Gov. Kathy Hochul Sets Herself Up For Political Disaster Hours After New York Subway Murder

By John Loftus, Daily Caller News Foundation | December 23, 2024

Hours after a horrific subway murder in which a victim was burned to death, Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul reassured everyone that everything is wonderful, splendid, a-okay, that “crime is going down” and New Yorkers are just jonesing to hop aboard a subway car.

On Sunday morning, a Guatemalan national allegedly approached a sleeping passenger on the city’s F train and used a lighter to ignite the victim’s clothes. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch described the gruesome murder as “one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit.” Naturally, Hochul had to weigh in by trumpeting the success of the state and city’s efforts to crack down on subway crime.

“In March, I took action to make our subways safer for the millions of people who take the trains each day,” Hochul said on X. “Since deploying the @NationalGuardNY to support @NYPDnews and @MTA safety efforts and adding cameras to all subway cars, crime is going down, and ridership is going up.”

Talk about terrible timing. Hours later, though, Hochul followed up with two more posts, and perhaps realizing her initial tweet was tone-deaf and irredeemably stupid, she attempted a clean-up job.

“Make no mistake: any crime is one too many, even with subway crime going down,” she said. “We are continuing to surge personnel and resources to make our subways safer.”

Anyone who has ridden a New York City subway in the past couple of months knows it’s not a place you want to be for any extended period. Whether waiting on a platform or riding inside a packed train car, the environment feels tense and dangerous, as if your fellow commuters are anticipating a random act of violence, which they probably are.

I rode the New York subway back in May, and as I walked down the old, dirty staircases to the platform, I felt I was descending deeper into a circle of hell. I would have been more tense if it weren’t for a mild beer blanket. Even then, I still kept my back firmly planted against the subway wall, as I imagined some deranged lunatic would come out of nowhere and push me onto the tracks. I was not alone in this; in fact, every person at that subway stop had their backs to the wall, and if they walked up and down the platform, they stayed as close to it as possible.

Maybe if Hochul rode the subway as often as the people of New York, she would understand the feeling. She won’t, though.

John Loftus is an editor at large at the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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