NYC Mayor Eric Adams said that he believes it is important for the city to crack down on fare evaders on Big Apple subways as part of reducing crime in the city.

Adams was responding to veteran Hamodia reporter Reuvain Borchardt, who asked the mayor at a press conference whether fare evaders – and DAs who enable them by not prosecuting them – are contributing to New York City’s troubling crime wave.

“It would seem that many of these homeless, mentally ill individuals who are committing these crimes and sleeping on the subways are probably not paying the fare. Would enforcing the fares reduce a lot of this crime and homelessness, and do you plan to aggressively enforce fares?” Borchardt asked.

“I think it’s a big mistake – not enforcing fare evasion,” Adams responded. “And we saw that during the mid-80s, people who didn’t pay their fare were participating in criminal behavior.”

The mayor said that he believes not enforcing fares “sends the wrong message” and “does not create the environment that we need.”

Adams pledged to meet with and speak with the DAs about the issue.

He also preemptively pushed back against those who could say that cracking down on fare evaders is “criminalizing poverty.”

“No, it is not,” Adams said forcefully. “There are methods in place if you can’t pay your fare… You just cannot allow people to not pay their fare.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)