New York City has a brand. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul recently announced that she’d be deploying the National Guard to the subway system, where they’d be doing random bag checks. The bag checks apparently aren’t working, because there was just a shooting on the subway a day ago, when a man shot his attacker in the head with his own gun.
Breaking: The New York City man who disarmed & shot a black man with his own gun will not be charged for now, the Brooklyn DA said. On March 14, a violent altercation broke out on the subway. A darker-skin man beat another man before brandishing a gun. pic.twitter.com/rIeJcH22qE
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) March 15, 2024
The Atlantic thought this was a good time to tell us that New Yorkers really love the subway, especially the beloved Michael Jackson impersonators who light up everyone’s day.
wait what pic.twitter.com/a6zhPLxbea
— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) March 19, 2024
Qian Julie Wang writes for The Atlantic:
And the plan misapprehends what makes riders feel safe: not cops or soldiers, but fellow riders. Ask any New Yorker what they love about the subway—and what makes them feel safest down in those busy tunnels—and they will say the community of their fellow riders. The kindness of the brisk good Samaritans who stop just long enough to carry luggage up the stairs without a word; the infectious energy of dancers who bring showtime to cars and platforms across the city; the laughter exchanged after sharing a very New York moment of dodging a subway rat. Nowhere on this list is the presence of national militia and state law enforcement—no, that is a burden, not a perk; we ride the subway in spite of, not because of, such features.
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Ask any New Yorker … the community, the kindness, the laughter.
2/ “Heyyyy I’m ridin’ heah! I love da camoonity of my fellow ridahs! Fugheddaboutiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit”
— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) March 19, 2024
3/ I asked 20 of my fellow New Yorkers what they love most about the subway
-15 ignored me
-2 tazed me
-1 vomited on me
-2 replied with some variation of “fuck off”— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) March 19, 2024
4/ The kernel of truth here is that New Yorkers are more helpful, when people need help, than non-New-Yorkers give them credit for, but it’s still a weird paragraph
— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) March 19, 2024
“Ask any New Yorker what they love about the Subway—and what makes them feel safest down in those busy tunnels—and they will say ‘Get the fuck away from me, you fucking asshole’”
— Aelfred The Great (@aelfred_D) March 19, 2024
Nobody who likes showtime dancers should be allowed to write about the fucking subway.
— Daniel Friedman (@DanFriedman81) March 19, 2024
It’s a party underground!
The person who wrote this is undoubtedly the crazy lady everyone tries to sit far away from.
— Kate Hyde (@KateHydeNY) March 19, 2024
I love the “smell of piss” on the subway
— Pericles ‘Perry’ Abbasi (@ElectionLegal) March 19, 2024
The Atlantic must supply its typers with happy pills to help them manufacture this sort of article.
— Interesting Times (@FreeTheBee22) March 19, 2024
Ask ANY New Yorker
— Radish (@CollabsRadish) March 20, 2024
I, too, feel safer in a crowd when riding the subway knowing that my potential demise at the hands of a box cutter wielding vagrant will be immortalized on at least a dozen TikTok accounts.
— M (@drecktacular) March 19, 2024
A community where everyone tries not to make eye contact.
— Franklin Harris (@FranklinH3000) March 20, 2024
“The community of my fellow riders” is especially comforting when they all pull out their phones to record a random beating or stabbing.
— Batwing🦇🦇 (@Hexakitty666) March 20, 2024
Ahh, the feeling of community when I get on the train and immediately feel the need to scan around to identify who may be a threat to myself or others at some point in the trip.
— Alex (@Alex_Z_01) March 20, 2024
The infectious energy of people doing flips and swinging from the hand rails in an enclosed subway car within inches of you and you can’t get away
— Kyle Ferriter (@kyle_ferriter) March 20, 2024
I was late to a dinner last week because someone was stabbed in the adjacent car, but the presence of rats did NOT disappoint.
— Jim DeLois (@jim_delois) March 19, 2024
Literally every person riding the subway wishes they were somewhere else.
— Jay (@trent8111) March 20, 2024
No one has ever said this in the history of the subway.
— Ben “Fremenist” D’Alessio (@El__Ben) March 19, 2024
Uh pretty sure the fellow riders are the actual entire problem.
— ChrisCX (@ChrisCXFit) March 20, 2024
Did anyone ever see anyone laughing as they dodged a rat in the subway?
— Fred MacDowell (@onthemainline) March 20, 2024
It’s a bonding experience.
One of the worst places on planet earth that a human can find himself is the NYC subway. Very close to hell. Crowds, rats, machines, homeless, crooks.
— Magic Realism (@Dishlocation) March 19, 2024
The writer says she’s been taking the subway for three decades … probably just for the sense of community.
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