Tag: subways

Los Angeles under fire for blaring music in train stations to deter homeless

A US city has come under fire over a controversial plan to deter homeless people that has been described as “psychological torture”.

In recent months, Los Angeles has been blasting loud classical music in train stations in a bid to reduce crime and prevent homeless people from loitering.

It comes after a recent spike in fatal overdoses and serious crime such as rape, aggravated assault and robbery within the city’s public transport system.

According to the LA Times, a city pilot program has seen blinding floodlights deployed in the Westlake/MacArthur Park station, along with music from a royalty-free playlist by legendary composers such as Beethoven, Mozart and Vivaldi in a continuous loop.

But while LA Metro spokesman Dave Sotero told the publication “the music is not loud”, insisting it was being played at 72 decibels – less than normal noise levels outside the station – an experiment by the Times contradicted the claim, with a handheld meter revealing the sound levels actually averaged 83dB and peaked at 90dB in some areas.

According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), decibel levels between 80 and 85 are comparable to lawnmowers and leaf blowers, with hearing damage possible after just two hours of exposure.

As a result, the publication argued: “There is a clear disconnect between what transit riders and the unhoused are experiencing in the subterranean confines of the station and LA Metro’s official line about the music’s volume.”


Los Angeles is just the latest in a string of global cities to spark backlash as a result of anti-homelessness measures.
Shutterstock

LA Metro also recently told the LA Daily News the noise levels were “comfortable” for short periods of time.

“The idea is to create an atmosphere that is comfortable for spending short amounts of time transiting through our station, but not conducive to hours-long loitering,” a spokesperson said.

But the move has spared fierce backlash, with online commentators branding it an inhumane torture tactic.

“This is despicable. Sonic torture of people without homes in LA,” civil rights lawyer Scott Hechinger tweeted.

Another Twitter user called for LA Metro to “stop the psychological torture”, while another compared it to psychological horror flick A Clockwork Orange.

And other critics pointed out it did little to address the root cause of the homelessness problem.

Music has long been used as a weapon, with the US military infamously blasting Metallica’s Enter Sandman at Iraqi detainees in Guantanamo Bay, while “music torture” was used to force strongman Manuel Noriega out of hiding at the Vatican’s embassy in Panama City in 1989.

Los Angeles is just the latest in a string of global cities to spark backlash as a result of anti-homelessness measures.

In recent years, UK cities including London and Manchester were widely criticised for installing “defensive architecture” in the form of metal spikes which were placed on the ground in areas where people were known to sleep rough.

Pavement sprinklers have also been positioned over the years in New York, Hamburg and Guangzhou, with the intention of spraying homeless people who linger too long.

There are also countless examples right across the world of bus shelter benches that tilt forward, park benches with uncomfortable dividers and cement bollards positioned under bridges in an attempt to drive away those sleeping rough.

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MTA unveils new NYC subway cars for A/C line riders

Bet this beats the subway car you rode to work.

The top Metropolitan Transportation Authority brass on Friday showed off some gleaming new, high-tech subway cars they hope to roll into service before the end of the year.

So far, the MTA has ordered nearly 1,200 new R211 subway cars — worth an estimated $3.2 billion — that will feature wider doors for speedier boarding, digital displays with more information, more room for handicapped passengers and security cameras in every car for improved security.

The MTA says A/C line straphangers will get the first crack at the shiny new rides, as well as a look at what the MTA hopes is the future: Subway cars linked together by an open passageway, allowing riders to easily move around and find seats during the rush hours.

The MTA has ordered just two of these open-gangway trains as part of a pilot program so far, but Chairman Janno Lieber and his chief of New York City Transit, Richard Davey, played up the advantages when they invited reporters out for a demonstration Friday.

The MTA unveiled new subway cars it hopes to roll into service before the end of the year.
Paul Martinka
The MTA says A/C line straphangers will get the first crack at the shiny new rides.
Paul Martinka


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There will be security cameras on all the new subway cars.
Paul Martinka


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“We have to test these, we have to try them out and see how they work, see if they fit into the New York environment — there’s a lot of complexity,” Lieber told reporters on the new train car. “But it’s always a milestone when you see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

“We wouldn’t have the press on if we weren’t satisfied” with the trains, Davey added. “So far, so good.”

