NYC Subway Crime In The 1980s

I'll never forget an elder gay posted here how he was mugged by black thugs in Central Park in the 80s. It turned him on so much that he went home and rubbed one out.

We fled to the suburbs clutching our pearls!

By taking the bus.

They became taxi queens.

The crime was actually a nice break from waiting on the tracks for trains that never came.

Got mugged at knifepoint by 3 black guys in a subway station early on a Sunday morning, while waiting on a train to go to work. 1981. You had to go down a lot of stairs to get to the trains. Empty around 6 AM. I actually went to the token booth to report it to the police, but, of course, no one was ever caught.

Subway system then had little or no security.

You just brought a book with you so you could keep your head down during any sudden altercation.

You risked getting mugged a lot in those days, but when you hit the ground at least it wasn't covered in piss and shit.

I'm a woman and the subway was indeed scary. I tried never to take it later than 9:30 at night. I took a cab instead.

Rocky Pratt, the mugger interviewed at 2:21 and 4:15 of the video, is still alive, and also still a member of the Guardian Angels, the civilian subway protection group he later joined.

My grandma carried a brick bat inside her shoulder bag and was deft at swinging it at head level

R11 Grandma takes no shit!

and 40 years later they are still dealing with it

*

r13, 5.5 million riders took the subway on Saturday who were not slashed. Meanwhile, Moscow Idaho has a higher per capita crime rate, 4 murders just this weekend! OMG. Don't even get me started on Charlettsville. If the Nazis don't get you the mass shooters will.

BTW what utopia do you live in? Funny, how you and your ilk never mention it.

so, comforting to know

R15, Let them know. I grew up in NYC in the aughts. I heard horror stories from older relatives and people about the 80s. NYC is nowhere near as dangerous as it once was and muggings on the subway are rare nowadays. That probably was a mentally ill loon.

Auntie's advice was to carry a lit cigarette and grind it out in the cheek of your assailant. No, I never tried it.

[Quote]NYC is nowhere near as dangerous as it once was

small comfort for some residents

[Quote] Funny, how you and your ilk never mention it.

funny how you and your ilk always use diversion rather than discuss the here and now

Subway crime still a concern. 41% jump so far this year

Box cutters

I was here the whole decade starting at age seventeen, mostly you watched your fucking back, traveled in pairs or groups, avoided shitty neighborhoods entirely and got mugged a few times anyway.

The past is a bucket of ashes, so live not in your yesterdays . . .

I rode the NYC subways in the 1970s and 80s, and never saw any crime, just bums and homeless. What I hated was lack of AIR CONDITIONING.

(^.^) I remember when subways at least the #1 train had windows that could be opened

What do they expect for their 35 cents to live forever!

Back to the 80s

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A 29-year-old man was hit over the head multiple times with a glass bottle at an East Village subway station Monday during a dispute with a stranger, authorities said.

We shot first and asked questions later.

(^.^) Guns seem so passe. Knives, boxcutters, bottles are more cost effective as are a good shove, push or sucker punch.

10 most dangerous subway stations

I remember the Christopher St. stop was notorious for drunken trannies jumping people over the smallest perceived slights.

2022 so far

The more things change . . .

Don’t ask, OP.

[quote] How did you Eldergay New Yorkers deal with it?

Some people looked the other way. Real men bought a bag of groceries and a newspaper.

I remember when pepper spray was used to ward off criminals

[quote]My grandma carried a brick bat inside her shoulder bag and was deft at swinging it at head level.

R11 or anyone: What is a 'brick bat'? Sounds too weighty to carry in a shoulder bag...

If you have a weapon, you better know how to use it! A lot of times criminals take the weapon away from you and use it against you.

R39 Yes. I know two people who tried to use pepper spray and had it used against them.

I would love to use an electric cattle prod on a mugger!

I changed my mind! I want one of these!

and a gas mask

Everything old is new again.

I honestly found it worse that only about half the cars were air conditioned at any time. And the trains would inexplicably stop for long periods of time between stops. I hear that that has come back.

One way that people dealt with subway danger was to take the bus. Exact change, please.

And Bernie Goetz was considered a hero by many New Yorkers.

