GUN TROUBLE DOUBLES
Subway weapons busts up
Cops this year have seized 113% more guns in subway busts, troubling data obtained by The Post revealed.
Police recovered 17 guns from people arrested on the city’s rails through March 3, more than double the eight confiscated during the same period in 2023.
The 299 blades and other sharp weapons grabbed from crooks on city transportation represents a 50% increase from the 199 seized during the same period in 2023.
Overall, cops have seized 53% more weapons — including guns and “cutting instruments” — from people arrested in the subway system, confiscating 316 compared to 207 during the same period in 2023, according to NYPD data.
Pre-pandemic, in 2019, just 126 weapons were taken from perps during this period.
“The odds of confiscating a gun is high because criminals are more emboldened than ever to carry a firearm because they know there are no consequences,” said Paul DiGiacomo, president of the NYPD detectives union, blaming the city’s broken criminal justice system.
“The real question is when are state legislators, district attorneys, and the City Council going to recognize and fix the crisis they created,” he said.
Many weapons seizures this year have come during fare-beating stops, one veteran cop said.
“They don’t do enough stopping on the trains with stop and frisk,” the cop said. “They get the knives and guns because of turnstile jumping.”
The shocking stats come as Gov. Hochul last week deployed 750 National Guard members along with 250 state and MTA police to check riders’ bags at busy stations, citing the gruesome, near-fatal slashing of subway conductor Alton Scott, 59, and an assault on a 64-year-old postal worker.
Mayor Adams also announced a push to permanently increase the number of cops on subway platforms to combat crime underground, which is up 13% so far this year compared to the same period in 2023, per police data.
The dual plans to add patrols to the subways is a good start, said subway rider Brian Jacotin, 31.
“If they are going to do this, it has to be long-term. It can’t be until crime goes down then they disperse,” he said.
“A lot of people are wilding,” he added. “If I make it home, it’s by the grace of God.”
The subway violence this year has included three fatal shootings, between Jan. 14 and Feb. 23.
An NYPD spokesperson blamed the surge in weapons on the subway system on a lax criminal justice system failing to properly punish criminals for “repeated criminal conduct, however minor in the eyes of some.”