What the hell is Kathy Hochul doing?

[Electric Circus]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/07/nyregion/national-guard-subway-bag-checks.html

Do You Have to Let the National Guard Search Your Bag on the Subway?

[...]

Some have questioned why the National Guard is being deployed when there is no clear terrorism threat and when crime is not surging on the trains.

But the troops have previously been used to patrol major transportation hubs in New York City. Guard members regularly patrol Grand Central Terminal, Pennsylvania Station and the Port Authority Bus Terminal. After the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, they were sent to patrol the subway as officials watched for any threats.

Now, Guard members will be deployed at “main transit hubs” throughout the subway system in an effort to supplement the police presence, Ms. Hochul said on Fox 5 on Thursday. The reinforcements, which will include additional transit police, will be positioned “right near the turnstiles,” she said.

“We’re going to take some strong action,” she said. “There’s no search and frisk. There’s no stop and frisk. There’s no profiling. All this is a deterrent.”

Is this the future of public transportation in New York City? Imagine stepping into one of these derelict stations and getting searched by people wearing military uniforms. Doesn't sound like life in a liberal democracy.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Three theories:
1. Overcorrection for her narrow '22 win
2. Typical governing incompetence in large one-party blue states
3. Both

[Fuzzy Bear]

Three theories:
1. Overcorrection for her narrow '22 win
2. Typical governing incompetence in large one-party blue states
3. Both

The problem in NY's subways is the abolition of cash bail.  The National Guard can arrest more people, but they'll all be out of jail in a short time the very day they're arrested.

[DrScholl]

Everyone screams that more needs to be done about crime so something is finally being done. Crime is at historic levels so it takes these measures to fix things.

[GoTfan]

Everyone screams that more needs to be done about crime so something is finally being done. Crime is at historic levels so it takes these measures to fix things.

I'm usually uncomfortable with quasi-military forces doing this., and I would say I have good reason to be. I have a hard time believing this would be happening if the 2022 result was bigger.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Three theories:
1. Overcorrection for her narrow '22 win
2. Typical governing incompetence in large one-party blue states
3. Both

The problem in NY's subways is the abolition of cash bail.  The National Guard can arrest more people, but they'll all be out of jail in a short time the very day they're arrested.

Some have questioned why the National Guard is being deployed when there is no clear terrorism threat and when crime is not surging on the trains.

[Benjamin Frank 2.0]

I can't read the original article itself. Nowhere in the quoted excerpt does it mention the National Guard searching anybody's bag on the subway (or before getting on the subway.)

In fact, Kathy Hochul in the quoted excerpt says " “There’s no search and frisk. There’s no stop and frisk. There’s no profiling. All this is a deterrent.”

Is that just the headline writer engaging in hyperbole?

Obviously there are valid questions such as:
1.Is this the best use of scarce resources
2.What is the public reaction to seeing a National Guard presence in the subways going to be?

But, if that's nothing more than hyperbole and the National Guard is actually not going to be searching anybody's bag, I think that hyperbole distracts from any actual valid questions.

So, maybe Kathy Hochul's answer would be "I'm trying to improve the perception of safety on the subway system" which may be valid public policy.

[Vice President Christian Man]

At least nobody will be selected for "random" searching.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

Very sad! New York sounds really quite awful. Very glad I don't live there!

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

2. Typical governing incompetence in large one-party blue states

Yes, she's remarkably bad at this on a purely functionalist level, as of course was Cuomo, as is Adams, as were De Blasio, Bloomberg...

Hochul is governing in a way that seems precision-targeted to be impossible to like. People in New York City who like this will hate the fact that she's not revising or scrapping the bail reform; people Upstate who like it will hate the fact that she's actively redistributing public school funding Downstate despite being from Buffalo; people on the ideological left who like it (if they exist) will hate the fact that she's disingenuously vetoing half of what the legislature is doing on issues like labor rights and race relations. I hate more than one of the above!

