Disturbing video footage of a fight between a man and a woman on a New York City subway train surfaced online Thursday.
The video, initially shared by a Twitter user whose account has since been locked, showed a man roughly pushing a woman into a seat on the Bronx 6 train.
He then pulled her onto the floor as she continued to hit and kick him, then turned and walked away. A few seconds later, she got up and kept fighting with him.
“No, step out man, step out,” a passenger told the man as the train came to a halt. He then reached up and grabbed the woman by the hair and dragged her out the open door onto the concrete platform.
Moments later, he kicked her in the stomach as she curled up on the ground.
Throughout the incident, no one on the train tried to stop the fight between the two adults, according to the New York Post.
Thursday evening, the Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA) retweeted the video and criticized Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) for her aversion to hiring more Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) officers to patrol the subways:
“Desperately needed resources would be better invested in subway, bus, maintenance, and service improvements, as well as protecting riders and transit workers from assault rather than in the over-policing of our communities,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a December 17 letter to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D).
However, the New York Police Department (NYPD) said it saw a recent increase in crime, CBS New York reported in November.
“According to NYPD numbers, there were 1,185 transit misdemeanor assaults citywide from Jan. 1 until Nov. 17. In 2018, for the same period, there were 1,069. That’s a 10.9% increase for the same time frame.”
Even though some New Yorkers said they felt fairly safe riding the subway, others said they did not.
“It just feels there’s a vibe down there that’s not as nice as it used to be,” subway rider Michael Towers commented, adding, “And I came here in the ’70s and I remember when it was really bad and I think it’s trending towards that now.”
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