Subway Stabbing on the Lower East Side

A woman was stabbed 13 times as she waited for a J train at the Bowery stop on Saturday afternoon. The Queens woman, a home care attendant, was attacked from behind, as a man grabbed her purse then punching and stabbing her. She is hospitalized and her son was angry about the lack of police presence in that particular subway. That was something Gothamist wondered about: Even though police presence is ramped up in certain stations, there are simply so many of them, and ones that are traditionally quiet, like ones for the J/M/Z would seem to get lost in the shuffle. Something else that we'd heard has stuck: There's a hypothesis that subway crime is up because the criminals that would have jumped turnstiles (and been caught by police) are now simply paying the fare and getting on subways.

NYC Subway on the Bowery J station.

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By Jen Chung in News on July 25, 2005 8:36 AM

Comments [rss]

Hung Lo Dong

"...as a man grabbed her purse then punching and stabbing her"

It's nice to see that things haven't changed around here. How the hell do you leave the word "began" out of that sentence and not notice it?

Hi Jen!

dhex

sort of reminds me of the burroughs routine about queens plaza.

ochimama

This station gives me the heebie jeebies. Avoid it at all costs.

tom B.

/agree with matte. I take the J from Essex to Canal every morning to get uptown and the Bowery stop always looks very sketchy.

matte

This station is like the black void of the subway system. Some problems: It's usually very empty, and forget about any police presence; there's a wall between the uptown and downtown platforms, so other riders on the opposite platform can't even see you; there are large columns along the platforms so that riders on the same platform won't even see you if things go wrong. Basically that station is the perfect place to get ambushed. That's why late at night my friends and I walk the extra blocks to get on at Delancey / Essex instead.

Eh?

Any links for this turnstile-hopping hypothesis? Or is this the hypothesis of the author?

jen/arts

was just at the j bowery platform, still no cops!

asdf

a) Subway crime isn't really "up," it's still around it's lowest point even in the last 5 years.

b) The turnstile-jumping hypothesis holds no water: the new turnstiles were introduced in the 90s, and subway crime has gone down since then.