See if he could be charged under a federal statute as he interfered and endangered people using mass transit. No little fine or slap on the wrist there.
10
ATTENTION ALL MTA RIDERS: HE'S BEEN ARRESTED. Really. It was on the morning news.
https://abc7ny.com/police-arrest-man-they-say-pulled-emergency-brake-on-subway/5315251/
10
If this person can access the driver's cab and pull the brake, can he access the driver's cab and crash the train?
3
@JSD. The train is being controlled by the driver at the other end of the train. Presumably, two sets of controls could not be active at the same time. Emergency brakes would be different. Even though the culprit it accessing them from inside the cab, there are emergency brake pulls in every car.
2
Meanwhile, change the locks. Please...just do it.
4
Ban him from the subway? The death penalty seems far more appropriate.
5
@NYTimes: I know that a suspect is now in custody, but please follow up with the MTA (Mr. Byford) about if and how they plan to better secure access to the driver's cabins in our subway. Currently, it's apparently quite easy to get in and do mischief, creating a threat to public safety. Thanks!
9
The article says that sometimes there are legitimate reasons to pull the emergency break. No facts are given. If a passenger fell off a train, pulling the brake wouldn't do much good to save him/her. Sick passenger? Public announcements tell us not to pull the brake because it will show medical care for the individual. Today's trains allow passengers to inform the conductor of an emergency. There seems to be no legitimate reason for passengers to have the power to force a train to stop.
This guy is using the emergency brake inside the driver's cab. Getting rid of the cabin brake cord won't stop that guy, but will keep others from copying him.
4
Enough paranoia. There’s a million ways to consider potential terrorist threats. This is some garden variety sociopath, soon to be nabbed by overexposure.
(25 years as an MTA straphanger)
6
Bad parenting. Again.
14
If this person gets caught by a subwaycar full of riders, he's gonna be lucky if he doesn't end up beaten to death on the spot.
16
And someone is going to get a big fat contract to put cameras inside subway cars.
So over NYC.
5
All the avid gun controllers have an opportunity here. Highlights the fact that guns don't necessarily kill people if they are not in the hands of aggressors. What's with all the aggression? Perhaps it is too uncomfortable to watch this rot. Oh, the sweet easy answer.
1
Complaining about this "train robber of time" does nothing to solve the problem. Surveillance cameras and severe penalties for such action are the only way to stop a person who wants to disrupt the lives of thousands of strangers. This selfish train robber provides himself with a temporary cheap thrill by controlling other people's lives. If the people who are being paid to run the NY Subway wanted to stop this person, they could, especially if their jobs depended on it.
5
Paging Curtis Sliwa. Bring back the Guardian Angels.
5
Ban someone fro residing the MTA subway? How in the world can the MTA enforce this ban.
1
We’re all spied on all the time via our cellphones and yet somehow can go this long pulling train brakes?
1
I worked for Transit for 24 years. Time to consider clever solutions, involving technology to record and capture this guy. Unfortunately, once caught, there are no legal penalties that are appropriate to this kind of behavior.
6
@Bruce Maier: I hope the judge will sentence him (or them) to at least 1,000 hours of community service, preferably picking up trash from the tracks. I know that this would still cost us money - pay for the officer supervising him - but it would serve justice.
5
Does he even have a transit key? Locks are surprisingly simple devices. Remember when we discovered you could open a Kryptonite bike lock with a Bic pen. A hundred dollar lock foiled by something you can find free almost anywhere.
It's not hard to imagine someone in New York getting hold of a bump key or skeleton key that works on transit cars. If he's surfing the subway car all the time anyway, he's had time to examine the lock. Maybe the solution is as simple as installing new locks.
If you really want to get fancy, you can set up those temporary police cameras at each station. You'll know he'll have to exit at a station when his key doesn't work. You stand of a chance of catching the criminal that way.
3
I have never understood why emergency brakes are available for the public to use. We already have conductors, don’t we?
3
Article says the emergency switch is in a locked section on trains - this character must have a key. Change the locks before there is a REAL emergency!
2
@Truth Is True. The emergency brakes are in place in case a passenger gets stuck in the door, or falls on the tracks, etc. The conductor might not be able to see it so other passengers can prevent the train from departing when an individual is in danger. Still it's really not obvious why they're in place--the cars only have signs saying when NOT to pull the brake (fire, medical emergency, or crime). For the longest time I wondered when you ever WOULD need to pull the brake.
