Gothamist: Trial Looms Over MTA's Negligence in Platform Rape

chris lee

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:59:21 -0500

"Why do women insist on wearing their ipod headphones in these situations FOR GOD SAKES" Are you for real? Um, maybe because women enjoy music too. Maybe women want to block out street harassment. Maybe women should have the same basic rights as men--you know, to go outside and listen to music and walk around and be in public spaces. It's not her fault for wearing headphones. It's the rapist's fault for being a rapist. Why is this difficult to understand? Why do you have to blame women for crimes committed against them?" It's an issue of exercising good judgement and caution. You should be alert to your surroundings. These types of stories always put the peanut gallery in a bind. You SHOUDN'T have to worry about your safety anytime in NYC..but at 2:30 in the AM..she's not hyper aware?

HenryKrinkle

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:26:36 -0500

@Politburo they sure as fuck could have done more. They are lazy, shiftless sacks of shit who couldn't be bothered to do any more than their job description requires. What kind of human being would just sit there and do nothing? A gutless puke

Politburo

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:53:08 -0500

It's very easy to sit on the internet and lob bombs at people.. it's another to be in the situation. Could the clerk and conductor have done more? Obviously they could have. But in the moment, you don't know if the guy has a weapon, what kind of drugs or mental issues he might have, etc., but you do know that the guys with guns are on the way. Would you really get involved? Almost all of you will say yes, but when the shit happens, maybe one would actually act aside from calling the police.

lal46

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:31:29 -0500

interlard

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:23:29 -0500

I feel like throwing up after reading that. If I knew someone who failed to help that person I don't know what I would do. It's off the scale.

ericf

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:05:51 -0500

@ Chris Lee, "Why do women insist on wearing their ipod headphones in these situations FOR GOD SAKES" They wear them so they can ignore guys who are trying to talk to them. it was pretty effective in this case...

me yeah me

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:58:23 -0500

I was mugged at that same train station in 2005 in the middle of the day next to an empty police booth. I think something needs to change.

eyekantspel

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:41:27 -0500

And he still works there? He wasn't immediately fired? Also, unsettling. Thank the union, TWU. Get used to it, many more workplaces will be unionized after Obama wins and the Employee Free Choice Act is signed into law.

chris lee

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:45:08 -0500

Why do women insist on wearing their ipod headphones in these situations FOR GOD SAKES

jaycjay

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:40:29 -0500

"I have to wonder, if being "sick in the head" is an excuse for the rapist, why isn't it for the clerk?" Really, you wonder that? Have you thought it through? Perhaps because the propensity for committing violent crimes is accepted as being abnormal, but the propensity for thinking "I don't want to get involved" is not. Many people would say that a violent criminal probably has a mental problem. Very few would say the same about someone who sees a crime being committed and chooses simply to call for help rather than to put himself in danger by intervening.

stillshot

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 23:32:13 -0500

This is a product of our current values and how today's system makes us second guess from doing the right thing. it's a matter of "don't want to be bothered" "I did what I was instructed to do" otherwise "I" would put myself at risk and that would legally negate any claim for compensation on my own wellbeing...so, there. ...Nevermind the few examples from everyday citizens like that guy who jumped on the subway track to rescue the other guy having a seizure, from being ran over... or that guy from the murray hill deli who after being slashed himself, came out bringing towels to the woman who got stabbed on the street.

Roquentin

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 23:24:35 -0500

Actually, is downright bizarre that she forgives the rapist but not the clerk in the both. Somehow she wants to transfer the guilt of the man who raped her to bystander who didn't intervene. The comments here mostly follow suit, hating the clerk instead of the criminal. I have to wonder, if being "sick in the head" is an excuse for the rapist, why isn't it for the clerk? I suppose since she feels she can't blame the perpetrator of the crime because of mental illness, she has to find someone to hate. The bystanders are the next best thing.

rhonda718

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 22:53:58 -0500

sorry, message got cut off. He's the guy who ... actually ... attacked her. She would have been attacked to some degree regardless of whether the clerk acted more competently.

rhonda718

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 22:52:52 -0500

Am I the only person who is bothered by "she forgives her attacker ("I know he was sick in the head")?" He's the guy who >actually I guess I'm just cynical. I read this as just going after the deep pockets.

supernova

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 22:39:05 -0500

I think it's unforgivable that clerk's actions. He saw she was being attacked, did basically nothing. And he still works there? He wasn't immediately fired? Also, unsettling. :/ I'm looking more into this Right Rides service, in case I may need it one day. Thanks for the link.

Wza

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 20:23:09 -0500

Once again, gotta love the MTA.

HUGO_MEGO

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:52:45 -0500

Token booth clerks are the worst. Thank god they will soon be replaced by machines.

shovel

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:09:10 -0500

Ah ha! I scanned the current press and it was curiously missing.

meowster

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:35:06 -0500

shovel- if you read the old links in the post, it identifies the slime bag mta booth attendant. "The creep caught up with her and began pulling her down the stairs as a screaming Nicole made eye contact with booth clerk John Koort."

shovel

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:25:55 -0500

the victim "is very wrong" to blame him, adding, "She doesn't remember a lot of things." I suppose this is why he has appeared before the press. He is so confident of his innocence, so I'm sure he won't mind identifying himself to the general public. Perhaps karma will deliver the same fate, or at the very least a juicy case of prostate cancer. I admire the restraint of the victim for not hunting the two clerks down herself. If any of you reading are friends or family with either of these scumbags, I pity you.

MrCow

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:20:25 -0500

this was handled all wrong

Bottomless Chips

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:03:04 -0500

Such a sketchy station. Such a gross act.

CR

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:01:45 -0500

Mob justice sounds like a good place to start with the token clerk. See how he likes it.

jaycjay

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:59:04 -0500

"Why did it take the cops 10 minutes to show up?" First because neither of the MTA employees called the police. They called the command center, which than had to relay the report to police. And then, even though the 108 is just a few blocks away, an MTA call about an incident on a platform would first go instead to Transit District 20. A TD unit is covering a bigger area than a normal precinct's sector cars would, so the response time could be expected to be longer.

just_saying

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:48:43 -0500

"It was after 2 a.m. on June 7, 2005, when Maria boarded a Queens-bound G-train. . . Her boyfriend, recovering from surgery, had pleaded with her to come to his apartment. She considered the subway safe." (1) Never, never ride the subway by yourself at that hour in the morning. (2) Ditch any boyfriend who asks you to do so.

Qraymond

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:41:45 -0500

Sickening.

just_saying

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:34:45 -0500

Why did it take the cops 10 minutes to show up? Yes, that token booth clerk could have done more. Perhaps he was afraid of putting himself in danger--or maybe he just couldn't be bothered.

fugothamist

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:31:03 -0500

thank god the clerk will get a lifetime pension thank god

Billiamsburg

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:25:03 -0500

I wonder if the race of the agents, attacker and victim played into this at all. :\

ides_of_march

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:13:33 -0500

It's unforgiveable to turn your back on someone being victimized like that. The MTA should be ashamed to have such people in their ranks.