NY has most dangerous public transit in America — but California tops the most deaths

 New York state’s public transit is the most dangerous in the US, a new analysis found.

Between 2021 and 2023, mass transit in the Empire State saw 23 deaths, 1,641 violent incidents and 1,759 injuries – for a hair-raising average of 17.5 perilous incidents per 100,000 riders, personal injury attorneys John Foy & Associates found in its analysis of US Department of Transportation data.

Illinois was No. 2 on the list of most dangerous public transit systems, with 13.3 incidents per 100,000 riders, followed by Minnesota (11), Massachusetts (8.1) and Pennsylvania (4.9). 

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With a hair-raising average of 17.5 perilous incidents per 100,000 riders, the level of danger in New York’s public transit system easily outpaced those in other states.Donna Grace/NY Post Design

California – which was the only state to record more mass-transit deaths than New York, with 31 – saw 4.4 perilous incidents per 100,000 riders. The least dangerous transit states were Arizona and Washington each, with 2.6 dangerous incidents per capita.

In New York City — home to the MTA, the largest public transportation agency in North America — subways alone saw a daily ridership of 3.2 million from Jan. 5 to Jan. 8.

Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant, recalled the frightful period in the Big Apple’s underground. 

“Over that three-, four-year period between 2020 and 2024, we had just as many murders as we had done in the previous 20 years in the New York City subway system,” recalled Giacalone, an adjunct professor at Penn State University-Lehigh Valley. 

In 2022, the city subway system saw 10 murders – the highest number in 25 years. There had never been more than five murders underground in a single year between 1997 and 2020, according to NYPD data. 

During the morning rush on April 12, 2022, madman Frank James, 62, lit a smoke bomb and opened fire in a packed subway car in Brooklyn, shooting 10 people and injuring a total of 29.

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On April 12, 2022, 10 straphangers were shot and a total of 29 were injured when Frank James opened fire in a packed subway car in Brooklyn.DOJ

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James was sentenced to life in prison for the planned-out, race-fueled attack.AP

James was sentenced to life in prison for the planned, race-fueled attack aboard the N train in Sunset Park – which petrified the city just as pandemic restrictions had eased.

More recently, an illegal migrant allegedly torched a woman to death on a Brooklyn subway.

Guatemalan native Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, is accused of setting on fire a sleeping Debrina Kawam, 57, then watching her burn, during the terrifying Dec. 22, 2024 attack on an F train.  

So far this year, the city’s transit system has seen 50% more rapes – with three, compared to two at this point last year – and a 7% spike in misdemeanor assaults (409 vs. 382). Overall, crime is down 18% — the second-lowest level of subway crime in 27 years, according to the NYPD’s latest transit crime report and a department statement last week.

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Guatemalan native Sebastian Zapeta-Calil is accused of torching Debrina Kawam to death on a Brooklyn subway in December.

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Within a three-day period last month, three men reportedly died from getting struck by trains in Manhattan’s underground.Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post

For the first time in seven years, there were no murders in the transit system during the first quarter of 2025, the statement said, citing “a surge in NYPD patrol of subway platforms and trains to combat crime and violence.”

Within a three-day period last month, three men – one of whom was believed to be homeless – died after being struck by trains in Manhattan.

“The city subway system has definitely taken a hit over the past several years, and a lot of that is to lay at the feet of [former mayor] Bill de Blasio and [former city council speaker] Melissa Mark-Viverito and a couple other city council members, who basically decriminalized a bunch of things and removed police from doing their jobs – ultimately turning [the transit system] into a big homeless shelter,” Giacalone told The Post. 

https://nypost.com/2025/04/12/us-news/new-york-has-most-hazardous-public-transit-system-in-us-study/

Heat is on for newly confirmed SEC chairman Paul Atkins to crack down on Chinese companies

 by Charles Gasparino

Paul Atkins, President Trump’s nominee as the new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, faced a key question just as he was to be grilled during his confirmation this past week.

Would the long-time securities lawyer and regulator investigate Chinese companies for what one senator believes are wanton and blatant violations of US disclosure laws that have gone unchecked for years?

Atkins said he would, which helped him squeeze by in the confirmation process with just 52 votes.

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Paul Atkins takes part in a strategic and policy CEO discussion with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Eisenhower Execution Office Building in Washington, U.S., April 11, 2017.REUTERS

That exchange, between GOP Sen. Rick Scott from Florida and Atkins, hasn’t been reported, though The Post has learned that the usually mild-mannered Scott didn’t mince words with Atkins.