2
It's a symptom of a wider problem: the complete abdication of law enforcement on the subway cars. Why are there never any police on the trains anymore to enforce the laws? I cannot recall seeing even once, over the past decade, a single uniformed transit police officer in the cars themselves (just at scattered entrances and some major station hallways). Nor is plainclothes activity evident: How many people need to be accidentally kicked by "SHOWTIME!" acrobats?
26
@Jacob I can explain. In the 90s, the Transit Police were taken from the Transit Authority and merged with the rest of the Transit Police. It was a power grab, pure and simple. While the city said that the Subways would get the same priority as before, that is clearly not true. The folks in charge of the NYC police department don't regard the safety of the subways in the same way the separate Transit police did. Sad
7
I think it’s really smart of them to release the video. Between the mini video cameras in all our pockets and the fact that 99.99% of riders just want to trains to work well, I would bet we figure out who it is pretty fast. Let’s hope.
9
@L He was arrested last night. He's known to NYPD for other transit crimes.
https://abc7ny.com/police-arrest-man-they-say-pulled-emergency-brake-on-subway/5315251/
2
I grew up in New York and have ridden the subways until I moved out in 1992 and have always believed one day there will be a troll pulling the emergency brake. My opinion will not win me allies but I think having an emergency brake available to passengers is a stupid idea giving that The Big Apple is home to a higher rate of vandals and street thugs than any other city in America. I say cut the brake.
5
@Orange County, it seems like the passenger’s emergency break isn’t being abused in this case. I think it would be more difficult for someone to get away with such repeated pulling of the passenger break, because other passengers would be incensed and quickly describe (and/or videotape) the perpetrator to the authorities.
They might also have security cameras on the cars at this point, I’m not sure. I lived there more recently than 1992 (and there definitely aren’t more “street thugs” in NYC, going by crime stats) but I’ve also moved away.
4
@Orange County.
"The Big Apple is home to a higher rate of vandals and street thugs than any other city in America."
What's the source of that claim? Are you just relying on your perceptions of NY in 1992? If so, it is time for another visit.
1
There should be cops on every train. Unfortunately, there are cops on almost no trains.
Where are they hiding?
11
@John Doe They're walking around putting tickets on cars since there are fewer and fewer spaces for them to park every month. Sometimes it's about law enforcement. The rest of the time it's about revenue generation.
2
@John Doe Before the merging of the Transit Police with the NYC police, there were more cops in trains. Since then, the priorities were adjusted, and we lost the presence of police in the subways.
@John Doe, I think you are grossly underestimating the number of trains, or perhaps overestimating the number of police.
2
You think you have problems. We have a gal on one bus who rings the bell for each and every stop yet she never gets off. She just likes to ring the bell like a 4 year old.
15
@tom harrison
So say something to her?
3
Over the past few years, New Yorkers have mobilized to march in large numbers for important Federal and Global issues - to protest Immigration ban, the Women’s march, the Climate March etc. Why haven’t we organized a New York subway march???
It’s a critical issue that affects most of our lives directly. How many dollars of economic productivity have we lost in meetings not starting on time, nurses and doctors being late for the hospital shifts, parents paying penalties for picking up their kids late from daycare, etc? How much more stress do Subway delays and poor service add to our daily lives? The greatest city on earth deserves the best, not worse than places with far fewer financial resources.
Let’s march and show Cuomo that we’re not going to take it anymore!
15
I read all the comments so far. And it was stressful. Let's not value efficiency too highly. Sure, the person or people responsible should be stopped. Also, homeless people are good guys, and they're also just people. Let's be nice to them and care about them. They have it harder than a lot of us.
1
@Emily S Hopefully it will be extremely stressful for that individual when they catch him. Maybe your time is not limited or valuable. My time and safety as well as many others is valuable. Homeless people that do such things are not nice guys. I hope you were just being sarcastic with your comment. If not you are out of touch with reality.
4
You are a babe in the woods.
Not all homeless people are "good guys."
Say that again when you've been stabbed by one, or pushed into the tracks. Many need medication, will never take it, and therefore need to be removed to a safe facility for their sake and ours.
6
Many of us who need to go to work depend on the subways to be efficient.
Anyone who deliberately tries to destroy the transit system and put thousands at risk. The police should be able to find them ( we have enough surveillance cameras in the trains on the streets so it shouldn’t be hard to find the criminals)
The police just need to get busy and bring this insanity to an end before someone is hurt .
12
He’s pulling the brake in the operator compartment, not accessible to riders, if the train is stopping in the tunnel. The cord that riders can pull does not stop the train between stations, only in the station. When activated, the “brake” signals the conductor, who contacts the the puller via intercom to ask why the brake was pulled. When pulled in the station, the brakes lock up and have to be individually reset by MTA personnel.
