Over the past few years, the MTA has noticed an uptick in a certain type of crime. I’m not talking about technology thefts but rather groping incidents, and today, the issue earned itself some much-deserved prominent press. In his Monday transit column, Daily News reporter Pete Donohue focused on subway perverts who grope unsuspecting women.
He writes:
On average, there are about 600 reported incidents of riders being groped, flashed, grinded or similarly assaulted in the subway every year, according to the police. But NYPD brass and advocates say that’s just a fraction of the misdemeanor sex crimes taking place on trains. In reality, the number of incidents annually is probably in the thousands, some say.
“Oftentimes when people are being harassed, they’re scared, they’re not thinking, ‘Let me find a police officer,'” said Emily May, an R train rider and co-founder of the anti-harassment advocacy group Hollaback! “They’re thinking, ‘Let me get out of this situation.'”
…The NYPD has some undercover officers on the lookout for perverts, but the size of the subway force has shrunk due to budget cuts, just like the number of aboveground cops. Over the last three years, police have averaged 450 arrests for misdemeanor sex crimes, according to NYPD stats. Many creeps who are busted have been around the seedy subway block before. Approximately 15% have been handcuffed previously for similarly loathsome behavior, a police spokesman said.
In his article, Donohue talks about how few defendants face sexual assault-based charges and how the city needs to “wage an all-out war against these two-legged rodents.” He’s right, and over the years, the MTA has tried, with little success, to fight the tide of groping. The agency unveiled a new PSA campaign — one they currently overhauling — in 2008, but sexual harassment remained the leading quality-of-life subway crime. That behavior should not be tolerated.
10 comments
The SubTalk ad reminds me how ridiculous the first generation of anti-groping ads were. Thankfully “an improper touch” was replaced with “unlawful sexual harassment.”
(actually I think it’s “unlawful sexual conduct” but my point remains.)
This issue actually shows the limits of a society like ours that only uses authorities to enforce rules. It works well enough with really big rules like “don’t murder people” because we’re willing to spend lots of money per case enforcing them and to punish offenders severely.
But that’s not really the case with subway groping. Cops make, what, $80 an hour with benefits and prosecutors make twice that. An hour of court time runs about $1,000. So are we really going to spend the $50,000 it would take to prosecute a grope and, what, fine the guy $1,000? No we’re not (and we’re not going to send people to jail for this either. The average time served for second degree murder in NY is 5 years, so no one’s spending a year in the can for this.)
Does that mean groping is OK. God no. But it’s not something that can be dealt with by the criminal justice system. It needs to be dealt with by the gropee going ballistic on the train and knowing that she’s going to get support from other riders. The prospect of probably being humiliated by a car full of people would be plenty to stop the vast majority of these folks, but it’s something people have to do for themselves. The authorities have made huge strides in making NY safer over the years, but they can’t protect us from everything.
The worst I ever saw was a 12-year-old-ish kid stroke himself to climax and then chase his friend around with his ejaculate in his hand.
All these ads I hear on the subway piss me off. Between Bedford and First Ave. on the L, we get assaulted with a slew of them.
This isn’t an issue that only women deal with. On a Saturday afternoon last summer I was heading to Greenwich Village from Astoria. When the N train got to Queensboro Plaza, the train got crowded, but not rush-hour crowded. I was leaning against the doors on the opposite side from the open doors, and a guy got on and stood uncomfortably close to me. I noticed that he was inching closer to me, but I didn’t really think to much of it. I thought he was just shifting his weight or something. I then felt something brush my crotch, but I just thought it was his backpack, which was hanging to his side from one shoulder. I was also wearing a backpack, so I took it off to move further away from him and closer to the door. Just as the doors opened at Lexington Ave/59th St, I felt more crotch contact and looked down to see his outstretched arm with the back of his hand up against me. I shoved him and he meekly walked off the train.
In hindsight, I wish I would have followed him off and gotten a cop, but at the time, I was kind of in shock. I don’t think anyone else on the train even noticed that anything had happened.
If it was a woman you wouldnt be complaining
though you should be
Oh, was that you? So sorry! I was trying to grab your butt!
Seriously, I’ve been riding the train since the late ’70s, and nobody has grabbed my crotch (not from lack of trying on my part!). However, there was that guy at Court Square on the IND, but I don’t kiss-n-tell 🙂
What you are describing is a psychiatric problem in adition to a sexual offence & must be delt with as such. It’s not the same as a person having violent outbursts, but the uncomfortable feeling you have either way is well justified.
The post above describes what is known as a bump & grind. As the name suggests, the offender in this case bumped the victom with his backpack & then tried to grope him by getting extremely close hense the grind. Psychiatric treatment is the only way to stop such behaveores.
I have a Psychology backround & took grad courses in sexuality & issues such as this were discussed as part of those courses.
“Thousands” = about one female daily rider in a thousand gets groped per year. The real number is probably at least two orders of magnitude higher. If you’re willing to believe it’s just thousands, I have some nice property to sell you.