Scared of being pushed onto train tracks? Then "defund" police and divert the money to metal barriers on the train.
I’m Alexis de Toqueville-ing my way through Bulgaria this month. Recently, I posted a blog asking why the poorest, most corrupt country in the European Union has a better and safer train system than New York City, the financial capitol of the world.
Not only is the train in Sofia clean, with working intercoms that transmit announcements in Bulgarian and English—there’s also a light metal barrier that descends when the subway train enters and leaves busy stations to prevent people from falling or getting pushed onto the tracks.
In January, a mentally ill homeless man pushed 40-year-old Michelle Go onto the tracks in Times Square, killing her. New Yorkers shivered with terror at the prospect of such a horrid end. Anytime I take the train I slap my back against a pillar, so that if someone decides today’s the day they push a woman onto the tracks, it won’t be me.
After Go’s death, our politicians and tabloids positively ran to try and somehow blame criminal justice reform for why the man was out on the streets.
“Some advocates said they also feared that hate criminals were emboldened by more forgiving law enforcement policies, including the state’s bail reform law and new lenient sentencing guidelines implemented by new Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg,” the New York Post observed.
Her killer, Simon Martial, concurred, noting that he wouldn’t have dared anything like this when Giuliani was Mayor. No, he said crazy shit because because he’s suffered from barely treated schizophrenia for decades.
“Yes I did. I’m God, I can do it,” Martial said after he was captured. Sounds like a person who performs sophisticated cost-benefit analysis in regards to changing law enforcement policies and the reform ideology of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg!
It’s not stricter criminal penalties that would have kept Michelle Go alive.
It’s a light, metal barrier that descends when trains enter and leave busy stations.
It’s not “Stop Asian hate” signs that would have kept Go alive, or Mayor Eric Adams preening at her vigil.
It’s a light, metal barrier that descends when trains enter and leave busy stations.
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