Even Hochul admitted that the NG troops, who are carrying empty weapons, are just theater and meant to make the unwary public "feel better" about taking mass transit, bottom line is to boost the MTA's dropping ridership numbers:
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Hochul added that bringing in the National Guard was meant to give people a “deeper sense of security” without harassing commuters or making them feel uncomfortable.
arguing they will act as a crime deterrent and calm commuters’ “anxiety.”
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Leftist elites like Hochul all have a grasp on psychology. They know that for most people, those who do not dive deeper or read between the lines, they are easily placated by colorful distractions and lip service of "better days ahead" without having to give them actual results. And these are the people she and her squad are trying to keep voting for them, forget the real issues, and continuing their daily lives blissful in the illusion that "somebody's doing something".
The random bag checks are only occurring in high trafficked capital stations of the system where most of the riders are white collar office workers. The inner city stations are where all of the gang and thug activity is continuing. At most, these patrols and checks are slightly discouraging gangbangers from the hot zones from launching isolated raids into the showcase parts of the city for an easy purse snatching and making the city look bad in front of tourists and foreign investors. Kind of like comparing downtown Pyongyang to the rest of North Korea. Tourists brave enough to travel to North Korea are only shown the showcase parts of the capital that they have set up specifically as a display model.