March Knife Slashings Come In Like a Lion, Police Added to Subways

The first few days of March have proved just as dangerous across the city as the past few months. New Yorkers keep ending up on the wrong end of knife blades despite the NYPD's efforts to rein in the growing trend of slash attacks.

February had a leap day this year, and it wasn't going to let March steal the spotlight just yet: February 29th had three slashings, a number which used to be unthinkable when it first happened on February 2nd.

In the first few days of March, the city has seen four slashings so far, which was enough to push the AGBC Slash Tracker above 40 total slashings. The March slashings so far show a trend that has repeated in all the attacks: A mugging, a homeless man with a psychiatric problem, an attack on a cab driver, and a slashing inside a store. Each scenario is sadly becoming common when looking at all slashings in total.

Good news, however, is that in three out of four March slashings, the attackers have been taken into custody, usually shortly after the crime takes place. Whether it's due to increased NYPD presence or luck of the draw is hard to say, but Police Commissioner Bratton has called for police on every subway to combat transit crime and Mayor de Blasio said that, over the next year, the NYPD will increase by 2,000 officers citywide amid rising crime.

Two other eye-opening incidents add to the city's slashing anxiety: On March 3rd, police arrest a man at the Hoyt Street subway platform waving a box cutter, and on March 4th, photos emerged showing the variety of blades confiscated from five Brooklyn homeless shelters. The incidents show the huge number of knives and box cutters that potentially emotionally-disturbed homeless New Yorkers are carrying and how willing some are to use those as weapons. In the thwarted subway incident, vigilant straphangers were to thank for spotting the crazed man holding a knife on the subway platform.

Does the rise in crime have you on edge? Have you felt a "madness seeping through the city" like Jeremiah Moss?