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A fellow MTA employee who knows the 21st Street G train station very well is coming forward to defend the agent who witnessed a rape there and tells the Daily News that agents are "trained not to leave their booths for fear of a ruse, and do not have an outside line to dial 911 underground." David Chance is a 24-year MTA veteran who also worked as a station agent at the same spot where John Koort was working and called station command during the rape of Maria Besedin. Besedin went public to the media after a judge earlier in the week threw out her lawsuit against the MTA, Koort and train conductor Harmodio Cruz for their lack of effort in preventing the rape they witnessed. But Chance says Koort did everything he could, telling the News, "He would have been foolish to go out there. He immediately alerted the emergency system—that's all we are empowered to do. If it was me, unfortunately, I would have done the exact same thing."
Fellow MTA Agent Says Rape Witness Did All He Could
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"And by 'empowered', I mean 'required by our collective agreement', or, as I like to refer to it, 'the book that tells me the bare minimum I have to do to keep my job'".
win
It sucks to be the victim here in ways I will hopefully never fathom but I do wonder what one would expect from an MTA agent. Some of us seem to feel that if another person were to enter the scene, the rapist would run. What if he didn't? What if he suddenly felt trapped, wigged out and decided to kill the agent and the girl?
It's hard for me to defend MTA employees because most of them are lazy and indignant assholes but I still don't see where/how such people are expected to intervene in a violent crime. Perhaps by making her case against the system rather than the individuals, the judge would have found her case more legally plausible.
basic human decency would require them to yell or attempt to stop it in some way.
Be a fucking man and take action. Is it just me or would this incident not have occured in my grandfathers greatest generation era?
I know this is all 20/20 hindsight but
* people should stop walking around drunk at 4am even if they want that feeling of being in danger
* the rapist was in a compromising position; the MTA attendant could have done something like come out and kick the guy in the face hard; use the fire extinguisher on him; something besides standing there watching.
* who provides the MTA its outdated technology? Because they should be fired.
kitty genovese, raped and stabbed to death while neighbors watched, 1964. her attacker went on to kill 2 more women.
I guess it's just a measure of character. How can these people live with themselves having allowed this to happen? Yes, they followed their professional protocol, but personally I could never stand by and watch something like that happen. I would be wracked with guilt for the rest of my life. That's why I take action when I see messed-up stuff happening. I guess it could get me killed one day, but we all die eventually. And I'd rather get hurt trying to help than do nothing.
Maybe it's a New York thing - I will never forget the day I saw a man start a fire in the tracks at an F station and how everyone literally just stood there and watched him do it, saying and doing nothing. I was the one who followed him and pointed him out to the police - and I was the only one who bothered.
any person that would allow something like this to happen is a coward. fear or not no person should stand idle when something horrible like this is happening. this person should be shamed for the rest of their natural life.
It's the system, stupid. The MTA doesn't think enough of their employees to allow a direct line in the booths to either 911 or the Transit Police. Instead the person calls another MTA employee who maybe doesn't answer the phone so quickly and then gives the caller the 3rd degree, wasting precious time. Or maybe they had a better system in place but the Transit Workers Union probably thought they could get a couple of extra bucks for their dues payers. Safety of the riders should be the first concern of the MTA not an afterthought.
If they put phones in the booths, the token clerks would never get off the phone, block outgoing calls, and somehow people will learn the extension and the right number from the outside to dial.
Plus, why would the NYPD want to respond to a rape too quickly? they might get shot
Lets see how many minutes it took the NYPD to get there from the 911 call from MTA to the cops entering the station mezzanine/platform.
Plus an ambulance wouldn't be allowed to enter the station without NYPD cover. Many times I've seen ambulances waiting outside subway stations for many minutes for the NYPD to show up to remove anyone, even if a senior citizen fell down the stairs.
Time to replace the red smock token clerks with armed cops who can leave their token booths. If the cop managed to graduate the police academy I think they are bright enough to tell people to read the subway map. Much less metrocard swipe selling and disabling MVMs too.
"If they put phones in the booths, the token clerks would never get off the phone, block outgoing calls, and somehow people will learn the extension and the right number from the outside to dial."
Phones with direct lines only to 911 or NYPD will not allow outside calls in. If some genius figures a way to do it, his job would be in jeopardy.
Besides these guys are obviously sticklers for following the rules. I mean, they won't leave the booth to help someone because policy says they can't, so obviously they wouldn't make phone calls that are against policy, right?
I bet somewhere in their Union agreement it says that have the right to contact their union rep at any time while on the job, so now the phones must be able to dial all local phone numbers.
