Today is Sunday, October 23, 2022. Today I read a new analysis on crime in the New York subway, which seems to be on everyone’s mind these days. Friends of mine have indicated their fear of riding the subway and have reported that they have stopped riding the system. This analysis by John Miller for the CNN app for my smartphone attempts to dispel the myths surrounding the issue.

The article does acknowledge how crime and fear have become a real issue for the system since the pandemic struck. But there is a ray of hope in that riders who were driven away by the pandemic are slowly returning to the system. They are doing so more slowly because of the daily onslaught of headlines about stabbings, robberies, and people being shoved in front of trains by strangers.

New York Mayor Eric Adams recently pushed back on fears that subways have become dangerous by saying the problem is more one of “perception” than a statistical increase in crime.

So is crime up this year in the transit system in a significant way? Yes, it is, if you compare the numbers to last year, crime in the transit system is up by more than 40%. However, the thing driving the numbers is larceny, which usually means someone’s phone or wallet was stolen from their bag or off a seat, or when someone is dozing. So it is nonviolent crime that has increased over violent crime, but it is the violent crimes we are seeing in the news stories which are a shock to the senses of many riders.

Thus police are seeing small numbers in overall crime on the transit system, with three murders so far this month, which is still too many in too short a time to not ask a serious question about safety. As of 2022, those three murders make it nine for the year so far. During the same period last year, the number of murders was six. Robberies are also up by about 34%. Felony assault is up by about 17%.

Another factor that needs to be assessed here is the total number of riders using the system and that figure was about 5.5 million in prepandemic 2019. “If a ‘place’ with a population greater than Los Angeles only had six serious crimes a day, it would be fantastic.” Altogether, having 10 or 12 murders for the year would make it by far the safest big city in the nation. As for the transit system, there is less crime than we had prepandemic, but we also have fewer riders. But even with ridership rising to an average of 3.8 million in recent weeks, the chances of being a crime victim remain very low, about one in 600,000. So don’t you think the odds of someone becoming a victim of crime in the transit system are relatively low here?

Knowing these facts about crime in the transit system does not lessen the trepidation of many riders toward using the system. All one has to do is to read the tabloids that shout out these horrible crimes on the subway with alarming regularity. How do you dissuade someone that riding the subway isn’t fraught with terror when one can see the homeless guy sprawled out on the bench, or when one can see the mentally ill person screaming or acting out, or when one can see kids smoking weed, or when one can see the man urinating on the corner of the platform, or worse, directly in a F car? Thank God I haven’t seen the latter; I’m not even sure if I’ve seen the former. And if I have, I’ve erased the vision of the act from memory immediately. So people are feeling that things are not quite under control down there and even if they haven’t been a victim of a serious crime in the system, seeing all of this still makes them edgy.

One will indubitably ask where is law enforcement in all of this. The New York Police Department (NYPD) does make literally thousands of arrests in the transit system each year and issues thousands more summonses. This year, so far, police have made 6,793 arrests in the transit system. Last year, at this time, it was 4,622. Arrests are up 47%, but that’s for crimes. Even for such violations as “quality of life” conditions, the ones that make people feel unsafe in the system, those summonses are up over 200%. That’s a high number. So it would be hard to argue in a general sense that police are not engaged in enforcement. But does anyone see any police officers in the system if you ride the subway on any particular day? That’s what is important.

A related complication of this surge in quality of life violations is the failure of district attorneys to prosecute many of these violations and crimes. A case in point is the phenomenon of turnstile jumping. Here people are not receiving tickets for this sort of violation which could lead to more serious crime. In the past, if a person was caught jumping the turnstile by the third time, that person could be arrested. However, the district attorneys are not writing those charges up. This goes for smoking weed on the trains or platforms and public urination, where violators only receive a ticket which is generally just tossed by them. Even for misdemeanor criminal offenses, there’s a reluctance by prosecutors to charge the violators and by judges to do anything other than dismiss them.