Scott said his confirmation vote was contingent on Atkins ramping up scrutiny on Chinese companies — “delisting” and removing those suspected of violating US laws from US exchanges — as soon as he got into office.

The crackdown would be significant, probably one of the biggest the SEC has undertaken in its history. Nearly 300 Chinese companies, representing more than $1 trillion in market value, trade on US markets, namely the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Composite.

Many or maybe all of them, depending on whom you speak with, could be delisted.

The controversy over Chinese companies with public shares trading here has been brewing for years. Critics believe giving China access to our markets and public capital has fueled its quest for military and economic dominance. In 2020 during Trump’s first term, he signed into law provisions that give regulators the ability to delist China Inc. for ­violations of disclosure rules.

Among the concerns of lawmakers are that Chinese companies fail to properly account for Chinese Communist Party influence and ownership of their enterprises, and that they use slave labor of dissidents as part of their normal business operations. American investors in China Inc. will have little recourse if they are defrauded by a rouge ­nation.

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Chinese flags fly above apartment buildings in Beijing on April 12, 2025.AFP via Getty Images

Biden’s roadblock

According to congressional sources, efforts to crack down on these alleged abuses were stymied by the Biden administration, namely its SEC chief, Gary Gensler, now a business professor at MIT. (Gensler didn’t respond to a request for comment.) The debate was largely confined to think tanks and the halls of Congress.

No longer. With Trump back in the White House, his trade war is heating up, with a particular emphasis on all things China. The delisting effort can now pick up steam. 

Atkins, who must report not just to the president but a GOP-controlled Congress for oversight, will be under pressure by Scott & Co. to finally crack down. 

These moves will put both major US exchanges in a tight spot, of course. The NYSE and the Nasdaq usually delist companies piecemeal when they fail to meet financial listing requirements or are indicted for fraud. Here they would be chopping out of their balance sheets major tech firms and retailers, such as Chinese online retailer Alibaba, that pay a lot of money to trade in the US and attract capital from our markets.

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Paul Atkins during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, March 27, 2025.Bloomberg via Getty Images

It would be one of the most chaotic corporate actions the exchanges have ever undertaken, and you can’t say the exchanges shouldn’t have seen it coming. The NYSE listed Alibaba even as the once outspoken Jack Ma, its founder, came under the thumb of the Chinese Communist Party. He seemingly disappeared from public view following some minor criticism he made about China’s bank regulations.

The listing ignored some interesting language in Alibaba’s “prospectus” (the official document for the IPO), which discloses “risks related to doing business in the People’s Republic of China,” where the “economy differs from the economies of most developed countries in many respects including the extent of government involvement . . .”

Here’s what may have caused blindness to all of the above: The NYSE charges as much as $500,000 plus various additional fees for companies like Alibaba (with a market cap of $250 billion). A US listing on the famed “Big Board” goes a long way in getting US investors to buy the stock, even as critics allege those shares finance the economic might of one of the most repressive regimes on Earth.

A spokeswoman for the NYSE provided this explanation: “NYSE is obligated to be nondiscriminatory in the application of its SEC-approved listings standards.” 

A press official for Alibaba didn’t return a request for comment. An SEC spokeswoman declined to ­comment. 

The other big US exchange, the Nasdaq, also lusted for lucrative Chinese company listings, so much so that it carved out a loophole in its controversial and now defunct board-diversity rules. These rules prodded US companies to appoint a certain number of women, minorities and LGBTQ+ people to boards.

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A screen displays the Dow Jones Industrial Average and other final trading numbers after the closing bell on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., April 11, 2025.REUTERS

It didn’t apply to China Inc. That’s right, no mandate from the Nasdaq to force Chinese-listed companies to appoint oppressed ethnic and religious minorities. 

Nasdaq had no comment.

End ‘golden shares’

Again, all this might be changing thanks to Scott’s efforts. He believes US investors should know how their money is being used when they buy a Chinese stock, or an index fund that contains Chinese public companies. In addition to his pressuring of Atkins (who declined to comment), Scott’s been pushing legislation that would seek to end China Inc.’s use of so-called “golden shares.”

That’s a special type of stock held by the CCP that he believes gives it control over these companies outside of US disclosure rules, a charge Alibaba has faced in the past.

 “Scott is obsessed with this issue,” said one person close to the senator.

https://nypost.com/2025/04/12/business/the-heat-is-on-for-newly-confirmed-sec-chairman-paul-atkins-to-crackdown-on-chinese-companies/