police-arrest-nypd
NEW YORK CITY (77WABC) – New York City has seen a spike in subway crime, including assaults on officers, NYPD Transit Chief Kathleen O’Reilly said on Thursday.
The NYPD registered 42 felony assaults in the subway in January, and 15 of the victims were police officers. O’Reilly said the figure represents three times the number of attacks on transit cops in January 2019.
Last week, subway riders in the city were crippled with fear after a 21 year old emotionally disturbed homeless man went on a stabbing spree, knifing four people, two of whom died, over a 14-hour period. The NYPD quickly arrested the man who was still wearing the same blood soaked clothes and carrying the large knife.
On Thursday, the NYPD became embroiled in another controversy after cell phone video showed officers arresting a man. Critics clamed the police were too heavy handed, but then the NYPD released the full story on their social media accounts explaining what led to the arrest of the suspect who has a violent criminal history including holding a knife to a person’s neck. See below:
(1/3) On Tuesday, 2/16 as police were escorting the suspect for smoking on the platform out of the transit system, the suspect attacked the officers on the stairs. The suspect ends up on top of one of the officers, assaults the officer, as the other officers fight back. pic.twitter.com/Mqeyy3ekzm
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) February 19, 2021
Patrick Lynch, the president of the Police Benevolent Association, the union for NYPD officers, claimed that the officers in the video had acted appropriately after being “spat on, attacked [and] thrown down a flight of stairs.” He added that one of the transit cops “nearly had his ear ripped off” and said the videos circulating on social media were misleading.
https://t.co/cjcwtWHCGC pic.twitter.com/tFnJznAh8K
— NYC PBA (@NYCPBA) February 18, 2021
