During two consecutive evenings from the previous week, I unexpectedly met with two individuals whose lives were dramatically affected by the New York subway system: Lenore Skenazy and Daniel Penny. Lenore Skenazy gained notoriety in 2008 when she allowed her nine-year-old son to take a solo journey on the 6 train, while Daniel Penny became a point of discussion in 2023 after physically restraining Jordan Neely, a notorious troublemaker and danger to fellow commuters, a move that tragically ended in Neely’s demise.
Although Skenazy’s and Penny’s experiences are separated by a period of a decade and a half, they both resonate with a persistent discussion: Does the subway system provide adequate safety to NYC’s most susceptible community members? Skenazy firmly believed that the true detriment to children’s development wasn’t menacing subway riders but rather overcautious parents who did not allow their children to gain self-reliance.
In an ideal world, the subway serves as a liberating factor for both children and their parents. Despite living in the suburbs with my own children, my yearning to return to city life has less to do with its lively arts scene or world-renowned restaurants, but more for the chance it offers my children to gain self-assurance and life experience, without their parents hovering over them.
However, safe city life for youngsters necessitates faith in public safety. When Skenazy dared to make the provocative decision of sending young Izzy on a solo subway journey, the overall public faith in the city’s safety was at an all-time high.
Just before this daring decision, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) had shared optimistic reports stating that ridership had reached the highest in half a century while subway-related crimes had plummeted to an all-time low. The credit for this newfound sense of safety vastly enjoyed by New Yorkers went to the effective leadership of the then Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his successor, Michael Bloomberg.
Their administrations’ secret weapon was the implementation of a strategic, ‘broken windows’ approach to policing. This tactic focused on addressing minor offenses and disarray to fortify the public’s peace of mind and assurance in their shared spaces. This philosophy, as academic researchers George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson illustrated, posits that allowing minor misdemeanors such as graffiti, fare evasion, and low-scale law-breaking sends a wrong message of lack of authority, thereby opening the doors for more serious crimes.
Conversely, ensuring the enforcement of basic rules and laws prevents the burgeoning of larger issues. This meticulous focus on minor infractions assisted NYPD in keeping major transgressions at bay, building trust within the community, and avoiding a recurrence of the disorder witnessed in the 1970s and 80s.
Regrettably, the policy took a back seat when NYC voters chose to deviate from the crime-centric approach, electing Bill de Blasio for mayor. After de Blasio took office in 2014, the city cut back on proactive law enforcement, terminated the stop-question-and-frisk policy, and sent a strong signal that petty crimes would be overlooked. Predictably, this led to an increase in fare evasion incidents, disorderliness, and violent offenses.
From research conducted by Aaron Chalfin, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Pennsylvania, it was found that serious physical assaults within the subway tripled between 2009 and 2023, even as ridership fell by a fifth. As the more lenient policing style of ‘Big Bill’ took hold, a rise in criminal activity was inevitable, with the need for heroic intervention becoming increasingly necessary.
The call was answered by Daniel Penny. On the first day of May, 2023, Jordan Neely, a man with more than 40 previous arrests, including one for brutally attacking a 67-year-old woman, boarded an F train in Manhattan. Passengers reported Neely threatening riders and defiantly declaring his indifference to imprisonment. The peril was neutralized by Penny.
Daniel Penny’s confrontation was an act that no one should be forced to undertake. However, in the current milieu, bold individuals like Penny become necessary due to the failure of city authorities to instill the confidence once enjoyed during the Bloomberg era.
There is a glimmer of hope, though, as there seems to be a shift towards restoring order. Post the traumatic incident of a woman set ablaze on the F train, NYPD announced a new Quality-of-Life Division with a mandate of cracking down minor offenses, much in line with the broken windows strategy. Subsequently, the number of summonses and arrests has risen, and crime rates appear to be getting better.
In a conversation with Rafael Mangual from the Manhattan Institute, he acknowledged that progress has been achieved, partly due to the additional resources allocated to subway safety. Yet, Mangual pointed out that the ‘disorder that doesn’t make it into official stats is still what riders experience every day.’ Families, like mine, can still sense this.
To reclaim New York as a city where children can freely explore, as Lenore Skenazy demonstrated almost two decades ago, a complete reinstatement of public safety measures that once made it a reality is unequivocally necessary.
The post Safety or Liberty: The NYC Subway Dilemma appeared first on Real News Now.
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