[dead0man]

isn't this normal in European airports and larger train stations?  (people in uniforms standing around holding scary looking guns)

[Electric Circus]

I'm surprised there hasn't been a thread on this yet.

there is, but your title is far better

It is, but this thread immediately drew more attention. Part of the fun of this board is that you need to think like a tabloid writer if you want to draw attention to the issues that matter to you. Your own thread titles suggest that you realize this.

I actually missed AGA's thread because it had nearly fallen off of the front page without receiving a reply. For that, I'm going to blame the absurd number of stickied threads wasting the most valuable real estate on one of this site's busiest boards. (Why do we have three separate public service announcement threads and not one? Why do news threads that would naturally rise to the top when relevant need to be there? What the hell is the point of the Cabinet confirmation thread that consists of page after page of one person obsessively re-posting vote tallies from senate.gov?)

You could also say that this thread has a different subject, i.e. I am questioning Hochul's motives in a way that isn't limited to this issue. She has taken a number of actions that disturb me and, to make the sub-text plain, I think she is positioning herself as an authoritarian leader in the public eye because she sees a political future in acting that way. And she's not the only one, you see savvy politicians picking up on this trend all across the country.

[dead0man]

I'm surprised there hasn't been a thread on this yet.

there is, but your title is far better

It is, but this thread immediately drew more attention. Part of the fun of this board is that you need to think like a tabloid writer if you want to draw attention to the issues that matter to you. Your own thread titles suggest that you realize this.

I actually missed AGA's thread because it had nearly fallen off of the front page without receiving a reply. For that, I'm going to blame the absurd number of stickied threads wasting the most valuable real estate on one of this site's busiest boards. (Why do we have three separate public service announcement threads and not one? Why do news threads that would naturally rise to the top when relevant need to be there? What the hell is the point of the Cabinet confirmation thread that consists of page after page of one person obsessively re-posting vote tallies from senate.gov?)

You could also say that this thread has a different subject, i.e. I am questioning Hochul's motives in a way that isn't limited to this issue. She has taken a number of actions that disturb me and, to make the sub-text plain, I think she is positioning herself as an authoritarian leader in the public eye because she sees a political future in acting that way.

agreed in full, way too many stickied threads.  It's a persistent problem.

[Not Me, Us]

This is a way for her to make it look like she's doing something about crime without actually having to do any real work. It is purely performative, so I'm glad it seems to be backfiring on her.

[Benjamin Frank 2.0]

According to the Reuters story, the plan actually is for the state national guard to check people's bags. I would have thought that was unconstitutional.

On the other hand, and not that it was directly mentioned, there is no way to fight the 'war on drugs' through a policing approach without authoritarian measures like these. So, anybody who opposes drug legalization should cheer what Hochul is doing here. To clarify: there is no way to fight the war on drugs using a policing approach without this specific policy.

[All Along The Watchtower]

When I saw this news I have to admit, I was in disbelief.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

According to the Reuters story, the plan actually is for the state national guard to check people's bags. I would have thought that was unconstitutional.

On the other hand, and not that it was directly mentioned, there is no way to fight the 'war on drugs' through a policing approach without authoritarian measures like these. So, anybody who opposes drug legalization should cheer what Hochul is doing here. To clarify: there is no way to fight the war on drugs using a policing approach without this specific policy.

If the Constitution still mattered more than politics for certain judges, the NSA would have been shut down as soon as its operations were leaked. Also, the surveillance state decided it could be much more open about its operations now that there is a new terror threat. The last two decades have been really good for the 4th Amendment haters and bootlicking creeps.

Also, somehow we can't keep even the drugs away from prisoners. Yes, prisons have a drug epidemic. But you need to wonder how much of that is from real drug dealers or feds who actively contribute to or dismiss this problem so they can conduct their disgusting social experiments again. History rhymes.

[free my dawg]

Same reason for the mask mandates during Omicron. Giving off the appearance of doing something.