Eliminate cash bail, defund the police, throw open the border to drugs and illegal aliens, and espouse an endless attack on law enforcement, and what will you get? Crime doubling on the Long Island Rail Road.
Once considered a relatively safe place for commuters, the railroad has seen its biggest spike in crimes against both riders and employees in 18 years. The crime wave, also felt in communities across the state as the policies of the Progressive Democrats play out, is a reason Gov. Hochul nixed the Manhattan congestion pricing plan designed to promote mass transit.
Infamously deploying the National Guard to patrol the subway system, Hochul downplayed the crime surge and encouraged New Yorkers to stick with public transportation. Officials note that while crime is up, violent crime is down as the Guard and Metropolitan Transportation Authority police step up patrols.
According to MTA records released as part of an inquiry reported by Newsday, the LIRR crime spike includes burglaries, assaults, and grand larcenies, in addition to major crimes such as murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, and auto theft. Grand larceny represented half of the crimes, which police attribute to riders not paying attention to their belongings.
The rail road’s rate of 2.52 major crimes per million riders is higher than the New York City subways, which posted less than two crimes per million, according to police data.
“Violent crime is almost unheard of on the LIRR, with an average of one incident recorded every five days in all of last year across the entire railroad from Penn Station and Grand Central Madison to Montauk,” said Thomas Taffe, chief of operations for the MTA Police. “In some of the more recent cases, the victims were police officers, who have been more actively pursuing fare evasion enforcement.”
The uptick in attacks on railroad personnel is attributed to increased emphasis on fare-beating arrests. With its finances in turmoil, especially with the governor blocking congestion pricing, the authority has stepped up efforts to collect fares and tolls to meet its $19.3 billion annual budget.
“It doesn’t take a genius to understand that if you go soft on criminals, crime will go up,” stated Assemblyman Joseph DeStefano. “It’s a constant battle in Albany to get the Democrats who control the legislature to join us in trying to do something about the crime problem.”