Only on older trains, most not in service anymore, will the train stop in the tunnel when the cord is pulled.
16
Change the locks!
10
Not sure I understand why the power is cut because the perpetrator is on the tracks.
5
@M Caplow
The tracks have a third rail with live current. While you can avoid it, it makes it very dangerous to be on the tracks, especially when multiple people are on it at once looking for one selfish jerk.
5
@M Caplow. The power is cut because workers are in the tunnels looking for the guy.
7
@M Caplow anytime the NYPD or FDNY go on the tracks the power is cut.
2
Under DeBlasios attitude of permissiveness towards bad behavior, we’re headed back to New York’s darkest hours of the 1980s.
33
@Atticus Saw
In a recent NYT article that a good 25% of bus riders refuse to pay the fair, umbrage was taken at the idea of stricter enforcement for fear that it would disproportionately target communities of color. The word “pushback” is always used in these discussions as a sort of code for allowing people to break the law willy nilly without consequence.
30
The mayor and the antisocial jerk are unrelated. Some of our past mayors were both one and the same.
9
@Atticus Saw Maybe it's Dante pulling the brakes!
In more rural areas people do something that disrupts the electricity to entire towns. I will not say what it is so as not to inspire anyone, but needless to say it is even easier than what this guy is doing.
Much of our system is very, very vulnerable. Vulnerable to pranks, but also to something more serious.
It is time to take good look at the systems that we all rely on and take them seriously. It would be a start if Trump would negotiate to repair our crumbling infrastructure!
34
@David - and perhaps we should study certain aspects of a well-ordered society like Singapore as well. The people that abuse the infrastructure we collectively rely upon should be treated appropriately, not overly generously. I doubt this happens in Singapore.
12
@Col Flagg
I don't believe the courts in this country would go in for flogging or caning.
6
@Lawrence
But maybe a sentence of 5 years per brake pulled?
That would slow down all but the psychopaths...
2
Well if I happen to catch him in the act, I'll be tempted to take out my exasperation on his skull, and I don't think anyone in the vicinity will mind.
18
How many times in the history of the New York Subway has the emergency brake been used to avert an actual emergency? Maybe it’s time to sunset this device as it represents the appearance of safety rather than the real thing.
10
@Alan Maude
At least they don't tell you to use the seats as flotation devices if a river tunnel collapses and floods you out...
6
@Alan Maude The emergency brake being used here is not supposed to be accessible to the public. It is located in the Train Operator's cab.
10
This is terrorism, plain and simple. Send the FBI after this lowlife trapping hundreds in tunnels at a time, and delaying tens of thousands of New Yorkers. How many died as a result of these delays?
24
@Paul S - Terrorism? How does that cause terror? Are you saying that people are actually dying because of delays in the NYC subway? Perhaps rather than requiring the FBI to solve the problems caused by a punk pulling the emergency stop the appropriate law enforcement agencies get it together and resolve it.
11
the subway hosts more and more people that seem to live there
17
Betcha its the mayor.
11
@SCPro
The mayor is currently in Iowa trying to run for president.
4
@Patsy47 Wrong Mayor.
1
There's something beautifully counterproductive about this self-appointed vigilante's antics. He--the blurry-faced man in the photographs--is forcing people to suspend their mindless, thoughtless, plugged-in, digitized NYC lives and be in the moment. Snow storms and other natural disasters have a similar somnolent affect on the supercharged shrude animals we call New Yorkers. It causes you self-important New Yorkers to back up and admit you really have no control. Or, perhaps, I am a truer version of a pseudo-liberal New Yorker who wants to see the humanity in this train-stopping aggressor and explain away all of his aggressions and blame them all on the system.
6
@Joshua Folds
It is obvious that there is a certain abounding breed of fiction writers these days who are very highly regarded for an over embracing style of prose but that is yet completely vacuous as to content. A miscreant like this or the Son of Sam tends to bring them out of the woodwork and trigger their over active imaginations.
15
@Joshua Folds Passengers include hourly workers who can't afford to be late, nurses wanting to get home after 12 hour shifts, parents picking up kids from daycare, adult children going to care for elderly parents, or patients feeling miserable after medical treatments. There are people on their way to a park, to meet a friend, to take a music lesson, or to enjoy a library. That you assume all they have is "mindless, thoughtless, plugged-in, digitized NYC lives" says more about you than any of us on the train.
32
Homeless jokester. Yes, these people don't create problems.
4
Not homeless, evidently. Just the usual suspect with nothing better to do.
