‘More Sympathy For The Guy That Mugged Me’ — New Yorkers Reveal Final Straw That Made Them Flee City

One New Yorker revealed in an interview that a growing tendency of his peers to show sympathy for criminals was the final straw that pushed him to leave the city.

Josh Greenberg, a digital media strategist who left Park Slope, New York, in 2022 told Tablet Magazine that he went to dinner a week after his alleged mugging, where his friends accused him of “perpetuating cycles” and causing “harm” by pressing charges against his alleged mugger.

This opening graf. https://t.co/5ZXBXUav4I pic.twitter.com/i6dbzcdPKt

— David Reaboi, Late Republic Nonsense (@davereaboi) February 3, 2026

Greenberg expressed that his “breaking point wasn’t getting mugged.”

“It was realizing the city had more sympathy for the guy that mugged me than they did for me,” he said. (RELATED: GOP Registered Voters Outnumber Dems By Nearly 1 Million In Florida)

He began considering leaving the state on his ride home, and he searched for apartments in Miami, Florida, which has become a magnet for internal migration.

That sentiment was echoed by several former New York City (NYC) residents who said they no longer felt safe enough to remain in the city and instead joined South Florida’s flourishing Jewish community, which has increasingly become a hub for Jewish transplants.

Karol Markowicz also moved in early 2022 and reiterated that the violence occurring in NYC sparked her migration.

“Orthodox Jews were being hit every day in the street, and it wasn’t becoming a big story,” she told the outlet.

Markowicz described how South Florida emerged as a major landing spot for conservative-leaning Jews, many of whom relocated during the COVID-19 pandemic after fleeing states like New York, according to Tablet.

MIAMI, FLORIDA – OCTOBER 27: A palm tree frames the city skyline on October 27, 2021 in Miami, Florida. Some cities in Florida are encouraging the planting of canopy trees, including species such as Gumbo Limbo, Oak, Ash, Elm and Syncamore, in place of palms. Palm trees do not sequester carbon at the same rate as native canopy trees to help with climate change. A tree absorbs carbon during photosynthesis and stores it for the tree’s life, but Florida’s palm trees are the least effective at carbon sequestration. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Like Markowicz and Greenberg, Israeli-American Elior initially left NYC for Miami during the 2021 Israel-Gaza conflict, planning a temporary stay. He ultimately chose to remain and embrace the warmer climate and lifestyle. (RELATED: ‘We Will Rise Up’: New York Teen Sends Email To School Calling For Everyone To Kill Jews At 2 PM, Police Make Arrest)

“It’s not that I felt unsafe physically,” he told the outlet. “But you can feel people judging you when you tell them you’re from Israel. I want to be somewhere where I can be proud to be Israeli.”

Many people fleeing New York point to a growing perception that the Big Apple has become less orderly and more difficult to live in, citing crime and heightened political tensions.

The founder of a marketing agency, Oren Aks, arrived in Miami City during the fall of 2025 after a two-year split between Bangkok, London, New York and Israel.

He told the outlet that Miami was the first city where it made sense for him to stay. He cited political, emotional and social reasons.

He noted that a lack of “ideological policing” gave the city a particularly open, relaxed feel.

“No one talks about politics here. Not gender stuff, not race stuff — none of the exhausting conversations you can’t escape in New York. People just live,” he said.

Miami is no longer characterized by secular Dem Ashkenazi retired New Yorkers.

It’s rapidly become America’s energetic, incredibly diverse, and blinged-out Jewish capital, with its olim bringing new politics to boot.

In @tabletmag’s February issue:https://t.co/kQiyvwAR3c

— Isaac de Castro (@isaacdecastro) February 2, 2026

Rising hostility, weakened public safety and a diminishing acceptance of diverse viewpoints were common reasons why people left New York, according to Tablet. (RELATED: Gambling Apps Dangle Free Groceries At New Yorkers Crushed By Inflation)

Greenberg said many New York transplants shared the same concerns. Law and order had become a top priority, and yet seemed increasingly absent in the nation’s largest city — prompting them to seek a change in the Sunshine State.

“I don’t want to feel insane for wanting basic public order,” Greenberg told the outlet.