The trains would stop in the tunnels and sometimes the lights in the cars were out for long periods. I was in my teens and early 20s during that time and honestly never felt scared even though the adults were always reminding us it was dangerous. I never saw any actual crime (maybe a few fistfights) but as mentioned above there were lots of homeless people.

They used to have at least one token booth manned in each station but they did away with that, which is not helpful where safety is concerned, I’m sure.

Like R47 I was in high school at the time - we knew the city was dangerous, but that was just the way it was. You had a default internal setting of wariness and awareness of what was going on around you, but frankly we were young enough to never remember a time when the city wasn’t run-down and dangerous so it was just…. normal.

There were definitely places you didn’t go after dark, and other places you knew to avoid even during the day, but the idea that the city would become as safe / clean / expensive as it has been for the last 25 years was beyond inconceivable.

It was the way it was, if you grew up here it was home, it certainly wasn’t boring, and you lived your life. It is a huge place, even with high crime rates your chance of being a victim was still on the low side - I was never mugged, nor were any of my friends.

It was only walking down a completely deserted 9th Avenue one night during April of 2020 that I suddenly got that old feeling of wariness - I immediately recognized it as something hadn’t felt or really thought about in decades - that maybe it wasn’t a great idea to be out here waking around after dark.

There have always been people who feel city life is too dirty / crowded/ dangerous / expensive and others, like myself, who love it and would never choose a more suburban environment. It’s ultimately a very personal calculation that lies beyond rational argument pro or con - which is why all the all the back and forth on these threads will never change, and also will never change minds - you either like city life, and all it entails or you don’t.

Seems to be an increase of assaults against MTA workers

Random and unprovoked

One of the lucky ones

Another MTA worker attacked. This wasn't an 80s thing, was it?

The Governor takes action

Turning the tables?

Another attack on an MTA worker and pepper spray is becoming a popular weapon

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — An MTA train conductor was pepper-sprayed in the eyes on Christmas morning in Harlem, police said.

We were young and on our toes, OP. We are only eldergays now. Got mugged twice myself, nevertheless. I got mugged in Paris in the 80s, so that's life.

So we have an interesting thread about subway crime in the 1980s (loved the clip, OP) and then we have an obsessive who's taken it over with an agenda about current crimes, many of which have their own threads. Too bad. I was interested in the old time stories.

(I took replies R49 through R55 off ignore just because I was sick of loading the thread, thinking it had new posts, only for the new posts not to load because he was on ignore.)

Thank you R56 for being on topic.

R57 tell us some 'interesting' stories about subway crime in the 80s. Not sure why crimes committed 30-40 years ago would be of such interest but perhaps a comparison/contrast to the current situation would be interesting. No one is stopping you from posting those stories though frankly what is there to tell?

I'm not old enough for such stories, R58, but the era fascinates me. That's why I was enjoying the thread until the obsessive started clogging it up.

so, R59 did people in the 80s deal with subway crime differently than today? Were the crimes themselves different and if so, how? And going by the underwhelming responses in a thread that is 6 weeks old I gather the history of subway crimes doesn't fascinate too many people

Update on the most widely covered subway event of the 80s and I know his name has already been mentioned. Here's an update.

One of the trials they look at is the case of Bernhard “Bernie” Goetz, dubbed the “subway vigilante” in 1984 after his shooting spree on a New York City subway. Here’s what you need to know about the case and where he is today

R59 - read this wiki entry. After you have read it, you can ask me for a story about being a twink on the subways in the 80s.

oops - here is the link. You have to read it though. And you don't know Goetz, you have to read that entry as well. I might quiz you before I tell the story, to make sure you did your homework.

R63 Did you know Bernie Goetz unsuccessfully ran for Mayor in 2001?

R64- His story was LITERALLY revenge if the

NERD

I rode the subway back and forth to high school. I was a senior when that show aired. The previous May, I knew a kid who was murdered while leaving the subway after attending a dance. It was in the early morning hours.

You took precautions...if you had to ride it during off hours, you stayed in the car with the conductor/engineer. On the platform, you remained in sight of the token booth. You remained aware of your surroundings.

I remember The Guardian Angels being viewed suspiciously too.