The two open-gangway trains and their traditional closed-car brethren will allow the MTA to finally replace the problem-plagued R46 trains, which date back to the presidencies of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.

The open-gangway trains link together the first five cars and the last five cars of the train, allowing passengers to more easily move between the front half or back half, a setup that is common on major European subways like London and Paris.

The new cars will be compatible with the MTA’s new computerized signaling system that currently powers both the 7 and L trains and can dispatch trains as frequently as every two minutes, allowing officials to dramatically boost capacity.


New connecting cars of the new subway trains.
Each car will be connected with open compartments, allowing for easy transfer.
Paul Martinka

The agency is currently spending hundreds of millions to bring the system to the 8th Avenue and Fulton Street subways to improve the speed and reliability of the A and C trains.

It give transit agencies more space inside for seats and standing room and it allows passengers to quickly move to emptier parts of the train if they choose.

Some New Yorkers mocked the MTA’s apparent embrace of the design on Twitter after the rollout, complaining that foul smells could now pollute several cars instead of one.

Officials said late Friday that if the open gangway pilot is successful, they could convert an option they currently hold with Kawasaki for another 437 R211 cars to the configuration — enough for roughly more 40 trains.

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2-year-old boy, mother pepper-sprayed on NYC subway platform

An innocent 2-year-old boy and his mother were hospitalized Wednesday after they were pepper-sprayed on a Bronx subway platform, police said.

The baby and his 30-year-old mom were struck by the pepper spray inside the 149th Street-Grand Concourse station by a man who was aiming the chemical at two women he was fighting with, according to cops.

The 2-year-old child and his 30-year-old mother were not the intended targets, police said.
Stephen Yang

The man and two women had been arguing on the northbound 2-4-5 train platform when he whipped out the potent spray.

After missing his intended targets, and instead hitting the boy and his mother, the man fled on a train, police said. The two women also ran off.

The mother and son were rushed to Lincoln Hospital in stable condition.

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Baby-faced suspect stabs, bites teen in NYC subway melee over vaping: cops

The city’s latest subway crimes include a teenager being bitten and stabbed by a baby-faced suspect when the victim confronted a group of people vaping on a Brooklyn platform, cops say.

Two days earlier, a trio of creeps also mugged a 21-year-old man of his cell phone as he waited for an F train in Queens, authorities said. 

The bitten 19-year-old victim had been waiting for a C train at Pennsylvania Avenue in East New York around 2:45 p.m. Wednesday when he clashed with six people who were vaping nearby, authorities said. 

The young-looking suspect, shown in surveillance images released by the NYPD on Sunday night, then knifed the victim in the torso and bit him on the forearm, cops said. 

A surveillance photo shows the baby-faced suspect in the attack on a 19-year-old victim inside the Pennsylvania Avenue station.
NYPD

The victim was taken to Interfaith Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition. 

Photos show the assailant wearing a black jacket over a red hoodie and black pants. 

Last month, three creeps mugged a man of his phone in Queens, authorities said. 

Video shows a trio mugging a 21-year-old man as he waited for an F train at Parsons Boulevard.
DCPI

That victim was standing on the platform at the Parsons Boulevard station in Jamaica Hills around 8 a.m. Nov. 21 when the group surrounded him, punched him in the face and grabbed his phone, video released by the NYPD shows. 

The victim refused medical attention, cops said. 

Police are still looking to track down the suspects. 

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Watch man ‘having the time of his life’ smoking crack on subway

This straphanger is going off the rails.

A man caught on video smoking what appears to be crack on a city subway train has social media abuzz and New Yorkers fired up.

“Oh man!” shouts the wired, bug-eyed passenger after lighting up and sucking on a glass pipe.

“Check him out, y’all. He having the time of his life!” observes the video-taker in the 23-second clip shot aboard an uptown 4 train last month.

