I absent-mindedly entered on the uptown track instead of the downtown side of the subway station. I left the station and crossed over to the other side of the tracks but, of course, my metro card had been swiped and was now in a dreaded “already been used” state.

I approached the MTA booth and found a woman sitting there, apparently doing paper work. I said, “excuse me” but she did not acknowledge me in any capacity. I thought to myself, ok, maybe she is the middle of something I will give her a minute or two. Minutes passed and now at least one train went by and she did not even give me a “hold on a sec” acknowledgement.

Finally, I persisted, with “Excuse me, Excuse me, EXCUSE ME.” Then she looked up, told me to “hang on” accompanied with a real withering look. She then moved over to a different chair and asked me to swipe my card. I swiped my card, seriously, twenty times. Sometimes it said, “Swipe again,” at other times it said ” just used.” She insisted that nothing was registering on her end at that I needed to swipe it straight. Of course I was frustrated and I said, the screen read, “It was just used.” And she got haughty and said I “wasn’t listening to her.”

I kept swiping but eventually just walked away. I didn’t look at her. I didn’t acknowledge her behavior. I just left the booth and bought a new single ride pass at the computerized booth.

Go ahead MTA, replace her with a machine.

You can’t ride a subway or bus in New York City without seeing a sign proclaiming, “If you see something, say something”.  Now, it would appear that Metropolitan Transit Authory’s slogan — which popped up in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center  — is being slightly revised with regards to its employees who are now being told “If you see something, say something… but don’t get involved.”

In one of the most heinous and disturbing decisions in recent memory, a Queens judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by a woman who was raped in plain sight of at least two MTA employees, each of whom contacted the police but failed to take any further action to intervene on her behalf. 

After being dragged kicking and screaming past station agent John Koort, who remained in the token booth, and train conductor Harmodio Cruz, who did not stop the train or abandon his post, the 21-year-old victim was raped. Twice. 

Her attacker was not caught. 

 

 

 

 Justice Kevin Kerrigan deemed that the men took “prompt and decisive action” in summoning the police, a decision the victim correctly labeled as “deplorable”. As she and her attorney plan their appeal, one can’t help but wonder if a female judge would have handed down the same ruling. The cowardice of the men in question would also seem to prove we haven’t come all that far since that infamous night in 1964 when Queens resident Kitty Genovese was fatally attacked as nearby neighbors ignored her cries for help.

Perhaps more disheartening than Kerrigan’s actual ruling is what it says about human nature and the inevitable questions it raises about how we would react if put in the same situation. Could you stand by as a man brutally attacked another human being? Would you be brave enough to intervene, even it meant putting your own safety on the line? 

Equally disturbing is what this ruling says to New York City residents who rely on the subway station, many of whom no doubt assume that they are relatively safe riding the rails late at night as long as they remain within sight of the MTA employee safely-ensconced in the nearby booth. 

Think again.

In the past, when budget cuts have resulted in the closing of token booths, citizens in the impacted areas have often voiced concerns about the stations in question being less safe as a result. Unfortunately, it seems that with the blessing of both the MTA and the legal system, they weren’t exactly safe to begin with. 

 

Here’s one you can help me figure out:
This morning, on a fairly crowded subway, a twentysomething fashionista boarded the train and stood, holding a pole and scanning the seated passengers. She reached over and tapped a fortysomething man on the shoulder. “Hey,” she said. “How about giving up your seat for a lady?”
I was shocked that she had the audacity to ask. She was not pregnant and did not appear to be in dire meed of a seat. The man looked at her, shocked, and replied, “If you can vote, lady, you can stand.”
So who was rude? The man for not offering his seat? Or the woman for asking?

Last night on the subway, a woman sat next to me, opened her bag, and removed a Tupperware bowl of piping hot soup. As the train sped along, she loudly slurped her soup while it sloshed out of her bowl with each stop-and-go of the train. I moved to another seat and she looked at me as if I was the one with a problem.

Then, this morning, a man drinking a steaming Styrofoam cup of coffee sat next to me. The cup had a lid with a small opening for sipping so I thought I was safe until the man fell asleep and coffee sloshed out of his tilted cup onto my church shoes. When I nudged him awake and pointed to his spilling coffee, he did not even apologize. He simply switched hands and went back to sleep.

Last night, on a crowded subway, myself and my fellow strap-hangers were packed like sardines. As the train sped along, several of us kept losing our footing and were forced to hold onto each other because the nearest pole was being occupied my a portly man who, instead of holding on with his hand, leaned his entire body on the pole, making it unavailable for the rest of us. Perhaps we should have said something, as he stood there with his hands in his pockets, never once moving an inch while the rest of us tripped, and fell into each other like a basket of weeble wobles.