Theres alot of patronage in NYCT. Your only going to get disciplined if you don't attend the right super bowl bashes or small talk with the right people every day. All a token clerk has to say is they were contacting their union rep, write up dismissed. Getting the phone call list from Verizon is not part of the investigation protocol.
The MTA is a private corporation ultimately. There is no obligation for them to act like municipal government, and they have immunity from you suing to force them to enforce their own rules on themselves. And their rules and procedures are written up by them, not anyone else.
"The MTA is a private corporation ultimately."
No, not at all. The MTA is chartered specifically as a public benefit corporation. That, in fact, means that it is not subject to many of the laws and restrictions that apply to private corporations. In q way that might help make much of the point of the rest of your comment, but it's an important distinction that should be made clear: the MTA is not a private corporation, and is not subject to many of the regulations to which a private corporation would be,
Its a Public Authrity corporation, fine. It still doesn't have any oversight from government (except for some absentee appointed board members that will rubber stamp anything), doesn't have 3 branches, nobody is voted into it, and its policies aren't subject to legislative review. The MTA was supposedly created in the 1960s to stop yearly financial and budget drama from the city and state politicians, since the TA was previously run by the "board of transportation" which basically means the mayor's office. Another reason for the MTA was to subsidize the subways and buses from bridge and tunnel profits from the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. Remember that whole thing drama regarding the "panic bar" doors in the subway? MTA claimed it was immuned from building code since it was the "government" of the subway and did whatever it wants to, Albany said not so fast.
The MTA is subject to FOIA AFAIK, so thats one thing that makes it quasi-government, and it doesn't pay any state or local taxes, not sure about federal. But still, it lacks the oversight of an elected legislature, and it can't be sued to enforce its own rules on itself (unlike a large amount of govt laws which allow the public to sue the govt to enforce them, environmental laws for example).
This girl also sounds like she picked up the crack pipe after her rape, assault (WABC defending the MTA, calling it an assault, not a rape) based on her "interview" with the media.
What are exactly the "responsibilities" of these MTA people?
Just sit and ignore people's needs?! A robot would do better!
Morons!
I don't the girl should be blamed or insulted in any way. That's callous and almost as bad as standing there not doing anything to help.
Back when these station agents were threatened with closing booths & losing jobs, wasn't one of there arguments that their presence helps keep the public safer? Fat effing chance!
I'm with Amanda, what is the purpose of these agents? They don't sell Metrocards, they can't dial 911, they can't help someone being assaulted... Up till now I thought that being near the agent might make me a little bit safer.
Maybe it's time to put more police in the stations and let go of the station agent position all together.
And please don't blame the victim. It's not just tacky, it's cruel.
"what is the purpose of these agents? They don't sell Metrocards"
They do sell Metrocards. Not many of them at that particular desolate station on the overnight shift, I'm sure, but booth clerks do sell and reload Metrocards.
Its ironic that it's automatically a felony to assault a TA worker; they get extra protection from the law and are not obligated to give any assistance whatsoever.
John Koort = disgraceful coward
Haromodio Cruz = disgraceful coward
David Chance = schmuck
Kevin Kerrigan (judge) = imbecile
Agreed!
there was a time when the token booth clerk used that microphone to yell out "pay your fare".
now they're so lazy they can't even press a little button when seeing a woman getting raped.
I'm not sure what you mean by "now they're so lazy they can't even press a little button when seeing a woman getting raped."
The knock on the station agent is that he did not get out of his booth, confront the rapist and stop the assault. He did call NYCT Central Command when he saw the assault happening, as he was trained to do.
Unless you know of some MTA super-secret anti-rapist laser beam that is controlled by that "little button" you reference? If that is the case, I apologize.
Or maybe you just commented without actually reading the articles.
Question for the MTA: WTF does JJ Koort do in his booth from Midnight to 8AM for (2007) $49670 plus benefits? Doesn't sell tokens or make change. Doesn't clean the station or service equipment. 21st on the G is a one-line station. Sits in a booth. Woman is getting attacked, then raped, he picks up a phone. And says what, assuming even a basic understanding of the english language? How is the call put out? Disorderly, cries for help, dispute, unruly passenger, intox, or "A FRIGGIN PERSON AS GETTING ATTACKED HERE!". One can only imagine the game of telephone that went on between Koort, "Central Command", 911 operator, then to the NYPD. I think the MTA owes the victim, and the paying public, a very detailed explanation of the "procedure" that was followed, so those of us who do use the system can be aware of issues concerning our safety, and take our own, individual private measures needed to ensure our own wellbeing.
amen.
