New York Governor Kathy Hochul deploys National Guard to New York City subways with mixed reception.

 

Two National Guard members standing guard. BBC/AFP.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has controversially deployed the National Guard to the New York City subway system. BBC. The deployment is to deter the crime wave that is happening in the subway system, though the soldiers will monitor the entrances to the subway system. Crime has gone up in New York so far this year by 13% and there have been many high profile crimes on the subways in particular. Reception to the deployment has been mixed, with some supporting the deployment as an effort to deal with the crime problem. Others are concerned about civil rights violations or think that the deployment is a cynical attempt to bury the crime issue during an election year. 

My Comment:

I'm not a fan of this deployment for many reasons, but I will say that civil rights violations of people of color is not one of them. From the videos I have seen the checks are truly random and don't seem to be targeting anyone that would actually be likely to committ a crime. It's not a little old Asian woman that's going to push someone in front of a moving subway train. 

I also don't think that it will accomplish anything. The attacks that are happening inside the subway trains, not at the entrance to the subway. Checking random bags isn't going to stop a homeless person from attacking anyone. There isn't really anything that checking bags will do other than possibly detect weapons and drugs, and even then it's unlikely that those folks would be attacking anyone anyways. 

I'm also pretty uncomfortable with the military being used for police functions. There are a lot of reasons why this is a bad idea, but the most obvious is that the military is designed to kill the enemy, not enforce the law. Soldiers don't have the right mindset for this kind of mission. Though I think that the New York National Guard won't turn into jackbooted thugs just because they are being asked to check bags, it's still not something I am comfortable with. 

Also, what happens if a crime does happen in front of them? Do they have arrest power? Can they use lethal force? And if they do are they going to be prosecuted for it like they did to Daniel Penny? There are a lot of unanswered questions here and I don't know if anyone has the answers to them. 

But what really gets me is that none of those questions would be unanswered if the Governor had just sent police to do this instead of the National Guard. Though some were deployed as well, it could have been just police and then there wouldn't be any issue at all. Nobody would have objected except the far left anti-police faction. 

In order to do that though Hochul would have to admit that the right has a point about the function of police and the fact that nobody is actually being discriminated against. That's a political impossibility in today's environment. It's all just a joke and a political ploy.