The pepped-up passenger — wearing a blue surgical mask around his forehead — then spins around, stands against the subway doors and shouts, “Ayo, damn man!”

A peeved passenger with a buzzcut stares straight ahead during the floor show while others put some distance between themselves and the apparent crackhead.

“That shouldn’t be happening on the train. It’s just crazy,” said Mine Bah, a 23-year-old rapper and Bronx Community College student who posted the October video to his Instagram Malcolmx_2 last month. The Brooklyn man told The Post a pal recorded the incident and he posted it from the phone. The post has over 38,000 likes.

Zonked out subway straphanger caught smoking crack and having “the time of his life,” as shared to instagram.
malcolmx___2/Instagram

Joked lady__d88: “My guy [buzzcut man] just sitting next to him breathing it in too trying to catch a hit 😭😭😭.”

“This was non-existent before the 2020 lockdowns. Now it happens daily,” replied Ministry of Otaku.

Activist Jason Curtis Anderson tweeted the video on Thursday, snarking, “Is smoking crack on the subway even a crime anymore?”



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Disturbing video captures NYC subway passengers brawling

Disturbing video has emerged of two subway passengers punching and kicking each other — as other straphangers watch the brawl from a distance.

“Just another day in New York City!” Twitter account NY Actions captioned the violent footage, which has received almost 20,000 views.

“Apparently the guy’s bike knocked into the black guy, black guy told him to apologize, he didn’t, fight started,” the breaking news account added.

The roughly minute-long clip, which was originally posted Sept. 11, begins mid-fight with the barefoot biker — a man wearing a plaid shirt and green shorts — shoving his left thumb into the mouth of a man wearing what appears to be the uniform of water delivery company ReadyRefresh.

The biker gains the upper hand at first as he lands multiple blows, but the other combatant then pounds him with punches to the head as he crumples onto the seat and then with kicks to the back and side.

After more than 30 seconds, with the biker seemingly defenseless and covering his head, someone is heard saying, “Enough, enough.”

Finally, the fight comes to an end at the 40-second mark.

The biker gains the upper hand at first as he lands multiple blows.
Twitter/@NY_ACTIONS
The deliveryman then pounds the biker with punches to the head.
Twitter/@NY_ACTIONS
The biker crumples onto one the the subway benches.
Twitter/@NY_ACTIONS

The video gained traction online Monday when it was reposted by the Twitter account @RibleBlockMedia, where several users commented on the incident.

“Why is it always no one coming to a black man’s defense when he doesn’t have the upper hand but once them tables turn it’s that’s enough…. No it’s not enough,” one wrote, referring to the man in the delivery uniform.

“Started off with the fish hook, extremely bold strat,” another user said, referring to the thumb-in-mouth move by the biker.

The fight reportedly started when the guy’s bike knocked into the deliveryman.
Twitter/@NY_ACTIONS
The biker allegedly refused to apologize to the deliveryman.
Twitter/@NY_ACTIONS
After more than 30 seconds, someone is heard saying, “Enough, enough.”
Twitter/@NY_ACTIONS

The identities of the two men were unavailable.

The Post has reached out to ReadyRefresh for comment.

The NYPD did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the incident.

The alarming video emerged soon after Gov. Kathy Hochul pivoted her election campaign message to focus on crime, announcing a new subway safety plan with Mayor Eric Adams and releasing a commercial in which she said New Yorkers “deserve to feel safe.”

On Tuesday night, Hochul won a full term despite a surprisingly strong race run by longshot Republican challenger Lee Zeldin — who refused to concede the election.



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Ex-NYC Transit chief Sarah Feinberg assaulted near subway stop

Former NYC Transit president Sarah Feinberg was randomly assaulted near a subway stop in Chelsea, The Post has learned.

Feinberg, who appealed for more cops assigned to the subways last year amid a crime surge, was sucker-punched at the corner of West 21st Street and 6th Avenue, near the F train at 23rd Street at 1:15 p.m. Oct. 20.

The attacker was walking the wrong way in a bike lane and suddenly turned around and punched Feinberg in the face, a source familiar with the case said.

