More subway crime in New York City, man pushed in front of train miraculously survives,

 

The victim, in the brown jacket, moments before being pushed onto the tracks. New York Post.

In another example of a horrifying subway crime a man in New York City was pushed in front of a subway train but survived miraculously. New York Post. A 45 year old man was checking his phone when a young man in a hooded sweatshirt pushed him onto the tracks. The man somehow landed perfectly so he only suffered minor head wounds and is in stable condition. Two possible accomplices were seen hopping the turnstile before the attack and fleeing afterwards. The suspect was a 23 year old man who was arrested shortly after. His name is Kamal Hawkins and police have indicated that he has a lengthy criminal record, including a 2019 assault on a police officer an open case for assault and weapons possession and a third incident where he was granted bail despite officers requesting that he not receive bail. He has now been charged with 1st degree attempted murder. The incident is part of a series of horrific subway crimes, including the incident earlier in the month where a woman was set on fire by an illegal immigrant. 

🚨 #BREAKING: A man was just PUSHED in front of a NYC Subway train in an apparent “random attack”

The man is currently in critical condition, and witnesses can be heard shouting “he’s alive!” as the victim is pulled from underneath the train

Gov. Hochul, Biden, and the… pic.twitter.com/wYchyUMy1Y

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) December 31, 2024

My Comment:

Yet another horrible attack on the New York Subway. I honestly am surprised that folks still go on it the way things are going. This attack was for no apparent reason and it's a miracle that the victim in this case wasn't killed instantly. Supposedly he fell perfectly so that he was between the tracks and not directly in the path of the train. 

Of course it looks like this guy should not have even be on the street. It sounds like he was out without bail and wasn't held as a dangerous person despite a criminal record where he put a police officer in the hospital. Is it any wonder why he's still committing crime. In a sane world he would be in jail or prison.

It's unclear what the motive for this case is and we will probably never find out. Given the race of the attacker and the victim it could be a hate crime, but it could also be a simple case of a psychopath committing a random crime. Regardless, I think that this case will probably get buried pretty soon.  

I do think this is a good example of why situational awareness is such a good thing. I'm not blaming the victim but given how dangerous New York subways are, I can't imagine looking down at my phone while there were a group of sinister looking folks mingling behind me. I don't like looking at my phone while I fill my car with gas here in Wisconsin and it's incredibly safe here compared to New York City. Had he been keeping his eyes on the situation and had his back to a wall, he would have been fine. Not that he should have to but that's the world we live in apparently.  

Either way this is another example of the criminal justice system not working. Though the stats claim that crime is down in New York City this incident shows that's a lie. Many crimes are not reported and those that are are mostly not investigated to the point of an arrest. And often times when there is an arrest, the suspect is released without bail anyways. 

It leads to this situation. I don't know what the suspect motive was but I do think that he thought he could get away with it. He was wrong, the police still respond to crimes that end up going viral in the news, but if New York actually punished the criminals then perhaps this wouldn't have happened. 

This case also is a good example of how "broken windows" policing wasn't wrong. In that theory, police should focus on minor crimes to prevent major ones, like arresting hooligans that brake windows. In this case had the police been there and been able to arrest the accomplices for the turnstile jumping than perhaps this case would have never happened. Policing has moved far away from this theory and this appears to be the result...