Serious question - if pulling the emergency brake is dangerous why does it exist for passengers to access? Why not just get rid of them?
3
@Ben
We need the emergency break for all sorts of GOOD reasons - most commonly when the train is dragging someone.
12
@anae I wonder how often it is pulled because of a true emergency vs. when the train crew should have been notified by another means? The MTA is always warning passengers not to pull the brake between stations, but it seems to happen anyway. The result is to lengthen the time that it takes to get assistance to a sick passenger.
2
@Ben, someone else mentioned that the emergency brake that passengers can use will no longer stop trains between stations on the majority of trains. The one he’s using is supposed to only be accessible by a conductor.
2
Lots of angry folks and hot takes in the comments section. Yes, pulling the emergency break is really rude and dangerous and he should stop. If there are laws in place to prosecute the guy, then fine, use them. What I'd like to make clear is that no, the subway isn't an anything goes orgy of homelessness and decay that so many of the commenters want to pretend it is. It's the largest transportation system in the world, serving more than 1b rides per year – it's not going to be perfect, but it's not 1978. Get over yourselves.
59
@Andrew. Yes, that reminds me of the occasional comments that I see in these forums that are somewhat along the lines "I was in New York once 30 years ago. It was terrible. I'll never go back and recommend that everyone else stay away, too."
15
@Andrew - :) I have never been to New York. Nothing there seems worth the trip.
All people do is complain about the subway, the rats on the subway, the homeless on the subway, etc. Even Hillary made a big deal during her campaign of riding the scary subway.
It sounds like something I would expect in some horror sci-fi film.
3
"Nothing there seems worth the trip."
Not if your idea if happiness is to watch ballgames on TV all day.
Well, you do have Mount St. Helen, a beautiful sight, but our museums might do something for your soul too.
6
Emergency brakes on trains and buses were pulled regularly as pranks when I lived in NYC in the 1970s, I don't remember any news articles about that at the time.
Is there any video evidence that the man standing on the back of train did anything more than endanger himself? I didn't see where he had "activated the subway emergency brake" and the video is not clear at all. If the NYPD is going to issue a broad APB that covers the majority of black men in NYC, it should provide more detailed and clearer evidence. Don't want to arrest the wrong person but maybe that doesn't matter and any black man will do.
"Wanted for Reckless Endangerment: Black man, 20-30 years old"
Sounds like the 94 Crime Bill aka Biden's Law
4
@Lynn in DC. A lot of things that happened in the 1970s that didn't make the news. They were too busy dealing with 2,000 murders a year. In addition, what makes these particular "pranks" newsworthy is that they appear to be the work of one person (or the coordinated work of several persons) and they're timed to create maximum disruption -- they're not random.
10
@Lynn in DC
It was actually New York’s first Black Mayor, David Dinkins, who pioneered some of the now called out aggressive policing programs like Safe City, Safe Streets, during the crack epidemic of the early nineties (although Giuliani later took full credit for it).
5
This is not entirely analogous, but I live in a part of Nashville, close to downtown, that is going through gentrification. There are $2,000 apartments next to public housing. A habit I picked up when I lived in NYC was to leave something I no longer needed on the sidewalk, hoping that someone with a need takes it. I've stopped doing it, because every time I leave a toaster, or a bread maker, or...whatever, it is smashed to bits within minutes. Why would someone be so unkind as to destroy something that others can use? What is the mentality of someone who seeks to destroy the subway system, which others rely on? Are people that unkind?
30
@Brian Nash my guess it is a disgruntled employee or close friend/relative of one.
4
Wow. $2000 gets you a fancy apartment in Nashville? It’s gets you a room in a shared apartment here, also next to homeless. I’m moving!
14
I'd be more concerned about it being proof of concept for some attack.
7
Now everybody will be doing it.
12
I'd guess it is a disgruntled former employee if I thought it was possible for an MTA employee to be fired.
35
I feel so sorry for Andy Byford! He didn't have to deal with this in Toronto.
13
Okay- I know this is a major hassle for millions of people, and I would be really upset if I had to deal with it...
but it's pretty funny.
The guy made the TIMES for this
7
It’s not funny. This man is a criminal and he is quite literally ruining lives with his behavior.
Since January? Jesus, I can't believe that train is 5 months delayed by now...I hope the people were able to get off :)
14
Sounds like Cuomo is paying a goon to derail Andy Byford’s recent strides....
14
This has been going on for months and the MTA and NYPD are only just now putting the pieces together?
And that foggy video is the qualiyt of security cameras that are down there?
Oh man, what does this say about security system in place in the subways.
