Patrols of NYC subways to increase after several riders shoved onto the tracks
The Guardian Angels have also increased patrols in the subway
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Your support makes all the difference.The New York Police Department has ramped up patrols in the subway after a series of incidents in which people have been shoved onto the tracks.
In the latest incident, a man was shoved onto a track at a Brooklyn station.
A 29-year-old man was on a train at 11:30am when a sleeping man woke up and began screaming at him.
Police responding to the incident were not able to ascertain what the man was screaming about.
The screaming man followed the 29-year-old off of the train and shoved him onto the tracks.
The man was able to climb off of the tracks and was otherwise unharmed by the attack.
Several other incidents of subway-shoving have occurred in recent days.
On Thursday, a 40-year-old woman was also shoved onto the tracks. She said she had no memory of the incident.
The day before, another rider was shoved onto the tracks by a panhandler. That victim did not suffer serious injury.
The attacks have also prompted increased patrols by the Guardian Angels, a volunteer crime-prevention organisation.
Curtis Silwa, the president of the Guardian Angels, told CBS New York the attacks are unprecedented in his experience.
"I've never seen as many emotionally disturbed persons having episodes as we see now," he said.
Mr Silwa — who started the organisation in 1979 — called New York City "Fear City" when he started the group. He said the city is once again deserving of the moniker.
In addition to people being shoved onto the track, there have been other assaults reported in the subway. On Saturday, a 53-year-old man was slashed on the face on a train. Earlier on the same day, a knife-weilding man attacked a 26-year-old.
Another individual, who is being sought by the NYPD, punched a Metro Transit Authority worker at a subway station.
Mr Silwa said part of his strategy to address the spate of violence is trying to force city mental health agencies to address the issue.
“We’re going to make the city agencies do what it is they get paid to do,” Mr Sliwa said. “And if they are not going to do it, then the Guardian Angels will do it.”
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