What is critically important here in this equation is that the riding public and the violator both need to see on a daily basis that cops still give a damn, even if the laws are weaker and that district attorneys decline to charge obvious offenders. Otherwise, the perception is that the police are just giving up.

In my case, I am not as wary of riding the subway as my peers since I was intuitively aware of the bigger picture here. I’m still very alert to my surroundings when riding the subway and eschew falling asleep on the subway unless I’m bone tired, which is rare. I do not lean over a platform ledge; I stay away from the outer rim as much as I can. I also look around as much as possible to spot possible danger signals. That is all anyone can do, I feel. I think it’s a costly proposition to take a car into Manhattan, so Elliot and I avoid this as much as possible.

So does this reporting make you more inclined to take that E train into Manhattan anytime soon?

Another story concerning the Big Apple has to do with the trial starting tomorrow here where the former president’s company, the Trump Organization, is being prosecuted by the office of Attorney General Letitia James. This trial is finally proceeding after a wait of three years after Manhattan prosecutors started investigating the former insurrectionist for shifty business practices.

If convicted, the Trump Organization could be fined more than $1 million – but that’s not the only potential fallout. A guilty verdict could hamper the company’s ability to get loans and make deals. The city could seek to oust the company from running a city-owned golf course. All of these outcomes are covered in an Associated Press article by Michael R. Sisak entitled “Trump Organization set to face criminal tax fraud trial in New York starting Monday.”

The Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, has said that his office’s investigation of Trump is “active and ongoing,” and that no final decision has been made on whether he could face criminal charges in the future. I think it’s a crime that Dumpf has not been criminally charged so far.

The judge in the trial, Juan Manuel Merchan, expects the criminal tax fraud trial, heavy on financial records and expert testimony, to take at least four weeks once a jury is seated. Good luck with that, New York. You’d have to be hibernating in a cave to not have an opinion of the leader of the pack here, Donald J. Trump, and say that you could judge the case impartially.

The star witness for the prosecution is expected to be Allen Weisselberg, one of Dumpf’s most trusted senior executives.

As you might recall, Weisselberg pleaded guilty in August to taking in over $1.7 million worth of untaxed perks from the company, including school tuition for his grandchildren, a Manhattan apartment, and Mercedes cars for him and his wife.

His testimony comes as part of a plea agreement that requires him to serve up to five months in New York’s Rikers Island jail complex, though he could be released after a little more than three (if he lives that long) with good behavior. The former Dumpf Organization chief financial officer must also play nearly $2 million in taxes, penalties, and interest and complete five years of probation.

When the case got off the ground, prosecutors called the tax scheme “sweeping and audacious” and said it was “orchestrated by the most senior executives.” However, Dumpf or any other members of his family are not implicated in this “audacious” crime. How unlikely!

“The criminal case is one of two legal cases working their way through the New York courts that threaten to chip away at the gold-plated facade of Trump’s empire.” Last month, James filed a civil lawsuit accusing Dumpf and the Trump Organization of misleading banks and others for years about the value of his assets. The civil suit seeks $250 million and a permanent ban on Dumpf doing business in the state.

A court hearing is scheduled in that matter for Halloween as James seeks an independent monitor to oversee the Trump Organization’s activities after she alleged the company was taking steps to dodge potential penalties, such as incorporating a new entity named Trump Organization II. One Trump Organization is definitely enough, but not two!

Other legal challenges facing the Orange Menace include the lawsuit filed by magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll, who says the former insurrectionist raped her in the mid-1990s in Bergdorf Goodman’s dressing room.

Meanwhile, the FBI is continuing to investigate Dumpf’s storage of sensitive government documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

Also, a special grand jury in Georgia is investigating whether Dumpf and others attempted to influence state election officials.

And there is the matter of the House Select Committee issuing a subpoena to the former fascist-in-chief last Friday compelling him to testify before it. Hey, do you think one of these investigations will land on the Teflon Don’s outsized head finally and result in him being charged for something, anything?

Have a good week.

Stay safe and be well.