The motive was unclear, though there’s a pattern of thugs participating in a sick “knockout game” by attempting to viciously render an unsuspecting innocent victim unconscious with a single blow.

Feinberg called 911 and when cops didn’t immediately respond, she walked to the local precinct and filed a criminal complaint, a source said.

The NYPD has a videotape of the incident and is investigating, the source said.

Her face was swollen but she did not seek medical attention.

“Obviously I’m grateful the assault was not more serious but I don’t think there’s any question there’s just far, far too much of these kinds of attacks, and much more serious ones, happening,” Feinberg told The Post on Friday.

Feinberg was sucker-punched at the corner of West 21st Street and 6th Avenue.
Google Maps

The NYPD confirmed the alleged assault.

Its report said Feinberg, 45, was waiting for the light at West 21st and Sixth when a male, believed to be in his 40s, punched her with a closed fist in the nose and forehead area, unprovoked, causing pain.

The attacker was described as about 5 feet 8 inches and about 150 pounds, the report.

While MTA NYC Transit president last year, Feinberg publicly sparred with then-Mayor Bill de Blasio, demanding that he increase police patrols in the subway system to stem a spate of violence on the rails.

Crime has emerged as a top issue in the race for governor pitting incumbent Democrat Kathy Hochul against Republican rival Long Island Rep. Lee Zeldin.

Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams announced a plan last week to boost police patrols in the subways to stem the violence, with the state footing the bill for overtime.

Zeldin has hammered Hochul over crime on the rails and for other controversial criminal justice reforms, including the cashless bail law. He was endorsed Friday by the 3,900-member Subway Supervisors Association.

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64-year-old NYC man savagely beaten with rock in subway attack

A 64-year-old man was beaten with a rock in a brutal attack on a Brooklyn subway platform this weekend, cops said.

Intazar Dar was on his way home from work when he was randomly attacked at the Avenue H station in Midwood just before 1 a.m. on Saturday, according to police.

Dar told ABC’s Eyewitness News he works as a security guard in lower Manhattan and first noticed his alleged attacker mumbling loudly and pacing onboard the Q train.

When the train pulled into the Avenue H station, the victim said the shirtless suspect got off and started arguing with him.

The suspect then jumped onto the tracks, grabbed a rock, and pulled himself back onto the platform.

Surveillance footage released by cops showed the unidentified suspect shoving Dar on the platform as the victim tried to approach the turnstiles.

The suspect then allegedly bashed Dar in the head repeatedly with the rock, causing him to lose consciousness, according to police.

His alleged attacker was caught on video fleeing the station and cops said they are still trying to track him down.

“This is the first time it’s happened in my life in New York City, but now I’m scared,” Dar told the outlet.

“It’s been two years since I’ve been doing my job — I don’t have any problem with this place … now I see a lot of homeless people – they make me scared.”

Dar was taken to Maimonides Medical Center where he was treated for head trauma and later released.

After the horrifying experience, the victim is now fearful of the New York streets.
Crime Stoppers New York

The victim said he still suffers from swelling to his head and will likely have to take at least a week off work to recover.

Police described his alleged attacker as a male in his 30s, approximately 5 feet 9 inches tall, and weighing about 170 lbs with brown eyes and black hair.

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Teenager stabbed in back on NYC subway platform: cops

A teenager was stabbed in the back after a dispute in a Lower Manhattan subway station Sunday morning, cops said.

The 18-year-old and a group of friends she was with were fighting with another group on the L Train around 5 a.m., police said. 

The teen tried to get away when the fight spilled onto the platform in the station at Sixth Avenue and West 14th Street in Chelsea, police said.

The younger woman was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition.
Seth Gottfried
A teenager was stabbed in the back after a dispute in a Lower Manhattan subway station.
Seth Gottfried

“She was running away from the altercation and was stabbed in the back with an unknown object,” a police spokesman said.

The stabber, who was described by police as being in her 20s, fled the scene. 

The younger woman was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition.

Stabbings have been on the rise in the Big Apple this summer, The Post has reported.

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