Heaven help us.
25
Doesn’t it seem a little more likely they were trying to avoid PR that might lead to copycats?
20
Train surfing necessarily has a connection to illegitimate emergency brake activation why?
The connection seems suspect without anything like solid evidence, none of which is cited here.
Submitted May 23rd 3:57 PM Eastern
1
Can't help but wonder what his malfunction is. Who hurt this guy so viciously that he needs to take it out on the general public? Who raised him without empathy?
10
I support his initiative. Bravo.
Why is there so much mental instability, mental illness, mental challenges and mental impairment?
4
Showing signs of getting better? Um. How? Have I missed something?
2
"way tracks are notoriously dangerous because of the third rail, a steel column that carries 600 volts of electricity" -- It's not the volts that matter. It's the amps. Tell us what is the amperage on the third rail, and how much is usually considered fatal.
1
@A Contributor If the voltage was very low - below about 40 volts the human body has too much resistance for a fatal current to flow. 600 volts is more than enough to push a fatal current through a person contacting the live rail and a running rail at the same time. It only takes about 1/10 amps. The fact that a train may need several hundred amps to run is irrelevant other than ensuring an massive "overkill" in capacity.
4
@Maxm - How true. Remember the end of the taking of Pelham 123? (the original of course)
3
And just like that you made it all worth it for that person
1
Gonna make a TV movie. Probably a really bad one tho
1
Surprise, surprise...
When you instruct the police to turn a bling eye to fare evasion, and all manner of so-called "low level crimes" in the subway system, you create a perception of lawlessness.
When the mayor says that anything goes, and ties the hands of the police, guess what? Anything goes. Including pulling emergency brakes.
If you can't walk into the train without paying the fare, then sleep across multiple seats on the train, smoke dope on the train, play loud music on the trains, why can't you also pull the brake?
106
The highest levels of government are turning a blind eye to criminality in the Oval Office. Maybe that is setting the stage for this kind of behavior.
1
Oh, pish. Subway and streetscape vandalism is pre-Trump.
2
Why am I skeptical.
Post 9/11 The MTA cant stop a guy riding on the back of a subway car pulling brakes ?
Come on. Let’s face it : The only guy messing up the subways is Andrew Coumo.
23
@S and the only person that can save it is... Curtis Sliwa.
3
I hate to say it but this seemingly casual saboteur can easily be supplanted for a terrorist. Let us be thankful that he has chosen relatively harmless methods to his MO but who is to say this may not spur future copycats with worse intentions.
32
@Preppie
Its easy to understand your concern. Many of us worry about border security for the exact same reasons.
8
Funny you’re in Florida which has been importing essentially slave labor from Haiti for sugar cane fields for decades. They’re not citizens, you know.
6
@Angelus Ravenscroft
What does that have to do with border security?
Legal immigration is, well, legal, and I have no dispute with this. Open borders are an open invitation for criminals and terrorists.
5
I would not be surprised if the perpertrator is a disgruntled former MTA employee or a current employee who has been disciplined and is angry and revengeful.
6
@Norma Kramer. Or, someone who derives satisfaction from the chaos that he causes, much like a firebug who stays around to watch firefighters battle the blaze that he started.
3
I remember this happening in the spring of 2017 as well. Lunatic doing this was apprehended after a few days. All on the IRT in lower Manhattan.
5
I watch teenagers and young adults jump the turnstile every day in full view of the people sitting in the booth. The employees couldn’t look more disinterested. Nobody can be bothered to do anything about it. Maybe the employees think the MTA doesn’t pay them enough to enforce rules. Maybe the MTA directs them not to. If I was a middle-aged person in a very predictable location for hours on end on a regular schedule, I could see how risking confrontation with any number of less than civic-minded teenagers wouldn’t be appealing.
They say people get more conservative as they get older. Maybe getting fed up with unaddressed issues like this is part of it.
35
I don't know who "they" are. Studies show that people become less conservative as they get older. Generations become more liberal, so that older people are more conservative, but it's a generational difference, not aging.
6
@James T
My cousin is a MTA bus driver. He said there are many people who do not pay and just walk onto the bus. He is instructed by his union not to do anything confrontational for his own personal safety. The MTA tells him to press a button to record that there is a non paying passenger (I assume for statistical purposes).
At first, it sounds ridiculous. Thinking about it however, my cousin is a bus driver and not an officer. It is his job to operate the bus safely. If the MTA starts having their employees confront these people, they are putting people who are not trained for this in possible physical harm. This also goes against the primary directive of operating a bus safely and on time.
