(Headline USA) New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced plans Wednesday to send the National Guard to the New York City subway system to help police search passengers’ bags for weapons, following a series of high-profile crimes on city trains.
The move, which appeared to bear striking similarity to the “stop and frisk” policies prevalent under tough-on-crime NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, marked the latest instance of blue run cities suddenly embracing more conservative policies while facing the prospect of an election-year reckoning for their political malpractice and neglect.
San Francisco similarly passed ballot referenda in its Tuesday municipal elections that would offer greater support to police and require welfare recipients to be screened for drug use.
Holy shlit. Over 60% of San Francisco has just voted to pass Propositions E and F.
Proposition E gives police more powers to fight crime, pursue suspects, and allows drones for catching criminals.
Proposition F will require single adults on city welfare to be screened for drug… pic.twitter.com/7mezFoZR7B
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 6, 2024
And in Los Angeles, after garnering only 21.4% of the vote in a crowded field of competitors, George-Soros-backed District Attorney George Gascon faces a tough runoff against former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman, who previously ran for California attorney general as a Republican, with the anti-Gascon vote potentially achieving the unthinkable in the deep-blue city.
Meanwhile, the state of Oregon has rescinded its controversial 2020 referendum legalizing hard narcotics after seeing a 1,500% surge in overdose deaths.
Hochul, a Democrat, said she will deploy 750 members of the National Guard to the subways to assist the New York Police Department with bag searches at entrances to busy train stations.
“For people who are thinking about bringing a gun or knife on the subway, at least this creates a deterrent effect,” she said at a news conference in New York City. “They might be thinking, ‘You know what, it just may just not be worth it because I listened to the mayor and I listened to the governor and they have a lot more people who are going to be checking my bags.'”
The move came as part of a larger effort from the governor’s office to address crime in the subway, which included a legislative proposal to ban people from trains if they are convicted of assaulting a subway passenger and the installation of cameras in conductor cabins to protect transit workers.
It was promptly ridiculed by the conservative satire site the Babylon Bee, which noted that New York City’s Soros-backed DA Alvin Bragg last year charged subway vigilante Daniel Penny with murder for putting a dangerous homeless man in a chokehold after he violently threatened fellow passengers.
The deployment of the National Guard would bolster an enhanced presence of NYPD officers in the subway system. The governor said she will also send 250 state troopers and police officers for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a state agency, to help with the bag searches.
Overall, crime has dropped in New York City since a spike during the COVID-19 pandemic, and killings are down on the subway system. But rare fatal shootings and shovings on the subway can put residents on edge. Just last week, a passenger slashed a subway conductor in the neck, delaying trains.
Police in New York have long conducted random bag checks at subway entrances, though passengers are free to refuse and leave the station, raising questions of whether the searches are an effective policing tactic in a subway system that serves over 3 million riders per day.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
