Flashback: Fox Weatherman Viciously Beaten After Standing Up for Old Man on Subway
Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.
Ah, New York City in 2023. A place where you can get beaten up on a subway platform for defending an elderly man, then find out that, while your assailants were taken into custody by police officers, they were released without charges.
According to the New York Post, Fox News meteorologist Adam Klotz took a beating from a group of teens in the early hours of Jan. 22 after he tried to stop them from harassing an old man on the subway.
Klotz, 37, said in an Instagram video that he was returning from a bar after watching the New York Giants take a beating of their own, 38-7, at the hands of the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFL playoffs.
In the video, a visibly battered Klotz said he saw “this older gentleman was being hassled by this group of seven or eight teens” on the train.
“I was like, ‘Yo, guys, cut that out.’ And they decided, ‘All right, if he’s not going to get it, you’re going to get it.’ And, boy, did they give it to me,” Klotz said.
“They had me on the ground. My ribs are all kind of bruised up, too. They got their hits in.”
The Post, citing police sources, reported that the attack happened about 1:15 a.m. on the No. 1 train — which, for non-New Yorkers, runs from the Bronx in the northern part of the city all the way to the southern tip of Manhattan.
The assailants may have been smoking marijuana, the Post reported. So much for the liberal argument that stuff mellows you out, I suppose.
After Klotz’s assault, the attackers reportedly got off the train at the 18th Street station in the Chelsea neighborhood. However, three of them were apprehended by cops shortly thereafter, the Post reported. Lo and behold, they were released, because bienvenidos a Nueva York.
“Juvenile reports were prepared, and their parents were called to pick them up,” a New York Police Department representative told the Post.
“It’s unclear why the three nabbed suspects were released without facing charges, but an NYPD spokesman claimed Sunday that the department did not have that option because of their ages and the fact that the crime involved an apparent misdemeanor,” the Post reported.
“A rep for the city Law Department, which prosecutes juvenile crimes in the Big Apple, said in an e-mail that the victim has to file a complaint with the Department of Probation before it gets involved. Probation would then decide whether to refer the case to the Law Department for prosecution, the representative said.”
Klotz remained in good humor despite taking quite the licking.
On Instagram, he offered tongue-in-cheek advice for New York City parents: “Don’t let your kids come beat me up in the middle of the night again. Please.”
Fox News weatherman Adam Klotz beaten on NYC subway train @mekalshan #FoxNews #adamklotz #Weather pic.twitter.com/fYmL7qWEO5
— Mekal Shan (@mekalshan) January 22, 2023
Meanwhile, on Twitter, he had this to say: “while the headline I just read, ‘viciously beaten by teens,’ is true, it’s doing way more damage to my ego than the physical beating did.”
while the headline I just read, “viciously beaten by teens,” is true, it’s doing way more damage to my ego than the physical beating did
— adam klotz (@AdamKlotzFNC) January 22, 2023
Social media users still gave Klotz plaudits for intervening in the situation — and wished him a speedy recovery.
Sending well-wishes Adam.
— dianafalzone (@dianafalzone) January 22, 2023
Dude, you did the right thing. Proud of you trying to help someone in trouble. 8-on-1 will never have a good result. Glad you’re okay…
— Jeff Paul (@Jeff_Paul) January 22, 2023
You’re a good man Adam. You did the right thing. I’m so sorry this was the result of it though. Hope the recovery is quick and easy.
— Ryan Breton (@RyanBretonWX) January 23, 2023
We can laugh at this because, from all indications, Klotz will be fine. According to the Post, he was treated at Belleview Hospital for non-life-threatening injuries and released. And he’s trying to find the humor in the situation.
However, less humorous is the fact that New York City’s subways have become an increasingly dangerous place to be after state bail reform and eight years of Mayor Bill de Blasio running progressive experiments in Gotham.
(It also doesn’t help that, just as de Blasio was leaving Gracie Mansion, Manhattan voters elected progressive District Attorney Alvin Bragg to continue those failed policies — even as new NYC Mayor Eric Adams has tried, not entirely with success, to reverse de Blasio’s soft-on-crime approach.)
Most notably, in May of 2022, 48-year-old Goldman Sachs executive Daniel Enriquez was shot and killed on a Q train in Brooklyn.
🚨We need all eyes on this.@NYPDDetectives need your help identifying & locating this man who is wanted for homicide in the tragic, senseless shooting of a man on a “Q” train that was approaching the Canal/Centre St. station on Sunday.
Call @NYPDTips at #800577TIPS with info. pic.twitter.com/pyHw4XYF97
— Commissioner Sewell (@NYPDPC) May 23, 2022
His alleged killer, Andrew Abdullah, had 19 prior arrests. Just a month before, a judge set him free on $1 bail in a theft case, despite his lengthy record and a request for $15,000 bail by a Brooklyn district attorney.
And now, we have three juveniles who apparently will face virtually no consequences for pummelling a Fox News meteorologist who stood up for an elderly man they were harassing. Just another early Sunday morning in New York City, apparently.
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