I assume this is similar for subway employees: it is not their job and they are not trained in being confrontational to fare beaters.
26
If only video recoeding devices were cheap and easily connected by wireless communication, it would be easier to identify the culprit. I guess we will have to wait a very long time for this futuristic technology to be available.
25
@Badger
Yea, like next year.
1
Why are there not more security cameras in subway cars? This is not hard. This is basic security.
14
@Tammy
In a packed car? Good luck with that. And this guy is apparently not operating inside the passenger car.
5
The city of San Francisco recently banned the use of facial recognition. NYC needs more facial recognition, and any other tool which facilitates capture and removal of misfits like this latest 'subway bandit'.
20
Most likely a disgruntled employee or a buff. Many keys and styles of keys have been around for decades if not a century.
Any technical fix would be enormously expensive. Better surveillance for now is the best way.
12
How about next time he does this they don’t cut the power and hope he steps on the 3rd rail? Seriously this is dangerous to all New Yorkers on the subway and maybe we should not regard the need for this individuals safety so highly?
But in all seriousness, that aside, I would take less on time trains if they were cleaner and safer like the somehow manage to be in other global cities. NY city and NY state and the Federal government do not allocate enough funding to the maintenance of this vital infrastructure. Maybe stop worrying about the “T” line down 2nd Avenue or the LIRR Grand Central link and spend those Billions making sure the system you currently have works, is improved, is safe, and is clean.
More policing to get the panhandlers, candy sellers, showtime dancers, and homeless sleepers off of the trains, out of the stations. More money to support shelters if that is the only place they can go.
A digital ticket system that you have to scan to get into the subway and get out of the subway like in the tube in London, and barrier gates rather than turnstiles to enter and exit so you cannot easily “jump” them and ride for free.
It’s not THAT hard.
48
@Smith. The only reason for scanning a ticket upon exiting would be if the MTA charged by distance rather than by the ride.
5
They shouldn't bother to cut power to the third rail. It just makes it easier for him to flee. Let him run off and hope he makes a mistake.
19
What is the evidence that the person entering the cabs has a key?
Serious research would discuss not just what lines this is happening on, but what series of cars. Is it possible that the doors on these cars may appear to be locked but can be easily yanked open? Certainly I have attempted to walk between cars and found "locked" doors that opened with a bit of force.
4
@Eugene
Almost the entire fleet of subway cars have full-width cabs. He is evidently using a key to enter from outside the end door so he is not seen by passengers inside the cars. This requires positioning himself on the outside end of the last car, meaning pulling himself from the platform across the outside of the train. That’s what it sounds like. You can be sure if he was entering the cab from the inside of the car, people would immediately notice.
29
@EdNY. That sounds logical. He must have nerves of steel if he's clinging to a narrow platform at the cab door and at the same working the lock, even if does have a key.
@Eugene I think he rides the back of trains and occasionally finds them unlocked.
1
Virtually nobody under the age of 23 pays the fare at the Brooklyn College 2/5 Station. The number of people who live in the station and in the cars is growing. Between midnight and 5 am there are more unwashed people in the subway cars than passengers. Anyone using the 2 or 5 trains before 5 am knows just how bad it is. Put these people in tents in vacant lots, give them food, clean them up and show them how to be better at life. Ignoring the problem is unfair to them and to us.
Subway are not for sleeping.
124
@Maxine and Max Institutionalize these people as we used to do before people decided that institutions were somehow inhumane. Now they live as vagrants on our public transportation and in public spaces. Not acceptable.
24
@Maxine and Max oh yes the existence homeless people is very unfair to “us.” let’s just put them in tents. great
3
put these people in tents in vacant parking lots and feed and teach them?!? with all of the vacant parking in NYC, that could be a great idea. but I'm sure they're all starving for a hot meal and not a cold beer. but I bet the education they get from ??? about ??? will get them on the right track (s). pun intended?
2
The potential to disrupt or attack a subway in NYC is a constant marvel to me.
"Soft targets" like this post-9/11 always make me a little edgy, despite taking it twice a day for a decade.
Thanks MTA and NYPD for keeping us safe
32
While this is an issue that needs to be addressed, I am concerned that this is another in a series of Blame the Riders, from the MTA.
First they blamed the MTA's financial woes on farebeaters, when all MTA policy over the past few years (decimation on token booth staff, proliferation of SBS buses with no payment upon entry.) deemphasized fare collection.
Now they have another culprit for delayed service.
Maybe I'm too suspicious, but it seems like an annoying trend.
13
@Dennis No, it's someone's fault. New York has a hard time dealing with rotten behavior.
