Some elected officials voiced their concerns over Governor Kathy Hochul's announcement Wednesday that she would deploy 1,000 National Guard members and state police personnel to help check bags and help make the New York City subway system safer.
"Like the Governor, I want the people who work in the transit system and those who use it to be safe," said state Aseembly Member Latrice M. Walker in a press release. "Flooding the subway system with law enforcement and 750 members of the National Guard, along with the renewed emphasis on passenger bag searches raises concerns about a veiled return to the stop-and-frisk era during which Black and brown people were disproportionately targeted."
Instead of making our communities safer, these proposals will perpetuate racial discrimination, prevent people from getting to work and to take care of their families, create barriers to education and healthcare, and destabilize entire communities, said Walker, who represents the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Ocean Hill and Brownsville.
We must reject policies like this that distract from the data-driven strategies we know truly improve public safety – investments in mental health, long-neglected social services, community-based violence intervention programs, and secure jobs and housing, she said.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said the governor's action was like "militarizing" the subway.
"It's one thing to announce police presence on the platforms for political gain, as the governor has in the past," Williams said in a news release. "It's another entirely to further criminalize the public on public transit and neglect the real improvements these resources could be devoted to, like fixing the subway itself."
