The outspoken Democratic congressman, Ritchie Torres, is denouncing New York City’s criminal justice system after a 23 year old man with a long rap sheet was charged with attempted murder in a subway pushing incident on Tuesday that horrified the city.   

On Wednesday, Kamel Hawkins was arraigned at a Manhattan court for one count of attempted murder in the second degree and four counts of assault. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and is due back in court on January 6. 

The man he allegedly pushed, Joseph Lynskey, miraculously survived. The disc jockey and music professional suffered a fractured skull, a ruptured spleen, and broken ribs, though he is now in stable condition in the hospital and is speaking to his family. The CCTV video of a hooded figure lunging from behind at an unsuspecting Mr. Lynskey and shoving him onto the subway tracks and into the path of an oncoming train went viral immediately, with many elected leaders calling out the dangers posed by the often mentally ill and homeless individuals who frequent the subway system. 

Mr. Torres, who is a South Bronx Democrat, has long criticized his own party’s leaders both nationally as well as at home in New York State, though the recent attempt on Mr. Lynskey’s life has him especially concerned. 

“Kamel Hawkins, who shoved an innocent New Yorker in front of an incoming subway car, has a history of violence. How can a criminal inflict a back injury on an officer in June 2019, only to be released back onto the streets? How can a criminal be charged with assault and weapons possession in October 2024, only to be released back onto the streets?” Mr. Torres wrote in an X post, including a screenshot of Mr. Hawkins’s criminal record. “The release of the most violent criminals is a license to kill.  And kill he nearly did.”

Mr. Hawkins’s record includes other violent incidents. He has in the past been arrested for assault with intent to cause harm, criminal possession of a weapon and intent to damage property. At the time of the subway pushing, Mr. Hawkins was already facing assault and harassment charges at Brooklyn regarding a former female friend who told the New York Post he hit her dog, showed up at her apartment wearing a ski mask and kicked her door, sent her unwanted sexual texts, and poured bleach on her and her best friend. 

This isn’t the first time Mr. Torres has laid into fellow Democrats for crimes that have occurred in the five boroughs. When three New Yorkers were stabbed to death by Ramon Rivera on November 25, Mr. Torres said that both Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul were “complicit” in the murders because Rivera had previously been released on good behavior despite the fact he had beaten a corrections officer. 

Mr. Torres, who considers himself a progressive, has also criticized elements of his national party for supporting the “defund the police” movement, referring to Latinos as “Latinx,” a term popular on the far-left that many Latinos consider offensive, and for expressing anti-Israel views. 

Mr. Torres told the New York Post in November that he was considering a primary challenge to Ms. Hochul in the 2026 Democratic gubernatorial primary. According to recent polling from Siena College, just 49 percent of New York Democrats believe Ms. Hochul should be their candidate for governor two years from now. The same poll showed Ms. Hochul winning just more than 30 percent of the vote statewide when poll respondents were given the option to vote for “someone else.”

Mr. Adams has his own set of problems with his federal corruption indictment that has many Democrats believing he is likely to lose the Democratic mayoral primary this year, though public transit crime is becoming more of a salient issue and President Trump — who detests the Biden Justice Department — has suggested he may pardon the mayor. 

At his end-of-year press conference on Tuesday, Mr. Adams claimed that Mr. Hawkins’s alleged attack on Mr. Lynskey, the recent burning to death of a sleeping homeless woman, and general transit crime that garners attention have overshadowed his successes as mayor. 

“We are doing the job on bringing down the numbers, but as I say over and over and I said in 2022, New Yorkers must feel safe,” Mr. Adams said. “People are seeing and feeling what they’re reading. So, our success is overshadowed.”

Mr. Torres did give Mr. Adams some credit in a recent X post, saying after another stabbing that the mayor should be granted more authority to remove dangerous individuals from public spaces. “How many more random slashings, stabbings, and shovings must be perpetrated against innocent New Yorkers before the State of New York gives the Mayor the authority he needs to relocate dangerous people from the streets and subways?”