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New ‘tough on crime’ mayor Adams declares NYC subways safe after gruesome murder, it’s only a ‘perception of fear’

January 17, 2022 | | Print Article

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New York City Mayor Eric Adams continues to prove that there’s a huge difference between perception and reality, as he responded to a gruesome subway murder to say essentially there’s nothing to see here.

His remarks were prompted by a reportedly mentally ill homeless man, who is black, shoving an Asian woman to her death in front of an onrushing train.

The unprovoked attack took place Saturday at 9:40 a.m. at the Times Square station, according to police. Michelle Alyssa Go, 40, was shoved onto the train tracks while waiting for her train by Simon Martial, 61, who was arrested and charged with second degree murder. Martial was reportedly “talking gibberish,” and declared: “Yes I did. I’m God, I can do it.”

Later that same day, a 37-year-old man was stabbed at the Grand Street subway station, according to various reports. There was no arrest in that attack, as the assailant managed to escape.

On Sunday, Adams, a former NYPD transit cop, responded to the carnage to essentially say that the only thing to fear is fear itself.

“New Yorkers are safe on the subway system,” the mayor said, according to the New York Post. “I think it’s about 1.7 percent of the crimes in New York City that occur on the subway system.

“Think about that for a moment,” Adams said. “What we must do is remove the perception of fear.

Speaking of the death of the Asian straphanger, the Democrat added, “Cases like this aggravate the perception of fear… When you see homeless individuals with mental health issues not being attended to and given the proper services, that adds to the perception of fear.”

Straphanger Marcus Grant of East New York, Brooklyn, told the Post that the mayor’s perception of the problem is a bit of a train wreck on its own.

“The drug dealing, the random verbal threats that go unreported,” Grant said. “Find me one person who feels relaxed about taking the train. Find me one person who doesn’t have their guard up. It’s not enough that the statistics are low now.”

Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa told the Post he has seen Martial “many times” ranting in the subway.

“He will have a conversation and then all of a sudden he will have a psychotic disorder,” Sliwa said. “Again, an Asian gets pushed in front of a train. How many times does this have to happen? Asians are being attacked every which way.”

Sliwa also tweeted: “The WHO has a song that says ‘the new boss is the same as the old boss.’ Adams is saying what deBlasio said for 8 yrs – #mta crime is a perception & not real. He won’t confront Bragg & covers up subway crime.”

In a sad irony, Go, who was a senior manager at the top consulting firm Deloitte, volunteered as an advocate for the homeless.

An MBA graduate of NYU’s prestigious Stern School of Business, the 40-year-old victim lived on the Upper West Side, the Post reported, adding that the “wonderful,’’ “kind’’ 40-year-old woman was also known for her volunteerism with the New York Junior League.

“Michelle’s focus populations were seniors, recovering homeless, immigrants, and under resourced and academically struggling elementary and middle school kids and their parents,’’ a Junior League rep told The Post in an e-mail Sunday.

“She helped them prepare to enter or re-enter the workforce by developing their professional skills of resume writing, interviewing, and networking, and by making sound decisions in matters of personal finance,” the organization said.

A classmate at NYU described her as “reliable, dependable and fun.”

In a scorching editorial, NY Post columnist Bob McManus asked, “Whose subways are they, anyway?”

He was also clear in who is at fault here.

“Take a bow, Bill de Blasio — Michelle Go’s death is on you. You and your feckless ideologue of a social-services czar, Steven Banks, the man most responsible for the return of pre-Giuliani chaos to New York’s public spaces,” he wrote. “And take a deep breath, Eric Adams — those spaces are recoverable, but not without prompt and ruthless effort and a willingness to sail directly into New York’s prevailing political winds.”

McManus said the subways are “full of babbling lunatics” because de Blasio “aggressively rejected the tough-love approach to public-space management initiated by Rudy Giuliani and maintained by Mike Bloomberg. They kept the city’s subways and terminals and parks mostly clean and safe for two decades.”

“But if Adams is to do the same, he’ll have to confront — and defeat — a political culture that has normalized social decay and its attending violent disruptions,” he said, noting that the DA’s office has “surrendered the subways to the lawless.”

Here’s but a few responses to Adams’ remarks from Twitter:

Tom Tillison
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