Surveillance Camera in Subway Car Records an Assault

In Chicago.

Not in New York.

Never in New York.

The New York Daily News reports these not-in-New-York surveillance camera stories but their editors never complain about the lack of cameras in the world's largest mass transit system.

Attack on a Subway Platform Recorded on Surveillance Video!

In Philadelphia.

Never in New York.

Possible reasons:

Either ...

1. New York's MTA and the NYPD run the most crime-free mass transit system in the world.

 ... OR ...

2. New York's MTA with the eager assistance of the NYPD operate the Western world's*  most successful suppression of "unpleasant" news.

*North Korea may be more suppressive.

See it: Mob of teenagers beats two high school students in Philadelphia subway station.

Does New York have a single video surveillance camera pointed at subway platforms?

Moscow, Philadelphia and Washington DC have Surveillance Cameras

New York subway riders are just as decent and as brave as the DC passengers who rescued a man who accidentally drove his motorized wheelchair off the platform and down to the dangerous Metro tracks.

But New York City's MTA managers, unlike the people in charge of the DC Metro, has made sure there are no cameras in place recording activity 24/7 on platforms. In my opinion they would not like those cameras because they would also record attacks by criminals on passengers. Without the cameras the MTA can continue to blame the victims of track homicides.

Here's a surveillance photo of the man tumbling onto the tracks. Note that the photo is copyrighted by the Washington Area Metro Transit Authority.

Here's a link where you can watch the surveillance video of the rescue.

When will the MTA catch up with other cities?

When will New York's media even notice how dismally their city's subway compares to other cities in the matter of surveillance?








 

Philadelphia Subway Has What The MTA Does Not

Once again news is made in a subway system equipped with surveillance cameras pointing at platforms.

Not a crime this time but a rescue of a passenger who fell to the tracks.

Have the wonderful people who run the New York system's MTA ever released surveillance tapes of any newsworthy event?

Does anyone holding an important position in any of New York's vaunted media care that his city's transit system continues to lag behind all others?

Are camera's lacking in New York's system because the MTA and the NYPD do not want tapes released of unwitnessed fatal "accidents" that were really homicides?

Philadelphia Subway Crime Video

Not only does the management of the Moscow subway release videos of crimes occurring in their system so do the people in charge of Philadelphia's system.

But New York's MTA is unrelenting in its utter contempt for the safety of passengers.

Cameras would make life difficult for two classes of people that MTA management obviously considers more important than fare-paying passengers: its own lawyers and violence-prone criminals.

The New York system has lots of cameras pointing at turnstiles where petty criminals might cheat the MTA out of petty sums if they avoid paying fares. 

But when it comes to protecting passengers from violent criminals the MTA and the NYPD show by their actions what they consider important ... and what they do not.

  

Subway Serial Killers?

Two women were killed on New York subway trains. Tanya Middleton in 1982 and Lorraine O'Garro in March 2015. Here are some facts about these deaths.

Tanya Middleton

Date: June 12, 1982
Time of Day: 10:15 AM
Train: Northbound IRT Pelham Bay
Traveling in The Bronx
Nearest Station: Hunts Point
Initial Classification by Police: Accident, "Walking Between Cars" (See Below)

Lorraine O'Garro

Date: March 23, 2015
Time of Day: 10:30 AM
Train: Southbound #1
Traveling from The Bronx
Nearest Station: 207th Street
Classification by Police: Accident, "Walking Between Cars"


As noted by a commenter at DNAinfo "The news this morning said she was walking between the cars and fell. I thought the doors between cars were now locked. Even so, I don't know how you can fall between the cars. I've walked through cars many times and a good thing for the world, I'm still around ... "

Having done it dozens of times myself , I agree. There are safety chains that prevent accidental deaths. 


The reclassification of Tanya Middleton's Death as Homicide 

Woman Killed by 1 Train Remembered as Joyful Mother

As reported in DNAinfo:

A preliminary investigation revealed that she might have fallen onto the tracks while walking in between subway cars and losing her footing, according to the NYPD.

I suspect "preliminary investigation" really means "no investigation."

O'Garro Family

Regular riders of the subway know how difficult it would be for a person walking between cars to fall to the tracks accidentally.

Readers of this blog know that killers had to lift the safety chains in order to throw women to their deaths.

I note that there is no mention of the safety chains in this report.

Let's review what could happen if the MTA and the NYPD did not automatically rule out the possibility of homicide.

Woman Fatally Struck by 1 Train, Officials Say

The following is a quote from  http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/

By Aidan Gardiner on March 23, 2015 12:41pm 

@aidangardiner

 

DNAinfo/Michael Ip

 

 

She was killed inside the 207th Street subway station in Inwood, police said.

MANHATTAN — A woman was fatally struck by a southbound 1 train in Inwood Monday morning, officials said.

The woman, whose age was not immediately released, was on the tracks when the train struck her in the 207th Street subway station near 10th Avenue about 10:30 a.m., MTA and NYPD officials said.

She was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said.

NYPD officials said they were still trying to figure out how she came to be on the tracks.

 http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20150323/inwood/woman-fatally-struck-by-1-train-officials-say

Here, is my comment to this sad report as it appears on DNAinfo:

          RIP.

I await the MTA's release of the tape from the forward-looking cam installed in all subway train operators' booths.

You know, the ones that record these "walking on the tracks" people, the tapes used by MTA lawyers to prove the "accident" was the fault of the victim. The tapes routinely released to New York media and readily available for public viewing.

Oh wait!

I forgot.

There are no such cameras.

Gee, I wonder why.

 Welcome to all the new visitors to this site!

 © 2015 by James Graham

Subway Shootings: New York and Moscow

A recent fatal shooting at a New York City subway station was videoed and reported by the local CBS television channel.

But as explained in The New York Times, the video broadcast by CBS was not from an MTA surveillance camera.

It was recorded by a passenger on his mobile phone. 

Compare that to a shooting in a Moscow subway station.  

As can be viewed here security cameras—not a passenger's mobile phone—recorded an event very similar to the New York incident, a fight that ended with gunfire. 

Not only does Moscow have what New York does not—security cameras in stations that record crimes—but as reported by the Daily Mail Moscow even has security cameras inside subway cars. 

In one incident those cameras recorded an attack in which the victim was shot. Russian media published videos which clearly show the faces of the attackers. 

These Daily Mail photos are from the video:

So which subway system is run with greater concern for the lives of its passengers? 

To be sure, if a passenger is shot in the New York subway the police will react professionally. But this site is about track homicides, unwitnessed killings that are automatically blamed on the victim by a police force that is committed, when such events occur, not to law enforcement or arresting criminals, but to protecting the MTA.

As for management of the MTA I wonder if they are proud to lag so far behind the Russians in installing security cameras that can be used to record murders, including unwitnessed track murders. Or are they—and their lawyers—glad they can continue to blame victims for their horrific deaths? 

 © 2015 by James Graham

Surveillance Cameras Record Subway Criminal in Flight, But No Thanks to the MTA.

On January 2, 2015 a female subway passenger was attacked on the subway platform in Forest Hills. She was groped, then pushed to the ground. Her assailant then ran upstairs on to Queens Boulevard where he was recorded by surveillance cameras.

Once again, the criminal's attack and flight was not recorded on MTA cameras for there were no cameras where the attack took place. 


© 2015 by James Graham