Eric Adams downplays latest NYC subway attack, says riders just ‘feeling unsafe’

Mayor Eric Adams downplayed the latest subway attack Wednesday by highlighting the overwhelming majority of riders who emerge unscathed — and said anxious straphangers were just “feeling unsafe.”

Adams called the stabbing of a good Samaritan who intervened in a fight on a southbound No. 6 train in Lower Manhattan a “horrific incident” before quickly pivoting to statistics that he said showed it was an outlier.

“We’re going to deal with those crimes that take place and we’re going to continue to work on those six felony crimes a day that we’re witnessing,” he said during an unrelated news conference at Manhattan’s Pier 36.

“But I know that 3.5 million people use our system every day without any encounters.”

Hizzoner continued: “That’s the combination: those type of incidents are impacting people feeling unsafe.”

Adams also pledged to contact “that innocent person that was there, that was for my understanding trying to stop the dispute.”

Adams’ comments followed a controversial TV interview last week in which he blamed the news media for creating “the perception of fear” by putting reports about violent subway crimes “on the front pages of your paper every day.”

On Saturday, Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul said they were adding 1,200 NYPD and MTA Police overtime shifts daily to increase safety in the subway system.

But a reporter covering Wednesday’s news conference said she just rode the subway from the Upper East Side and didn’t see a single cop on the train or in the stations.

Adam acknowledged that cops aren’t in “every station in the city, every day.”

“But we are strategically placing those officers during the ridership times, during when we see the crimes are taking place,” he said.

“We’re properly deploying and I see a complete, all-hands-on-deck.”

Veteran Democratic political strategist said the mayor’s assurances would almost certainly fall on deaf ears.

“Crime is about fear. And statistics can’t calm people,” he said.

“They want to see more cops, less homeless people and fewer imbalanced individuals yelling and menacing.”