Well why should the mentally ill be able to decided not to take their meds and live on the street, but they can't decided that they don't want to live like that any more? Do they have autonomy or no? No one is rounding them up and killing them. |
I agree with you. I lived in Manhattan in the mid-1990s, and then again in 2001, and moved to another borough in 2002 and have been here since. I’m on that B’way/Lafayette platform pretty often with DC. I take the train frequently with young kids on field trips, but primarily ride alone, and so I’ve been sort of a part of every kind of subway audience. Since early 2021, at least, I cannot remember a single ride where I was not trapped either in a car or on a narrowed platform with a man experiencing florid illness and screaming and shrieking, or “enhanced” panhandling where those asking stop and stare down at seated people. It’s draining, it’s frightening, and it does get exhausting in a pretty deep way. As much or more to the point, I’m disgusted but not surprised that Neely’s recent victims (summer and fall 2021) were both women over 65. He punched each after racing towards them. Both merit, if ANY mention, a parenthetical in any story. It’s as if we’re supposed to accept that girls and women of a certain age, all and any of us, agree to be assailed or threatened when we take the train. But Ubers get expensive, DD gets motion sickness, the express bus is limited in route, and the regular bus is also limited (but far far safer, statistically and in perception). I do not support Adams and think had Neely been sat on and held if he was hitting that tipping point of seeming extra deranged, we wouldn’t know about this. But damn, anyone thinking that the other man took the train with intent to “murder” or wanted to kill as he approached him is in my view saying that just to say it, from a position of distance and thoughtless privilege. The cobbled together solution will involve involuntary long-term commitment. I actually have the appetite for that for everyone’s well-being. But the protestors who are just KEENING to feel something and shutting down service at lex and 63rd, screaming on the streets to “say his name,” can go straight to hell. |
One aspect of the case that is gnawing at me is progressives' utter denial that people on the streets or on subway cars, or wherever, who are in a manic state and behaving in a highly aggressive manner through direct interaction with bystanders are nothing more than a minor nuisance that should be shrugged off or accepted. The moderator's weblog about this threat said as much. I've seen articles, Tweets, etc., suggesting that white supremacy and racism fuel fear on the part of women of all races when we encounter mentally ill people in our spaces behaving erratically, screaming at us, throwing trash, following us down the street, or whatever else. Putting aside the debate about the level of force used to restrain the victim, we are being gaslighted into thinking that having a violently aggressive man hurling threats or abuse at us is a completely acceptable occurrence that only racists and Karens are frightened by. It should not stigmatize all unhoused people or people suffering from addiction to recognize that some people in those situations actually do pose a threat to others. |
As a woman, I would love to see women-only cars on subway/metro trains. Japan has them due to apparently widespread unwanted touching of female by male riders. I would also prefer not to have to share elevators, sparsely populated sidewalks or walking trails, office space outside of work hours, empty parking lots, and any number of other enclosed/isolated/empty public spaces that bring me into contact with unfamiliar men. Women need to be on alert at all times when in these spaces. It sucks, but it is our reality. |
Afghanistan has this. Woman only places, such as at home. Or at home. Or at home. No thank you. I'd rather have marines around to protect me than to have women-only public spaces. |
+1 |
Spot on. |
+2. I’m the OR who is on that specific platform frequently and I agree but I think the truth runs deeper and more cruelly. I truly think based on my social interactions with other purported progressives (I typically like Brad Lander types locally) that when white and Asian women are attacked or targeted, that the attacker, if of a different ancestry, is granted a weird, racist form of Grace where he “knew” then victim was a racist or a Karen - maybe she provoked him by “seeming scared,” or “making eye contact.” I think the victims of this kind of random violence are, to use the parlance, not only erased, but vilified to make people feel comfortable that hey, they won’t be attacked because their values are more evident. It’s a form of presumed precognition - a pert “progressive” idiot on p.5 referenced Minority Report in the way only a smug moron who has not experienced this can. There are presumptions being made here when someone is snared in someone else’s breakdown. We don’t talk about that though. Of course, the attacks on women in the city aren’t really random. It’s almost always a woman. It’s not an accident that Neelys noted assaults were on older women. We know it, and it should matter. |
Yeah, well, that's nice but you can't count on a male passenger with a military background magically being on your train car when you feel threatened by someone. Short of having security/police on every subway car or having women-only cars, there's nothing that's going to make women feel 100% safe when riding public transportation. Same goes for any public space where men can attack women. |
I think it's possible to feel keenly aware of safety issues and angry at people who make riders feel unsafe--while at the same time feeling unsettled that a human life was snuffed out. |
If our choices are taliban-level separation of the sexes or helpful marines on every train car, I'll take the marine. But those are not our choices. NY has increased the patrolling in their subway system and WMATA is trying to figure out how to do the same. As crime continues to escalate around the area, and as victims increasingly shoot back, even states such as TN and TX are starting to look at gun control reform. Changes are happening, at a trickle rather than a flood, but they're happening. |
I never wrote otherwise. I think charges may come his way, and that would be appropriate. That is not at the root of those aching to protest this in my view, as someone who has spent decades in this city. And as ever, the actual behavior and pattern of Neely don’t matter now that he’s been both elevated to and reduced to a symbol, instead of a mistreated but also violent (at minimum 2 charged attacks on women), unpredictable person. It’s all a horror. |
What population largely joins the armed forces? Mostly the places that NYC and DC condescendingly refer to as '"flyover country." Everyone loves to hate on brothers and rednecks until the country needs them. Even in this context you speak of the marine as only useful in securing your right to a co-ed space, as if that is a universal basic human right that he must be made expendable for. What would you sacrifice to make our public spaces safer? |
This is not at all what is being suggested and you, per the usual here, are overreacting with your statement for chock value. They are talking about women only train cars which any women that has been crammed into a subway car with men pressed up against them with nowhere to go would appreciate. Same reason we want separate dressing rooms and bathrooms. |
Why are you attacking me? I have family members in the armed forces including marines and I think they are great but really aren't the best solution to danger on subway trains. One solution but not the best. What would I sacrifice? Why do changes in law enforcement and prosecution require sacrifice? |