{"id":167812,"date":"2021-02-01T05:20:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T02:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/the-mtas-clever-civil-approach-to-subway-vandalism\/"},"modified":"2021-02-01T05:20:00","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T02:20:00","slug":"the-mtas-clever-civil-approach-to-subway-vandalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-mtas-clever-civil-approach-to-subway-vandalism\/","title":{"rendered":"#The MTA’s clever ‘civil’ approach to subway vandalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#The MTA’s clever ‘civil’ app<\/a>roach to subway vandalism<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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In a political climate that increasingly confuses peaceful protest with smashing things up, the state-controlled Metropolitan Transportation Authority is trying a novel strategy to put vandals and graffiti scrawlers on notice: Vandalism is not a victimless crime.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The pandemic has caused the worst crisis of the MTA\u2019s 53-year-old \u00adexistence, decimating ridership. Add to the pandemic a man-made problem: The criminal-justice system has given up meting out criminal justice. Last year, fare-beating arrests were down 84 percent; summonses (more like a civil traffic ticket), down 61 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Surprise: Violent crime jumped underground, with murder doubling (to six) and robbery up 4 percent. A week rarely goes by without an \u00adassault on a transit worker. New York will have to relearn the lesson: We can prevent these big crimes by preventing small crimes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The MTA is beleaguered by those, too. In just one August week, a person or people smashed 104 train windows.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One such small-time nihilist is Calvin Williams, 55, who allegedly entered midtown and downtown Manhattan subway stations four separate times in November and December, with the sole purpose of destroying the MTA\u2019s new-ish electronic information boards, 18 in total.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a different era, a high-profile police presence at Herald Square or the World Trade Center, two of his targets, would have deterred Williams. Like many people using transit for something other than transit, he allegedly entered the subway without paying.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thanks to camera footage, the NYPD did arrest Williams for the alleged November property destruction. Thanks to bail \u201creform,\u201d he was let loose right away. Even before the November crime spree, he was facing separate earlier charges for \u00adalleged drug sales and assault. Now, arrested after the December transit spree, he\u2019s in jail \u2014\u00a0only \u00adbecause of a robbery charge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

How is the MTA ever going to get its customers back, when no one will keep the system safe, and when straphangers are greeted with graffiti at\u00a0entrances and smashed property inside, hardly signs that anyone cares?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pat Foye, the MTA boss, has an idea: sue. The MTA has filed a civil case against Williams, demanding $100,489.75, for parts and labor for replacement screens, as well as $13.25 for entering stations without paying the fare.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A cynical observer might \u00adobserve that Williams seems unlikely to have $100,489.75 sitting around. \u201cWe\u2019re obviously aware that many of the people who do this are not going to have any \u00adassets,\u201d Foye says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Calvin
Calvin Williams, the vandal who is being sued by the MTA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As for whether a six-figure \u00addefault judgment could keep Williams from getting his life back on track someday, Foye suggests that perhaps the nonprofits that raise money to bail people out of jail could clear these debts, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But \u201cfrom the point of the MTA, we don\u2019t want our property damaged. .\u2009.\u2009. The victims are tens of thousands who could be injured, customers and employees.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Plus, some would-be vandals will be deterred by a financial cost: \u201cWe will encounter some trust-fund vandals, who may have to clean this up before they take fancy jobs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to remember now, but a year ago, last January, a mob of agitators went on a \u201cdecolonize-this-place\u201d protest spree across the MTA, destroying screens and OMNY readers and gumming up machines. It was an eerie prelude to the summer, when hundreds of Manhattan stores suffered similar property damage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the moment, organized rioters seem uninterested in transit. They are working at home, and so, out of sight, out of mind. But when attention wanders back, the MTA doesn\u2019t plan to fall victim to property destruction as \u201cpeaceful\u201d protest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a \u201cdefund\u201d world, New York\u2019s court system may let vandals off with a dismissed misdemeanor, but a bill that rivals a burn-the-place-down anarchist\u2019s student-loan tab will keep mommy and daddy\u2019s attention.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s relatively cheap for us to do this,\u201d says Foye. \u201cWe can do it with in-house counsel. .\u2009.\u2009. We\u2019re going to do everything we can on the civil side.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The average victim of a property crime, or even a more violent crime, can\u2019t do much but hope someone with power is vaguely \u00adinterested in achieving justice and deterrence for future victims. But the MTA can be a powerful victim.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor of City Journal.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0Twitter<\/a>: @NicoleGelinas<\/em>\n <\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#The MTA’s clever ‘civil’ approach to subway vandalism” In a political climate that increasingly confuses peaceful protest with smashing things up, the state-controlled Metropolitan Transportation Authority is trying a novel strategy to put vandals and graffiti scrawlers on notice: Vandalism is not a victimless crime.\u00a0 The pandemic has caused the worst crisis of the MTA\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":167813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/01\/subway-train.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[91510,71452,71454,71130],"class_list":["post-167812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-1-31-21","tag-mta","tag-subways","tag-vandalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}