hate crimes<\/a> of late. Many are still traumatised by the February murder of Christina Yuna Lee, a woman who was stabbed more than 40 times by a homeless intruder after returning from a night out.<\/p>\nIn its capacity to arouse shock and horror, Tuesday\u2019s attack transcended boundaries between New Yorkers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t feel safe any more. I carry pepper spray with me because that\u2019s all I can do,\u201d said Maria Keller, who works at the UMK Brooklyn Grocery on Fourth Avenue and 35th Street, half a block from the shooting.<\/p>\n
Keller has lived in the city since 1984 and said lately \u201cthe city feels like back in the 80s. I don\u2019t go on the subway any more, maybe once a month. When [Mayors Rudy] Giuliani and [Michael] Bloomberg were in charge they did a good job. I felt like I could go on the subway and even fall asleep. But now it\u2019s too dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the aftermath, politicians who have grown practised in recent months at public denouncements of violence appeared more emphatic and emotional than usual. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo more mass shootings. No more disrupting lives. No more creating heartbreak for people just trying to live their lives as normal New Yorkers. It has to end, it ends now,\u201d said Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York.<\/p>\n
Jumaane Williams, the city\u2019s public advocate, noted that one of his associates was on the train when the attack occurred. \u201cIt\u2019s not even summer yet and we\u2019re dealing with this violence,\u201d he said, in an acknowledgment that New York\u2019s shootings tend to increase as the temperature rises.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\tPeople lie wounded at the 36th Street subway station in Brooklyn, New York City \u00a9 Armen Armenian\/ReutersAs with other big US cities, there were mass protests in New York two years ago following the police murder in Minneapolis of George Floyd. The state legislature also implemented criminal justice reforms intended to reduce the prison population.<\/p>\n
Now the political winds appear to be shifting, or at least moderating. New Yorkers in November elected Adams, a former police captain whose promise to contain crime was the cornerstone of his campaign. He has since sent controversial anti-crime units back into the streets to crack down on the gun trade, including a proliferation of difficult-to-trace \u201cghost\u201d guns. He has also restored some of the aggressive \u201cbroken windows\u201d policing strategies popularised by Giuliani in the 1990s.<\/p>\n
Crime remains well below levels from generations past. Last year, the city recorded 485 murders compared with 2,262 in 1990.<\/p>\n
Since the pandemic, though, the trends have headed in the wrong direction. Shootings are up 8 per cent so far this year, according to the NYPD, and more than 72 per cent from two years ago.<\/p>\n
\n\n
You see more homeless and odd people around, and you just never know if they\u2019re going to snap<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The subway has been a particular focus of concern. It has featured deadly hate crimes, in which Asian-Americans have been assaulted and even pushed on to the tracks. Like Keller, the grocery store worker, many New Yorkers are staying away. In a recent week, ridership was only about 56-58 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, according to Metropolitan Transportation Authority statistics.<\/p>\n
Some business leaders now view the subway \u2014 not Covid \u2014 as the biggest obstacle to convincing their employees to return to the office, threatening the post-pandemic livelihood of the city itself.<\/p>\n
A recent survey of 9,400 Manhattan office workers conducted by the Partnership for New York City, an group of business executives, found more than 80 per cent relied on public transit to commute to work, and that public safety, more than health, was their overriding concern.<\/p>\n
\n
\u201cEvery New Yorker can identify with those that were caught in the subway car with the shooter,\u201d said Kathryn Wylde, the partnership\u2019s president. \u201cThis is getting people at a moment of high anxiety and that will magnify the reaction.\u201d <\/p>\n
Richard Aborn, a lawyer who is president of the Citizens Crime Commission, a non-profit focused on public safety, was reluctant to draw conclusions while the hunt for the suspect was still under way. <\/p>\n
But, he said, \u201cwhat we do know is that this will greatly increase the sense of insecurity on the subway, at the very moment city officials are doing so much to try and get people back on the system\u201d. Aborn also called the assault \u201cthe type of random attack that sows fear citywide\u201d.<\/p>\n
In Sunset Park, the diverse working-class neighbourhood where the attack occurred, a cross section of business owners and local residents said they had all noticed a rise in homelessness and erratic behaviour in recent years.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see more homeless and odd people around, and you just never know if they\u2019re going to snap,\u201d said Tony Tan, half of the pair behind Jack & Tony\u2019s Auto Repair shop on Fourth Avenue just north of the attack.<\/p>\n
Josh Tyler, a 20-year-old resident of the Midwood section of Brooklyn, said he adopted two pit bulls last year to protect his mother at their home when he is not around.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point you have to,\u201d Tyler replied, when asked if he planned to change his behaviour in light of Tuesday\u2019s attack. \u201cYou don\u2019t know what [the shooter] has with him, you don\u2019t know what people he\u2019s got around him. If you\u2019re throwing smoke in the subway, you\u2019re trying to cause chaos\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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