By most accounts, America has suffered through terrible spikes in crime in recent years. A notorious focal point is New York City’s subways. Statistically, subway crime is said to be lessening now, but violent crime remains stubbornly higher than before the Covid shutdowns, and it’s clear that many riders remain fearful. Lisa Fletcher has the fascinating history of people on New York’s subway system who took threats into their own hands.

The following is a transcript of a report from “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.”
Watch the video by clicking the link at the end of the page.

New York’s subway is the backbone of the city, essential to its daily flow.

With millions of riders, more than 600 miles of track, and nearly 500 stations, it stands as the largest and busiest subway system in North America.

MTA Announcement: “Stand clear of the closing doors, please.”

But after a recent wave of random attacks on riders, New York City residents are on edge.

On New Year’s Eve, the man in the blue hooded jacket shoved a passenger onto the tracks just moments before the train entered the station.

Prior to that, a subway car became a crime scene after a homeless woman sleeping inside of it was set on fire. An illegal immigrant is accused of igniting the blaze and “fanning the flames” before watching her burn to death from a bench on the station platform.

And countless slashings, stabbings, and shootings have plagued the city in numbers not seen in recent history.

NYC Subway Rider: “I’m afraid. I’m being honest. I’m really afraid.”

One thing these crimes have in common, aside from their horrifying nature, is that they occurred in the absence of police. Right now, New York City is operating with the smallest force since 1994.

In May last year, Marine veteran Daniel Penny was on the subway when a man, according to passengers, began threatening riders. Penny restrained him.

Daniel Penny: “I forget what stop it was at, but the guy came in, he’s like, whipped his jacket off. And he’s like, ‘I’m going to kill everybody. I’m gonna, I can go to prison forever, I don’t care.’ At that point, I looked at the person next to me, like, ‘Hey, just hang on to this phone for me.’ I had headphones on, just took them off, and just kind of, like, grabbed him from behind because he came in, just to like, because he was acting like a lunatic, like a crazy person.”

Jordan Neely, a homeless man with a history of mental illness and drug use, died. Penny faced charges of second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.

His trial showcased the city’s divide over what some called vigilantism.

In December, after a two-week trial, the jury found him “not guilty.”

Norah O’Donnel, CBS News, December 9, 2024: “In another major development, chaos erupted inside and outside a New York City courthouse today after a jury found Marine veteran Daniel Penny not guilty.”

Daniel Penny’s story is not the first time a man, accused of being a vigilante, took action when faced with danger on the subway.

ABC 7 NY Eyewitness News, December 24, 1984: “Good evening. It is Christmas Eve in New York, and the talk of the town is not peace on earth, but the violence among us—this time in the subways, where a vigilante and his gun brought terror this past weekend.”

Forty years before Daniel Penny, Bernhard Goetz was arrested after opening fire in a New York City subway on a group of young men he claimed were trying to rob him and beat him up.

He became known as the ‘subway vigilante.’

Bernhard Goetz: “If you think that was so terrible, I just wish anyone could’ve been there in my place.”

Goetz was charged with attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment, and several firearms offenses. He was found not guilty, except for one count of carrying an unlicensed firearm.

Retired NYPD officer Peter Panuccio was a rookie when Goetz shot the men on the subway.

Peter Panuccio: There was fear. No matter where you lived in the city, is my car gonna be broken into? Is my house gonna be burglarized? Am I gonna get mugged on the subway?

Forty years later, the sense of fear is back in New York City.

Peter Panuccio: Bernie Goetz was a hero. That’s how people viewed him. With Penny, he had overwhelming support of the rank and file New Yorker.

NYC Woman, April 1987: “If it was me and I had to defend myself I would have done the exact same thing. I think we’ve gotten to a point where it’s absolutely, it’s not safe to be here.”

But even before Penny and Goetz, there were the Guardian Angels.

In the late 1970s, crime and drugs were rampant in NYC. A group of volunteers took it on themselves to begin patrols. Curtis Sliwa is the founder.

Curtis Sliwa: When I started Guardian Angels in 1979 in the Bronx, it was the era of gangs. A gang would come in, they put a sawed-off shotgun to your knee. They’d tell everybody, hold up. They stole everything. They were like locusts through a cornfield. That was organized. Very rarely would you run across an emotionally disturbed person. Now there’s nothing organized. The most frightening place for a person in New York City to be is on a moving subway train when the doors are closed and all of a sudden somebody’s acting up and you realize this could be, this could lead to your demise. You say to yourself, “What am I gonna do?”

On the night train bound for Manhattan, Sliwa reflected on the decades of danger that he and his team of Guardian Angels see every night – different threats, same outcome.

Curtis Sliwa: There were 2,000 murders a year, 10,000 unsolved shootings back in 1990. So that gives you a 30-year period. Yeah. There’s nowhere near that many shootings or that many murders. It’s just now you have these random violent attacks, unexpected by emotionally disturbed persons that people are frightened of.

Forty years and three salient examples of what some call vigilantism, with little seemingly changed on New York’s subways.

Curtis Sliwa: During the time we left Coney Island, the Guardian Angels look out at every stop. We haven’t seen one cop. So it just goes to show you the moment you get in the subway train, people know they’re on their own.

For Full Measure, I’m Lisa Fletcher in New York.

Watch video here.