Last Friday, my wife Susie and I got on board a 6 train from Pelham Bay Park to City Hall and encountered a youngish, disheveled and barefoot homeless man standing over and threatening an older passenger, who remarkably remained calm.
I walked closer to the duo to hopefully distract the apparent emotionally disturbed person with my presence. It didn’t take long for me to realize that the man, later identified by police as Johnathan Gonzalez, was armed with a knife. He threatened the passenger.
“I can cut your throat right now! Nobody can do anything about it. Who’s gonna step up?”
Then, “I have nothing to lose.” He said he would get “three squares a day” on Rikers if he did it.
The older man replied, “I don’t want any trouble, kid.”
Public menace
The word “kid” seemed to set him off again. But after sensing my silent presence, Gonzalez turned his attention to me, and the older man got up and moved away.
Gonzalez followed after him but came back after the conductor notified passengers police were called to the Parkchester station.
“Some bitch called the police,” he said, looking at me with my phone in hand — just as I was about to message NYC Transit.
Gonzalez sat across from me and Susie ranting about how he hates black people — which we are — and black women in particular. He spat on the floor several times, staring at me. He took out his knife, the blade of which was more than 6-inches long, and placed it under his arm. He asked a Hispanic woman, in Spanish, if she had a few dollars. She did, thinking it would calm him. It didn’t.
When the train arrived at Parkchester station there were no cops. We got off and called 911.
As we boarded another train, Susie noticed a Transit cop on the platform peering into a couple of cars; Gonzalez was already on the train ahead of us. Arriving at Hunts Point, we saw that several cops had detained Gonzalez and two more were coming en route.
According to the NYPD, Gonzalez, 28, was arrested on a charge of menacing. He had one prior arrest and was given a desk appearance ticket for shoplifting food from an Upper West Side store in early January.
No wonder he ranted about getting three meals in jail.
After his arrest, he was taken to Jacobi Medical Center for evaluation.
Later, Susie said she didn’t understand why I got so close. I told her it was the right thing to do and that an extra set of eyes can de-escalate a situation.
Susie said I probably saved someone’s life. I don’t know about that. I did what my dad would’ve done. As a kid, I saw him go to the aid of two white kids being harassed on a 2 train. On a 6 train in 1987, I shielded a panhandler from being beaten by a teenager he had accidentally bumped.
It was the right thing to do — but New Yorkers shouldn’t have to take that risk. We shouldn’t have to worry about our lives as we go about them just by getting on the train. The subway should be safe and routinely patrolled by NYPD Transit.
Treatment a must
The threat of violence from homeless EDPs is a true public health crisis. It requires a traditional approach to control it.
Treatment, medication and physical rehabilitation can keep the severely mentally ill from harming themselves and vulnerable New Yorkers. A public health declaration would remove any doubt from the minds of local prosecutors and jurists usually reluctant to invoke Kendra’s Law to get people like Gonzalez the help needed.
The EDP situation on the subway is real and dangerous. It’s time to stop naming laws after crime victims without those laws being ineffective half-measures. Amending state laws to meet the credible and very real threats on city streets and subways is the only solution.
The left believes in mandates for masking and vaccines, yet balk at any mandate that doesn’t permit the mentally ill to freely roam the subways.
I place my life and that of my fellow New Yorkers above anyone’s “right” to refuse effective treatments for schizophrenia.
Michael Benjamin is a member of The Post’s editorial board.
