{"id":4253,"date":"2022-03-05T23:30:07","date_gmt":"2022-03-06T04:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/?p=4253"},"modified":"2022-05-25T23:49:59","modified_gmt":"2022-05-26T03:49:59","slug":"with-mta-crime-up-students-forge-their-own-safety-tactics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/2022\/03\/with-mta-crime-up-students-forge-their-own-safety-tactics\/","title":{"rendered":"With MTA Crime Up, Students Forge Their Own Safety Tactics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Students entering and leaving 68th Street station.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last week, Feda Hammood was on the N train heading to her home in Brooklyn after class at Hunter. Upon reaching Herald Square Station, a disheveled man got up from his seat, pulled down his pants, squatted in front of her, and defecated on the train floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t look at him. I was scared,\u201d said the biology major. \u201cIf I didn\u2019t look away I was gonna be traumatized for life.\u201d Hammood fled the train car too quickly to be indecently exposed. But per her mother\u2019s advice, she\u2019s been carrying around a pocket-sized can of pepper spray since starting her freshman year, for moments like these when she feels threatened.<\/p>\n

Hammood wasn\u2019t physically hurt, but some riders are. According to the crime report of a January MTA committee meeting<\/a>, major felonies were up by 63% during December 2021. In it, the NYPD reports that last year, 200 people were hit by a train \u2014 30 of them pushed.<\/p>\n

One of these victims was Michelle Go, a 40-year-old Asian American woman pushed to her death in Times Square. Go\u2019s death and countless other attacks on the MTA have led many students at Hunter to be hyper-vigilant and take extra precautions to ensure their safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been staying behind the train columns,\u201d says Rachel Layvey, an urban studies major. \u201cI also make sure there\u2019s at least another woman by me. That\u2019s a thing for me. I\u2019m like, \u2018Where are the women at?\u2019 and I would stay by them.\u201d Hammood, who hates taking the N train now, and Layvey both agree it\u2019s a good idea to leave train carts only containing male riders.<\/p>\n

Tasnia Akhter feels she\u2019s now desensitized to male harassment. \u201cWe all get catcalled, don\u2019t we?\u201d The freshman admits she\u2019s unsure what to do to feel safe while riding the MTA. \u201cI just walk away but I\u2019ve heard sometimes if you ignore them, they\u2019ll chase you. Or like, that girl who was stabbed a few days ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s referring to the night of Feb. 10 in Washington Heights when a man stabbed a 19-year-old woman<\/a> in the arm. The incident occurred on the No. 1 train after she didn\u2019t respond to his question asking for the time. \u201cShe ignored him and got stabbed,\u201d Akhter said, \u201cI heard that you should start barking at them. I wanna try it. They just think you\u2019re crazy and walk away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Alexander Colotl at 68th Street station demonstrates how he stands next to train columns to avoid being pushed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One male student feels just as threatened when taking the train. Alexander Colotl, a computer science major, says he typically angles his foot against the pillars to protect himself from a shove to the tracks. \u201cI just always make sure I\u2019m aware of my surroundings, and that I don\u2019t have my headphones to keep me distracted. I just feel bad for other people who can\u2019t defend themselves because they\u2019re [small].\u201d<\/p>\n

The MTA recently announced<\/a> a plan to test platform screen doors in three stations: the No. 7 line in Times Square, the L line at the Third Avenue station, and the E line platform at the Sutphin Boulevard-Archer Avenue in Queens by the year 2024.<\/p>\n

The subway violence rampant in NYC is occurring during an increased wave of Asian-American hate crimes. In the same January MTA committee meeting, the NYPD reported that Asian-American hate crimes rose by 220% in the last year.<\/p>\n

Lizzie Chen, a 17-year-old high school student, referenced these statistics when talking about her commute. \u201cI just don\u2019t feel that safe anymore taking the subway,\u201d she says.\u201cI stay far away from the tracks. I would stay where the wall is and avoid big crowds,\u201d on the platform.<\/p>\n

Chen, a Chinese-American high school student, attends class at Hunter once a week by train for a College Now course. She recalls having a friend whose father got punched in the face, and another friend who got called \u201cching-chong\u201d while riding the train.<\/p>\n

But students like urban studies major, Layvey, admit they\u2019re unsure why Hunter hasn\u2019t spoken up about student safety on the MTA. \u201cWe literally have our own station!\u201d she says, \u201cSomeone [here] should say, \u2018Hey, we see that you guys may feel unsafe. Here are some practicals.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

This seemed to be a common theme amongst at least six students interviewed \u2014 why hasn\u2019t Hunter addressed the influx of crime? Eija Ayravainen, Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students said in an email that \u201cHunter College is a city commuter school and we have always encouraged our students and staff to be aware of their surroundings and follow the advice of the MTA and the NYPD.\u201d No resources or safety tips were provided when asked.<\/p>\n

In an email, the MTA said it doesn\u2019t \u201cprovide comment for school publications.\u201d<\/p>\n

But some students are willing to take matters into their own hands. When a reporter mentioned carrying a taser, both Akhter and Chen requested more information. The Home Security Superstore offers $14 stun guns<\/a>, sometimes selling \u201ccollege safety bundles\u201d for students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Increased assaults and track-pushing on the MTA have led students to find new ways to stay safe while commuting to Hunter by train.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":4254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,324],"tags":[429,134,475,476],"class_list":["post-4253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-student-life","tag-mta","tag-nyc","tag-school-safety","tag-transit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4253"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4509,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4253\/revisions\/4509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}