Playfull Youngsters Robbing Subway Riders

CBS News in New York has reported a crime spree conducted by a gang of young people on NYC subways. The gang, four males and one female, have held up subway riders on three separate occasions since August 15th. The youths have threatened their victims with box cutters and a gun.

To date, 10 victims have been robbed by the petulant youths, though no injuries have yet been reported. One subway rider expressed concern, saying, “It would seem there would be at least one officer or undercover on platform if it’s this large,” a Brooklyn resident opined when asked if he was surprised the gang was able to strike so easily during rush hour.

Another rider from Brooklyn expressed concern for the young scamps saying, “They look pretty young and it’s sad because they have such a great life ahead of them and there’s so much more they can be doing.” It’s safe to say that the great life they have ahead of the will include long periods of incarceration.

New York Police report that crime on the city’s subway system has gone up 17 percent this year. Despite the 4000 Transit Division police officers assigned to maintain order among the 5 million riders per day, this gang of armed teenagers have managed to elude police, though they have been photographed several times, including those photos seen above.

Possibly these youngsters may have not heard about another subway rider in New York City who took a dim view of a gang of young toughs attempting to relieve him of his possessions in 1984. On December 22 of that year, New Yorker Bernhard Goetz was accosted by a similar gang. Mr Goetz declined to hand over his money and instead unloaded an unregistered firearm into the gang, seriously wounding all four.

Of course, the New York City, then under the steady hand of Mayor Ed Koch, arrested Mr Goetz, outraged that he had the nerve to defend himself against the depredations of a gang of thugs. Goetz was charged with attempted murder, assault and reckless endangerment, as well as several firearms offenses. A jury of his peers, however, found Goetz not guilty of all charges except illegal possession of a firearm. Goetz spent 8 months of a one year jail term behind bars for his “crime.”

Is it possible that the gang of road agents now terrorizing the subway riders of New York have heard about the Goetz story and have learned a valuable lesson from that incident? Since the current Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, is a vociferous opponent of guns in the hands of private citizens, this gang of youths robbing subway passengers can act with relative certainty that no citizen of the city will actually have a weapon in his possession with which to defend himself. And if a subway rider did have a weapon, under Nanny Bloomberg’s administration, the subway rider would be in more jeopardy from the police than the criminal, as was Mr Goetz.

So this group of young footpads can continue to relieve New York subway riders of their money and property secure in the knowledge that most of their intended victims are probably more afraid of what Mayor Bloomberg will do to them than what the gang of hoodlums will do.

And crime in New York’s subways has only gone up 17 percent this year?