What you should know
- New York City Mayor Eric Adams is facing mounting pressure as subway crime rises despite his new safety initiative.
- Adams responded to one of a series of scandalous cases in recent weeks: the fecal attack on a woman in the Bronx.
- The man arrested and charged in that case, Frank Abrokwa, 37, of the Bronx, has a record but remains at large as neither charge qualifies for bail under the state’s bail reform laws.
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NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Eric Adams, facing mounting pressure as subway crime rises despite his new security initiative, responded to one of a series of scandalous cases in recent weeks: the attack with feces on a woman in the Bronx.
But this isn’t just about the subway.
The man arrested and charged in that case, Frank Abrokwa, 37, of the Bronx, was indicted and arrested on hate crime charges in a previous incident in Brooklyn. He was later released again. In that case from September 2021, he allegedly harassed a Jewish man and cursed at him, threatened to kill him and attempted to beat him up before chasing him down the street.
Abrokwa is also charged with an alleged screwdriver theft in the Bronx last month and has two pending cases in Manhattan, however he was released after his Wednesday arraignment on his own recognizance. That means he just has to periodically check in with a supervised release office as his court cases progress.
Why is that, given that he’s supposedly a repeat offender? None of the charges Abrokwa has faced qualify for bail under the state’s bail reform laws.
New Yorkers have been up in arms over it. Responding to them Thursday, Adams said Abrokwa shouldn’t have been on the streets and his statement “shows the scope of the changes we need to make to keep New Yorkers safe.”
“It’s the result of a failed mental health system, a failed housing and support system, and failed criminal justice laws that allow someone with a history of violence who poses a clear threat to public safety to simply walk out of court.” said the mayor. continued. “We cannot allow this horrible situation to be the status quo and we must make changes to our laws to prevent these types of attacks, through intervention and support, and, when they do happen, to keep people who are clearly a danger for others on the street”.
MTA President and CEO Janno Lieber also criticized the decision to release Abrokwa, saying it “defies common sense” that he should be allowed to walk free.
The police are looking for the suspect of attacking a Hispanic woman with human excrement in the subway in NYC.
“I’m not a criminal justice expert, but I don’t understand how someone who commits this type of assault, which was violent, horribly victimizing a public transit passenger, can just walk free even when he has four other open cases against him, including two other traffic attacks and a hate crime charge,” Lieber said in a statement.
While Adams stated in no uncertain terms the need for immediate change, it’s unclear what might happen next in that regard. His subway safety initiative, which is combined with a homeless relief initiative and jointly operated by the city and state, is still in his relative infancy.
Major traffic offenses are up 30% week over week since it was implemented and are up around 200% from the same week last year. And bail reform has been a constant — and often vocal — thorn in the camps of top Democratic elected officials for some time.
The reform laws that secured Abrokwa’s supervised release are the same ones that secured Assamad Nash’s release. Nash was on supervised release when she allegedly killed Christina Lee after following her to her Chinatown apartment and stabbing her more than 40 times, a crime that shook the city.
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