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Another week, another violent incident in the subway — this time, a
“vigilante” firing shots across a subway platform to deter a mugger.

Subway chief Richard Davey calls the shooting “outrageous, reckless
and unacceptable.”

But it will keep happening until the NYPD — controlled by Mayor
Adams — gets subway crime back to acceptable levels.

A vagrant, Matthew Roesch, held the emergency exit gate open for a
woman to walk through Tuesday evening, expecting her to pay him a
dollar for the “free” fare.

When she didn’t, he allegedly followed her, threatened her and
started to grab her bag.

That’s when commuter John Rote yelled at the robber, “Get away from
her!” and then opened fire.

He was arrested at work Wednesday, having disposed of his gun.

There’s no disputing it’s reckless to carry a gun onto the subway
(Rote’s lawyer claims he bought it legally, but that doesn’t mean he
can carry it legally, and he was charged with criminal possession of
a firearm) and it’s reckless to shoot in the direction of a crowd.

And it was further irresponsible for Rote to leave the scene instead
of presenting himself to police.

Roesch is known for such fare theft.

“This gentleman has some history of swiping in the system,” transit
borough Manhattan Inspector Steven Hill of the NYPD told The Post.
“He’s been arrested before.”

This behavior is corrosive. First, it costs the MTA hundreds of
millions of dollars a year.

Second, it’s menacing. Particularly at a station with an isolated
entrance like 49th Street, a fare-swipe “seller” makes it clear he’d
really rather you not walk through a turnstile and pay your fare to
the MTA.

If you defy his wish, you’re then stuck with him on the narrow
platform.

So why has Adams’ NYPD allowed Roesch to repeatedly get away with
this behavior?

If he’s “known” to subway police, why is he in the subway?

Even last week, after this mugging attempt, he was arrested and
released.

Does this turnstile justice show the state’s criminal-justice laws
still aren’t fixed, after poorly thought-out 2019 “reforms”?

If so, Adams should say so, often.

Once Roesch allegedly began menacing and threatening his female
victim, what should a bystander like Rote do?

Rote could just leave, of course, and face no risk — leaving yet
another woman to be brutally attacked on the subway, following last
month’s near-fatal pushing of a commuter, also in Midtown, and an
attack in May, yes, also in supposedly safe Midtown, that paralyzed
a woman.

He could intervene physically without resorting to a gun.

Great idea when the video of Ryan Carson’s October murder on a
Brooklyn street shows that an assailant can kill you in an instant.

Or you could kill him and end up like Daniel Penny, facing long
prison time.

Add the risk of a train barreling through at any moment as you
tussle.

He could call 911 — fumbling on the phone from an underground
platform that may or may not have service to tell a dispatcher a
complex location and wait three minutes, five minutes, seven minutes
for police to show up — meanwhile further agitating a violent
criminal.

That is still the wisest course — better than shooting.

Through September, violent felonies in transit are a quarter higher
than they were in 2019, before the state implemented its more
lenient criminal-justice laws.

Just last week, a man was stabbed with a screwdriver, apparently by
a stranger, on a Columbus Circle train — another busy Midtown
station whose crowds supposedly create safety in numbers.

Add the “small” problems — random shouting and mumbling, aggressive
panhandling, drug use, loud music and smoking — that make it appear
a big crime might break out at any moment, and no wonder people are
scared.

Scared people don’t make good choices.

Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor to the Manhattan Institute’s
City Journal.