10
@Dennis
Right. It’s an errant MTA employee who’s doing this. Just to make things seem worse.
1
there's more to it than that. Imagine if a citywide, coordinated team of terrorists shut down the system at once -- paralyzing the city during rush hour, pulling emergency teams from all over, and leaving the rest of the city vulnerable. what if this is a test to see how first-responders react?
37
@Fast Marty ... omg.
they could have done this already in other cities too---London, Paris, Moscow --big subway systems.
"Could have done"? They did. The last time I was in England, London had four subway and bus explosions.
1
Just to clarify: According to several reports, this guy does NOT use the emergency brake in the passenger compartment, he accesses the driver's (operator's) space/cabin that is normally locked.
That, for me, is the most disconcerting thing about this creep's activities: how come it's apparently easy enough to access that driver's cabin? The reports say he is using a key or picks the lock. Maybe it would be a good idea to change the locks and make it harder for unauthorized persons to possibly take control over a train!
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The need for emergency brakes needs to be reevaluated.
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@Thomas
Short-sighted. What if someone is being dragged with the train, stuck in the doors?
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@Thomas these are inside the crew cabs. They are absolutely needed. I’ve pulled the passenger emergency brake twice when children were climbing on the back of the train.
6
check out recently fired or layed off former transit employees matching the personal stats.
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@kenzo
My first thought too.
Some people go postal,
and some just gotta work off some steam.
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@kenzo "Somebody down there knows how to drive a train. You don't pick that up watching Sesame Street."
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@kenzo a fired transit worker be recognized in two seconds. Check out people who’ve taken tests for jobs and failed to get hired.
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Where does this mentality come from? Why do this? Same thing with the ride share bikes in NY/LA and China. People destroy them for no reason, other than to sabatage.
What Darwinion rule allows people to cause mayhem, or destroy property. I understand breaking a window, to steal a car. When is the end game in behavior like this?
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@John Joseph It's mental illness and these folks belong in institutions, not in our public spaces and on public conveyances.
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@John Joseph I mean, it could be a protest about how people overvalue efficiency. Could be to expose the weaknesses of the current rail system, which cannot prevent this from happening. Could be because it's fun/thrilling. It's probably because some other part of how we operate society is broken. Chaos begets chaos. That's not an excuse for behavior that hurts others, but it is a reason. Maybe societal self-sabotage is an evolutionarily natural reaction to not thriving?
1
If someone starts a website where commuters can post time and date of some of the more egregious violators of subway civility, I'd be glad to start taking photos with my cellphone and upload them. There needs to be some way to document the growing bad behavior on the subway.
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@Grigio because your well intentioned vigilantism excuses someone being wrongfully stopped and accused of being this "bandit"?
if you dont see how wrong your "help" can actually go then you deserve every hardship visited on you twice that someone would suffer with your"good intention"
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@Grigio,
There is some way. Just not in N.Y. Try this stunt in Singapore or Japan and they won't make a third attempt. This has been going on since January for goodness sake. And that cra99y video is the best they can do?
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@Grigio...good idea to use tech for common good with commuters posting time/date of incidents.
But what this guy did is much worse than 'bad behavior on the subway'.
5
Have you ever seen the sign posted below the emergency brake? In short is says: "In case of a medical, police, or fire emergency, do not pull the emergency brake". No instance is mentioned for when activation is recommended, leaving one to wonder - why is there an emergency brake at all?
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@Edward I almost had occasion to pull the brake at the Main St. terminus. A woman unwisely tried to enter the car as the door was closing. The door caught her bent leg just behind the knee so she was unable to move. Another man and myself tried to force the door open without success and feared she might be dragged. Fortunately, the light that indicated that the door was not entirely closed remained on. I went over to the brake while observing the light. Had it gone out, the train could have started and I would have had to pull the brake to save her. Luckily, the train crew noted the lack of "indication" and reopened the doors freeing her.
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@David Samuel L Jackson has actually told the story before of this exact thing happening to him - his leg got caught in the subway door and he got dragged, and it was only because one guy managed to pull the emergency brake that he didn't get smashed into the wall at the end of the station. You can probably find a clip of him telling the story on one of the late night shows.
15
On the Atlanta light rail I had a four year old in hand when the door closed on my leg and the train pulled out. It was about 100’ it picked up speed as I desperately stuck a hand in and someone held it. Passengers responded and the train halted. Not a good feeling. What happened if someone was not doing chin-ups to the hip every day? They would go and fall backwards. Or a child?
It is important for passengers to be able to pull. And important that cameras start the moment a pull occurs.
