On December 22, 2024, a woman in the F train was set on fire while she was asleep. Her name was Debrina Kawan, a 57 year old homeless woman. The man that set her on fire sat across from Debrina and watched her life come to an end. The man’s name is Sebastian Zapeta-Calil and he claimed that he was drunk when he killed Debrina and watched her die. For his trial he pleaded not guilty to the charges.
New York City’s security system in subways is shown to be weak. Even though a woman is being killed in a public setting, there aren’t any police to save her from this horrific event. Why wasn’t there an officer in the subway? What will happen in the future when many more reckless people will come on a subway and endanger people’s lives? New York City has shown that a person has to get hurt to take action for safety. Eyewitness News reported that as of the year 2024, the felony rate has gone up about 51.6 percent and the homicide rate has gone up a whopping 233.3 percent! Understandably, New York City has to step up its game in security and safety.
Subways are extremely unsafe and considering that 3.6 million people use public transport, there has to be stricter protocols for subway safety. Mayor Adams had proposed a plan to make subways safer and suitable for travelers. Yet the protocol for this did not show much improvement except increase security and make the homeless seek different shelter. Though the increase in security does benefit individuals, it also hasn’t been shown to improve much since the homicide rate has increased drastically. Additionally, subway surfing has become excessively popular and according to The New York Times, Six people have died from subway surfing in 2024, Five individuals died in 2023 and that follows the five who died from the years 2018 through 2022. Incidents will keep occurring and nothing will stop unless a solution is thought of.There should be single-minded police officers on trains that prioritize their duty and plenty more secure entrance to subways. It is unknown who someone is when they enter the subway and if they impose danger on an individual. Someone may not seem dangerous and behave normally at first but they can have an aim and mindset of danger for society. Though the MTA has conducted bag checks to anybody that seems to be participating in any suspicious activity, nevertheless, this doesn’t always stop others who weren’t checked and look normal.
Even when officers are “securing” subways, they are paying attention to their phones and staying inattentive. Since subways are a 24/7 365 days a year system, the attention they receive for care is minimal. Kathy Hocal had made a plan to install 15,000 cameras in the subways to increase safety. This has helped tremendously yet looking at the recent updates of the subways, that is going downhill with the recent homicides and subway surfing. Through all of the effects of these subway-updating plans, it’s reasonable to say that we still lack plenty of safety precautions in our city.
