Another Subway Slashing As NYPD Top Cop Insists Subways Are Safe; Riders Scared

There’s been another slashing on a New York City subway, and terrified riders are calling for protection.

This, as Police Commissioner Bill Bratton insists the subways are safe.

As CBS2’s Alice Gainer reported, a 30-year-old man is recovering after being slashed with a knife while on a No. 3 train Monday around 12:40 p.m.

Police said a suspect in the case, 37-year-old Stephen Braithwaite, has been arrested and charged.

Police said the victim was standing with a friend on the Pennsylvania Avenue platform when he saw Braithwaite walking back and forth.

The victim told police Braithwaite asked him what he was looking at, challenged him to a fight, threw coffee at him and then slashed him on the chin with a pocket knife once they got on the 3 train.

“Every night I see a different slashing,” one woman said.

“It does concern me because I have to take it every day. So it’s kind of scary,” another woman said.

Riders griped that they’re not seeing police on trains, or many platforms.

“Any extra eyes in the subway is a good thing. I mean that’s what we want,” Bill Henderson, Director, MTA Riders Council said.

While it seems there has been an uptick in slashing incidents, particularly on the subway, Bratton downplayed the issue on a radio show Monday, Gainer reported.

“Last year in the month of January we had three slashing incidents that did not attract any media attention,” Bratton said on Gambling Radio. “What happens from time to time, a series of incidents occur that attracts significant media attention as well as certainly appropriate police attention and that’s what’s happening here.”

Monday’s attack makes seven subway slashings this year, Gainer reported. According to the NYPD, so far for this year, there have been 365 slashings and stabbings citywide. For the same time last year, there were 305 — a 19.67 percent increase.

The Guardian Angels have started patrolling the subways again as a result. But many wonder if that’s enough.

Bratton did say his department is looking into banning career criminals from the subways altogether, Schneider reported.

Read more at CBS NEW YORK.

{Matzav.com}