Curtis Sliwa challenges NYC mayoral candidates to ride subways for 24 hours
Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, a Republican running for City Hall, wants to show he’s the candidate to tackle surging subway crime with his Tuesday ride on the the No. 4 train — which he dubbed “The Slasher’s Express.”
Sliwa challenged Democratic mayoral hopefuls to join him — and is bringing hockey masks for them in case they fear being slashed.
“Hey Democrats! Wanna be mayor? Gotta ride the subway,” Sliwa said in a video on his Twitter, holding up the masks. “Come ride with me! I’ll protect you.”
Sliwa, 67, will be taking off at 10:30 a.m. from Union Square, where the first in a string of sadistic subway slashings took place early Friday, allegedly as part of a gang initiation.
Asked if he expects to encounter any trouble on the rails, Sliwas said there was “No doubt” — but he also seemed more worried about finding a usable bathroom during the 24-hour ride.
“I think the most important thing is, everybody can claim they know what’s going to solve this subway problem, but when it comes to subway cred, nobody knows more about the subterranean hell that is the subway than Curtis Sliwa,” he told The Post on Monday.
The No. 4 is the line Sliwa started his vigilante crime-fighting group on back in 1979, when, he said, the train was called “The Muggings Express.”
“We’re talking about 32 years and now its become ‘The Slasher Express,’ ” Sliwa said. “We’re going back to the 70s and that’s why I say going into the subways is the great equalizer for everyone — because no one is safe.”
During his daylong ride, Sliwa plans to tell straphangers about his five-step plan to bring safety back to the rails, including adding 4,500 uniformed and 500 undercover NYPD officers to the system.
This comes as Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday said the city would temporarily add 250 more police patrols to the NYPD subway force of 3,000 cops — after months of pressure from MTA leaders concerned about crime.
The subways saw 2.32 felony crimes per million riders in March 2021, the most recent stats available — versus just 1.47 per million riders across the year 2019.
Sliwa said he aims to show the Democratic mayoral hopefuls, particularly progressives, that its necessary to add more cops to the transit system, which he jokingly compared to “Dante’s Inferno.”
“It’s incumbent for the far left crowd to join me because they don’t want anymore police,” he said.
“I can explain to them where the problems are. I can be somewhat helpful,” Sliwa added, noting that he’s been riding the trains alone since he was a child in Canarsie.
He also noted the importance of subways returning to 24-hour service on Monday, after a year of being closed overnight for cleaning during the coronavirus crisis.
In response to Sliwa’s offer, a spokesman for entrepreneur Andrew Yang, one of the mayoral frontrunners, said that “We’ve been doing subway every day. That’s how Andrew gets around.”
A spokeswoman for civil rights attorney Maya Wiley also declined to join Sliwa.
“Maya has been riding the trains throughout this pandemic and knows how vital 24/7 service is to working people,” said Julia Savel. “But she won’t be riding with someone who admitted to faking crimes for publicity.”
Reps for the other Democratic mayoral candidates didn’t immediately return requests for comment.
2 comments:
Everyone who had any sense has moved from NYC.
He needs to ditch the beret and get a nice fedora.
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