Maybe your rail should have cameras front and back and alongside like Seattle Transit buses have?
9
There is a whimsical tone to this piece which is upsetting, which I take to be a result of, or perhaps cause of (probably both), the permissiveness that increasingly marks society when it comes to lower level crimes
Listen, if child development experts (and common sense) tell us that children need to see real consequences of their ill behavior (you can't say you're going to take away their toy and not actually take it away, or tell them they'll be kicked out of an airplane when that would never happen) lest the kids flagrantly disobey their parents at every turn, I don't see why we expect not to see a gradual loss of civil order as a result of defanging the punishments for various illicit activities.
In short, please stop referring to this person as a saboteur, provocateur, bandit, or scofflaw. Please refer to him as a criminal, and search for and prosecute him as one.
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@Orthodromic agreed. This isn't some zany victim free prank... it has real consequences and locking this person up should be the result
12
@Orthodromic I agree. I was on one of the delayed 2 trains earlier this week. We were stuck for about 45 minutes in a packed rush hour car. A woman near me was very concerned about her 5 year old daughter who was waiting for her mom to pick her up from school. Not to mention all of the passengers who were late to classes or work or other commitments or just trying to get home after a long day.
24
Well, he's pulling the brake inside an engineer's cabin that is supposed to be empty. Presumably there is no way of know which brake was pulled, but if one knew it was from inside an unoccupied cabin, then it should be ignored, and the train not stop until there are police that can arrest him. Though it would probably entail a chase down the tracks.
He is only hitting certain lines, as I presume different train models have different locks, and his key only works on the 2 and the 5.
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@Don Wiss
"...only hitting certain lines...and his key only works on the 2 and the 5."
What's your point? Subway issues don't occur in isolation. Problems on the 2 and/or the 5 will almost certainly cause delays and backups on the 3 and 4 lines. And do you think issues on the express track won't spill over to the local, if only due to frustrated passengers trying to get to their destinations?
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@andyo123
His point is that this may help track him down.
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@andyo123
"What's your point?"
I made a comment. There is no point. Of course problems on the 2 and 5 will affect other lines. That's a no-brainer.
11
Well, we'll be lucky if we find that it's only one man who's pulling the emergency brakes.
It doesn't take much of an imagination to wonder whether a bunch of people are seeing how snarled our subways could get, how long trains are stuck in tunnels, and how many people could be massacred in concerted terrorist attacks.
I take trains all the time, and am never afraid; but since September 11 it's a continuing marvel to me that our subways haven't been attacked. Hats off to the NYPD and MTA, maligned as they are.
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@B.
To say nothing of the lower track level and escalators at Penn Station and the tunnel between NY and NJ. Just disasters waiting to happen.
7
If a single man can cripple the transit of this many trains, is it really doing that well?
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@Nick
A single individual can do tremendous damage anywhere.
11
The Subway has returned to its former state as an "anything goes" playground for fiends, drug addicts, social misfits and the mentally ill. Many of these people know there is essentially no punishment for their behavior since either the cops will not be around or, even if they are, there's no punishment for "broken windows." Seemingly everyday I encounter someone aggressively panhandling, homeless sleeping on multiple seats, or just acting out because s/he feels like it and can. It is so depressing to go abroad, to Tokyo, where people behave in a civilized manner, for example, and come home to this utter disaster of a subway.
Our beloved Mayor may not be responsible for the dismal technical state of our subway system, but he is unquestionably responsible for how people behave on it since the Police Commissioner reports to him.
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@Matt
I am so frustrated when I see how people blatantly walk through the gates without paying. A couple of times, I witnessed people going through the gates even though the police is standing right infront. He didn't stop the fare evader. I see this happening everyday ..... I have lived in many countries before but only encounter this in NYC. Maybe I should stop paying as well.
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@Matt
I don't know who is in charge with the homeless people situation, but I assume the mayor knows it is going worse.
Almost every day I see a homeless person sleeping in the subway train. Our health is in danger, we all know why.
Did the mayor ever travelled by subway since he started to enjoy this very well remunerated job?
37
@Matt - Panhandling is not illegal. Homelessness is not illegal. This is not a criminal matter, and treating it like one will fail, as we've seen over and over again when we ask the police to get involved in social problems.
Want to solve the problem of dirty, late, uncomfortable subways? Make the politicians ride it. No more cars for them in New York City. If they need an Uber, they can pay their new congestion charge like the rest of us (using their personal accounts, of course). Or they can hail a taxi, after destroying the industry. Might be good for them to hear from a few taxi drivers, anyway...
56