This may have already been commented, but:
WHY IN THE WORLD DO YOU KEEP SHOWING THIS WOMAN'S PHOTO?
Because she's decided to do interviews and pose for photographs. No doubt she hopes that the attention this brings will help someone else, or help result in changes to teh system. I hope so too. But don't criticize Gothamist or any other media outlet for showing her picture or stating her name. It's not as if they went digging for this information, she's chosen to take her story to the press.
If Chance, Koort, and Cruz are all so damned pleased with themselves in hindsight, then they should have no problem providing phone numbers, and email addresses, as well as photos to print out for "pin the tail on the donkeys."
You do realize that one of the oldest tricks in the book is to fake an assault and when the agent leaves the booth the third person swoops in and assaults the agent and robs the booth.
Station Agents haven't left the booth since the 70's
AND...how do you know what the agent saw
Domestics happen all the time, sometimes with the person trying to break it up getting stabbed...by either the man OR THE WOMAN involved.
Basically, the Command Center that the agents called have a direct intercom line to a dedicated police operator who dispatches police to the exact location of the booth.
Try calling 911...after your 5 minutes of the person typing on the computer TRY to explain to them WHAT booth in what part of any station they should respond to.
GOOD LUCK
Nice try, MTA douche. A girl getting raped is hardly a "ruse to rob a booth" and who'd want anything in those booths anyway? Lose the booths, and the MTA sandbags inside them and hire more cops to patrol platforms. A camera would have been as useful as Koort and Cruz, and would have been a better witness. Time to uninstall the meatware!
$1000s of cash in the booth maybe?
"You do realize that one of the oldest tricks in the book is to fake an assault and when the agent leaves the booth the third person swoops in and assaults the agent and robs the booth."
Really, that's one of "the oldest tricks in the book?" Could you tell us all, then, when is the last time that's happened? Or how many times it's happened in, say, the last 20 years?
Could you tell us all, then, when is the last time that's happened? Or how many times it's happened in, say, the last 20 years?
My guess? Zero. Since he's already said that Station Agents haven't left the booth since the 70s!
Should we start prescribing Thalidomide for expecting mothers again for morning sickness? After all, it hasn't caused ANY birth defects for over 40 years now!
Well look at all the
brave and courageous hipster
keyboard Charles Bronsons we
got in up this piece!!
And for the one that said in my great grandpa's generation, puhlease. He would have joined in for sloppy seconds.
Weren't lynching done in the hundreds per year in those glorious violence free days??
100 years ago shit like this went down all the time.
Read "Low Life" by Luc Sante
We are now safer than ever, and stuff like this still happens a fraction of the time it happened in the "good old days".
but they will be real quick to call the cops on you if you are taking pictures. but f your raping someone, eh, no problem!
how can that mta worked live with himself?
If you're getting my tax dollars, I FULLY expect your ass to go beyond what is stated in your contract if a felony is being committed on me.
Remember this story and his comments? http://gothamist.com/2009/03/02/robotrain_putting_fear_in_l_train_c.php Oops! Out goes any justification you need for a job!
What do tax dollars have to do with it? You're saying that it should be in an MTA employee's job description to go *beyond* the job description? I think we all hope that someone else will act on our behalf, but you'd hope the same thing of a fellow passenger on the platform or a stranger on the street.
What about those yellow boxes on the platforms? Customers have access to those emergency buttons. Do they send an alert directly to 911? Don't pay phones connect to 911 even without a deposit? I think it's crazy that station agents are cut off like that.
It is clear that many of the comments author's will fit the MTA worker profile easily. For this character money is the most important thing -more than dignity, has not empathy for any other than him/her self, and barely does the minimum that is expected, to then only see responsibility on the victim... so shamefully easy, and extremely ignorant it pollutes society...
There you have for the reigh of the individual moron!
There you have for the material that makes everyday New Yorker, not very different that any other corrupt individual.
If the train conductor had stayed in the station, i'm sure there were some strapping subway riders ready to save the day. Doesn't just have to be the dispatcher, the train staying there, passengers getting a good look at this guy's face may have scared him off...of her.
They don't have a line to the police from the booth? bullshit. what then if they're being assaulted ?
For fear of a ruse?
what's all this talk about "not being allowed to leave the booth?" I see station agents outside the booth ALL THE TIME. There are even signs posted in several stations I frequent saying "if I'm not in my booth, look for me in the station, I'm wearing a burgundy coat".