A Transit Police official once brazenly admitted (scroll down) to a reporter that
they did not routinely report the occurrence of serious crimes.
Recently, they seem to have implemented a complete news blackout
on violent deaths in the system; the routine reporting of
"accidents" by DNAinfo which was prevalent in 2012 and prior
years slowed in 2013 and ceased completely in 2014. Initially I
found this sudden adoption of a blackout puzzling. But having
learned recently that some surveillance cameras are now present in the system, the blackout makes sense.
Following the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center the MTA faced a new potential problem: a terrorist attack of the subway. An attack would be a much bigger problem than individual unwitnessed homicides committed by common thugs. And it could not be "managed" by news suppression.
These newly installed cameras create a problem for MTA officials. If they and the NYPD have, for many years, deliberately ignored the probability of track homicides, the new cameras would record, not lone passengers volunteering to descend to the tracks, but victims forced off platforms by thugs.
With cameras scanning likely crime scenes, journalists could ask to see the tapes and lawyers for victims families could request that courts order their release.
If I am wrong and the MTA is not effectively covering up homicides, one would expect them to have continued informing the media of track deaths and inviting journalists to look at the tapes showing that the deaths really were accidental.
But if I am right and the MTA/NYPD know that the deaths they've been blaming on the victims were most likely homicides, then imposition of a complete news blackout makes sense. If journalists do not know that someone has been killed they could not ask to see the tape.
Moreover, if surveillance cameras routinely record over earlier images, the evidence of a crime would soon be lost forever.
My conclusion: the reported decrease of annual unwitnessed track deaths from twenty-five in 2012 to zero in 2014 is the result of deliberate news suppression by the authorities.
Following the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center the MTA faced a new potential problem: a terrorist attack of the subway. An attack would be a much bigger problem than individual unwitnessed homicides committed by common thugs. And it could not be "managed" by news suppression.
These newly installed cameras create a problem for MTA officials. If they and the NYPD have, for many years, deliberately ignored the probability of track homicides, the new cameras would record, not lone passengers volunteering to descend to the tracks, but victims forced off platforms by thugs.
With cameras scanning likely crime scenes, journalists could ask to see the tapes and lawyers for victims families could request that courts order their release.
If I am wrong and the MTA is not effectively covering up homicides, one would expect them to have continued informing the media of track deaths and inviting journalists to look at the tapes showing that the deaths really were accidental.
But if I am right and the MTA/NYPD know that the deaths they've been blaming on the victims were most likely homicides, then imposition of a complete news blackout makes sense. If journalists do not know that someone has been killed they could not ask to see the tape.
Moreover, if surveillance cameras routinely record over earlier images, the evidence of a crime would soon be lost forever.
My conclusion: the reported decrease of annual unwitnessed track deaths from twenty-five in 2012 to zero in 2014 is the result of deliberate news suppression by the authorities.
