Reposted: "NYPD Said Foul Play Wasn't Suspected"

For those who think my estimate of "hundreds" of hidden homicides in the years since the nearly-successful attempt to blame Tanya Middleton for her own subway murder is too high—or who think the "bad old days" of subway crime are long past—I invite them to ponder the reported track deaths for the year 2012.

For a number of reasons the media's reporting of "death-by-train" incidents is sketchy. If the New York papers and other traditional media are told foul play is not suspected, they will ignore it, and, based on the following summary and my reading of scores of other reports, I am convinced that NYPD officials responsible for transit matters never officially suspect foul play in any unwitnessed track death. 

All the following links, with two exceptions, are from DNAinfo NewYork, a relatively new online news site which appears to have been the only media consistently reporting 2012 events. (See note.)  

January 2012: Man Killed by L Train "There was no indication of criminality, police said."

January 2012: Person Struck and Killed by Subway on A Train Tracks

January 2012: Man Struck and Killed by Subway on L Tracks "No information [about] how he ended up in the tunnel. [at 8am on a Saturday] ... "

February 2012: Man Killed by C Train "The accident, involving a C train ..."

February 2012: Man Struck and Killed by Train in Chelsea "The NYPD said foul play wasn't suspected ..."

February 2012: Man Struck and Killed on 6 Train Tracks at 5:49 am

March 2012: Man Struck by Subway at 72nd Street  at 2:40 am.

March 2012: Man Struck and Killed by Train at Carroll Street Station

March 2012: Man Struck by 6 Train at Bleeker Street

March 2012: Man Struck and Killed by 1 Train

March 2012: Man Killed After Being Hit by Train

March 2012: Person Struck by F Train 

April 2012: Man Killed by Train in Astoria  at 5:30 am    " ... appears to be a tragic accident, authorities said [since] No criminality was suspected." 

April 2012: Man Struck by Subway Train  at 8:00 am on Sunday  "Police said there was no criminality suspected in the incident."

April 2012: Woman Hit by D Train "Officials could not confirm ...whether any criminality was  suspected."

April 2012: Man Killed by 7 Train  at 3:15 am "It was not immediately clear ... if there was criminality."

May 2012: Man Struck by Train in Gowanus

May 2012: Man Struck and Killed by Train "Police do not suspect foul play in the incident."

May 2012: Body Discovered on Tracks

May 2012: Man Struck and Killed by Train

October 2012: Man Fatally Struck by Train   at 5:00 am "The NYPD does not suspect any criminality." 

November 2012: Person Struck and Killed by Train

December 2012: Body of Man Discovered 

December 2012:  Man Struck and Killed by Train at Wall Street Subway Station  "The NYPD does not suspect criminality ... "

My opinion: Perhaps 2012 was a very strange year. Maybe each of the twenty-four passengers killed actually fell off platforms, or decided to stroll into a tunnel, or went down to the tracks looking for a cell phone or otherwise behaved in an irresponsible manner leading to their death. And maybe all of them just happened to do those things at a time and a place when no other passengers were present.

That, of course, is not what I really think. I am convinced that, with very few possible exceptions, all of them were murdered by violent criminals—cowardly thugs who know that the subway, especially in off hours (or at any time in lightly-used stations) offers easy pickings. Lone victims are attacked, robbed of valuables and pushed to the tracks and, in some cases, even forced into tunnels. Firearms or knives are not needed—fists, kicks and blunt instruments being sufficient to render the victim helpless, dazed or even unconscious, on the tracks and unable to save himself from an approaching train.

More opinion: I think that the operators of subway trains that strike and kill a passenger are routinely pressured by MTA/NYPD personnel to sign quickly an official report saying the victim was observed by the operator behaving irresponsibly. I am also convinced that the favorite fiction in those documents is that the victim was "walking on the tracks."

Note added in June 2018: Unfortunately, DNAinfo.com is no longer published.


 © 2014, 2018 by James Graham