NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea on Friday fired back at andrew-cuomo” target=”_blank”>Gov. Andrew Cuomo<on Gerard Sykes, an off-duty MTA conductor, on a J train at Crescent Street on Wednesday night.
Two days earlier, Cuomo had pointed the finger at his political foe and Shea’s boss, Big Apple Mayor Bill de Blasio, for turning the subways into a rolling homeless shelter, claiming the situation was worse than even during the “dangerous” 1970s.
Cuomo also said this past week, “I’m not telling my child to ride the subway, because I’m afraid for my child.”
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TV-show host Rosanna Scotto brought up Cuomo’s concerns as she interviewed Shea.
“What happens when we listen to the governor, you know?” she said. “The governor’s saying he thinks it’s scary to ride the subway, he doesn’t think his children should ride the subway.”
The police commissioner shot back, “Well, you should do what I do — I stopped listening a long time ago.”
The assault on the off-duty conductor, Sykes, occurred around 11:20 p.m. Wednesday, cops said. The unidentified assailant was passing through train cars when he used an orange box cutter to stab Sykes in the left eye and ear and slash him in the forehead without warning, police said.
Sykes’ aunt pleaded with de Blasio on Thursday to bring more cops into the subway system.
“Mr. Mayor, I am saying to you: It is not safe for the transit worker or the public to ride the train, buses and everything. This is not fair,” Cassandra Sykes said.
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Despite the outcry, Shea insisted Friday that over
all subway crime is down by 45 percent compared to this time last year.
“What I could tell you is that one incident like that, you cannot downplay, it’s a horrific incident. But we’re right now down in those types of incidents from last year,” he said. “That’s a fact. So that’s a key part.”
While overall subway crime, including four of the seven most serious categories, is down, felony assaults have risen, statistics show.
This story first appeared in the New York Post.
