Do Staten Island Ferry Workers Use Surveillance Cameras For Upskirts?

Leaving the ferry (Armchair Messiah's Flickr)

A former deckhand for the Staten Island Ferry is suing the city, claiming she was terminated after complaining about sexual harassment. According to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by the Daily News, Jennette Suarez alleges that she was fired last year after reporting a ferry security guard for allegedly leering at her "intimate body parts" and making "slurping, smacking" sounds. As she tells it, the ferry is nothing more than a lecherous floating frat house where boys will be pervs.

The lawsuit alleges that male deckhands routinely catcall women and even use high-tech surveillance cameras to obtain closeups "down a women's blouse or up a woman's skirt.... It was not uncommon for employees to use the two-way radios to invite deckhands to view women caught on the cameras in such pose." Suarez, 34, was the only female deckhand at the time of the alleged harassment, and her fiance, who was also a deckhand, got fired in October. He tells the News he was terminated for complaining about the harassment.

One Staten Island resident gives the News an earful about male deckhands cat calling women, but DOT spokesman Seth Solomonow insists the ferries "have the most professional crews in the industry." After all, it's been well over a year since anybody crashed one of the ferries!

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By John Del Signore in News on December 2, 2011 1:51 PM

Comments [rss]

JacksBack72

Geez- I have been blessed with x-ray vision (given to me by alien visitors from another planet)! Anyhow- I can turn it on and off at will, but I am very very careful not to abuse this power! I only use it to look through the colthes of fantastically good looking women walking up and down Madison avenue between 57th Street & 86th Street!
(And sometimes, though not often; I use it to look at teenaged school girls- but only if they're over the age of seventeen! Hey! I'm not an animal!)

That being said: I would NEVER use my x-ray vision to look through the clothing of:
'a goddamned female deckhand working the NY Staten Island ferry"! W-T-F!!

Peanut_Butter

Let's see the evidence.

TheOkayestGeneration

If Suarez was the woman deckhand I used to always see, back when I took the ferry, it seems like she was doing her job at times when a lot of the male crew members weren't.

kenorasis

Been riding the ferry for years and have no problems with the crew. Nor have I heard about problems with the crew.

And with tens of thousands riding every day you would hear about problems if they were as rampant as suggested. It would be all over Google, social media, Yelp, etc. But it isn't. Look for yourself.

schmeep

Thanks, sweetie, for the info.

Nice gams, by the way.

kenorasis

I work out.

Guest

Sadly the ferry crews put in place since that big crash are far more professional than what was there before. The SI Ferry used to be the city's version of a 'rubber room' for union workers they couldn't fire if I remember correctly.

AaronRed99

Is anyone at all surprised?

schmeep

1)No need for snark about ferry crashes- for those of us who remember the terrible 2003 crash where 11 people died and 71 people were badly injured, it's no laughing matter.

2)I really hope that Mr. Solomonow eats a lot of crow after his statement is rebutted. I'm sure you could get thousands of hours of proof if you filmed the crew for just one day.