EGN NEWS DESK
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo slammed his successor’s choice to deploy the National Guard to New York City subway stations — arguing as an alternative for extra law enforcement officials to patrol underground.
Cuomo claimed Gov. Hochul’s directive to station lots of of troops within the subway system to verify baggage is ineffective, saying it can not function a viable long-term answer to fight crime.
“You want police,” Cuomo instructed John Catsimatidis & Rita Cosby Wednesday on the “Cats & Cosby Show.“
“The National Guard aren’t police and we don’t need to reinvent the wheel right here,” Cuomo stated.
Under Hochul’s order, 750 National Guardsmen and 250 state and MTA cops have been despatched to patrol the subway stations, a call she staunchly defended as against the law deterrent that may calm commuters’ “nervousness.”
The troops — who have been closely armed till the governor banned using lengthy weapons this week — conduct bag checks for straphangers, which Cuomo stated would do nothing to cease rising transit crime as a result of they aren’t correctly skilled for the duty.
“Why is there a spike in crime within the subway system? Because you may have the bottom stage of police within the subway system in a decade,” Cuomo stated.
“You don’t want the National Guard checking baggage. You want transit police within the system. That’s the reply … This just isn’t what the National Guard does. It’s not what they’re skilled to do.”
Hochul had pushed again in opposition to hiring extra NYPD officers earlier this week, claiming it could entail a time-consuming course of of constructing funding requests, a pointless enterprise when she has the National Guard at her fast disposal.
Cuomo known as hogwash, nevertheless, accusing Hochul of constructing a political choice based mostly on nationwide pushback in opposition to police departments.
“We nonetheless have a hangover from this ‘defund the police,’” Cuomo stated.
“It’s simply politics the place the [city] council doesn’t need to rent police, and the state doesn’t need to say you must rent extra police as a result of it’s this hangover [from] ‘defund the police.’”
The former governor stated the tide in opposition to a stronger police presence in New York City has subsided, and pointed to Mayor Adams’ 2021 election.
“New Yorkers elected a police officer as mayor. The sign is plain. You elect a former police officer since you’re saying, ‘I need public security.’ We have fewer cops as we speak than after they elected Mayor Adams,” he continued.
Subway crime spiked 45% in January in comparison with the identical month a yr prior — however dropped 15% in February, which Adams credited to new NYPD patrols on the subway.
Crime on the subway is up 13% general for the yr, in response to NYPD statistics.
Hochul’s deployment of the National Guard is an element of a bigger five-point plan to make the subways safer, which incorporates:
- Influx of 1,000 National Guardsmen, state and MTA cops.
- Law to permit judges to ban transit assault perps from trains, buses.
- Installation of CCTV cameras in all practice automobiles, conductor cabins.
- Better coordination between NYPD and district attorneys to thwart recidivists.
- $20 million to increase Subway Co-Response Outreach psychological well being groups.
