to tally 43 subway killings," said the renowned social scientist Nicole Gelinas of the Manhattan Institute.
While the state's chief executive may be delusional about subway crime, commuters are not. A Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) survey indicated that only 44% of subway riders "feel safe" standing in a subway station, and only 45% "feel safe" aboard a train.
Hochul’s view on immigration is also misconceived.
Her support of illegal migrants invading New York and, right to shelter laws that require the city to house anyone who requests it, plus her practice of not cooperating with federal immigration enforcement, has caused a 71.5% increase in the city’s homeless population.
Homeless people sleeping in New York City shelters in October 2024 was up 53% over 2023. More than 150,000 have been sleeping in the shelter system and over 60,000 are migrants.
These migrant policies cost taxpayers billions of dollars annually.
As a result, the city is facing a fiscal crisis and numerous social problems.
Essential services are facing budget cuts, and welfare costs are skyrocketing.
This past year, welfare recipients totaled 787,400 people — a 19% increase.
Then there is the increasing presence of Venezuelan gangs roaming the streets of the City.
Members of the Tren de Aragua gang have made their way across our southern border and have established a presence in the Big Apple.
These gangs have progressed from shoplifting in neighborhood shops to street shoot-outs.
One migrant gang member, Bernardo Raul Castro-Mata, who is accused of shooting two of New York’s finest during a routine traffic stop, has reportedly told law enforcement officials that he was ordered by his gang leaders to shoot the police officers.
CBS news reported in November 2024, that the "NYPD believe some gang members are recruiting children living in migrant shelters, and that the members have blended in with the asylum seekers who began to arrive in the Big Apple in 2022."
Children as young as 11 years old "are carrying out retail robberies and committing crimes on scooters, like snatching people’s jewelry, watches and cell phones at gunpoint and knife point. There were more than 300 incidents last year and more than 800 so far this year."
New York City is becoming an urban jungle.
And one result is the exodus of middle-class and upper-class taxpayers to safer tax-friendly states. The latest figures available (2023) indicated that New York leads the nation in population loss.
Over 180,000 took a powder.
If that population trend continues, the state’s 26-member congressional delegation (which stood at 45 in 1950), will be down to 22 following the 2030 census.
Thanks to the delusional policies of Governor Hochul and her progressive allies, the state’s motto "Excelsior" — "ever upward" is morphing into "ever downward."
George J. Marlin, a former executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, is the author of "The American Catholic Voter: Two Hundred Years of Political Impact," and "Christian Persecutions in the Middle East: A 21st Century Tragedy." Read George J. Marlin's Reports — More Here.
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