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Pushy Ashmont fare piggybacker wouldn't take no for an answer, police, victim say
By adamg on Thu, 01/17/2019 - 10:23am
Transit Police have released a photo of a man they say will be charged with assault and battery on a 71-year-old man for an incident at the Ashmont Red Line station on Jan. 11.
WBZ interviewed the victim, who said he was about to tap his CharlieCard when he spotted the guy come up behind him and force his way through with the man, who tried to keep him from piggybacking.
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Comments
There is often a scumbag at
There is often a scumbag at the gates at Ashmont offering to let you in for a buck. And the T workers just watch and take it easy.
Rampant at Field’s Corner
This happens ALL the time at my station, 2 stops away. Without exaggerating, at least 25% of people at Field’s Corner ride for free. T employees do nothing to stop it. I have contacted the MBTA numerous times, but they do nothing about it. Shocker.
I don't see that, I'm there
I don't see that, I'm there all the time.
You’d make a great T employee
You’d make a great T employee then!
T employees
Don’t want to get shot or stabbed.
Explains why T ridership is
Explains why T ridership is down
A load
According to Beth Germano the "They" (The T) "try to have dedicated officers at the fare gates"
What a load of crap.
Only T Police
are allowed to stop fare evaders. i have had many similar circumstanced at DTX and the T personal shrug. They are told not to intervene, period.
No deterrence anyway
So if a fare evader gets caught they get a ticket which they won't pay anyway and that's it. It's not like the state will put them in jail for fare evasion and ignoring the ticket.
As a practical matter
Putting them in jail where it costs the state $40/day doesn't make much sense for a $2.50 infraction. That's why the state is often reluctant to push these cases, particularly when the offender is probably homeless.
there is a $50 fine for fare evasion
I am not saying that locking someone up in jail for fare evasion makes sense but the punishment for fare evasion, according to the internet, is a $50 fine for the first offense and it goes up from there and if you do not pay the fine after 30 days, then the RMV can suspend your license.
But getting a fare evader to properly id themselves can be a challenge.
https://www.mass.gov/how-to/respond-to-a-mbta-fare-evasion-ticket
MBTA fees seem to be mostly just for honest people.
Raise the infraction to $40 a
Raise the infraction to $40 a day.
Either you have laws and enforce them equitably or don't bother having them at all.
i stopped one last winter
A guy tried to follow me thru and i stopped and would not let him pass. The T employee came over let him thru and i asked what are you doing? He said you are fine and i said i know i pay monthly to use the T and you let this guy walk thru for free. He shrugged and said we cant do anything about it. A week later it happened again and the guy threatened me saying his pass was broken. T employee told me to walk.
Its a joke
No kidding T workers at the
No kidding T workers at the fare gates don't want to chase after people cheating the system. So that they can... what? Be ignored, sworn at, or worse have someone get violent with them. I wouldn't go after them either.
This is why gate-less systems seem so great. Have officers/someone equipped to deal with fallout go around and randomly check passes (maybe use the MBTA app for Charlie Ticket purposes, so you can see past usage?). Heavily fine anyone who doesn't have one.
They can and should call the
They can and should call the cops.
I'd be shocked if the cops
I'd be shocked if the cops could/would do anything about it. The person would be long gone by the time they got there, and they aren't going to waste resources tracking them down.
The transit police would
The transit police would respond. it is more difficult for the other T employees to deal with this. They are very vulnerable at the stations and confronting people is unsafe. It is best for non officer employees to help document crimes than confront anyone.
The weird thing is that if the T was free, overall operation costs would be less. It is a valuable resource that could not only help the poor get around, it would create a public transportation habit.
NOT SURE IF ITS CHANGED....
....in the intervening years but Paris France used to do this. I got caught up in it too. I DID actually pay for a fare and got a ticket but dropped or otherwise lost it, probably pulling things out of my pockets, etc. Their version of train cops came in asking to see tickets, I didn't have one, they actually took me off the train and gave me a fine that I could either pay on the spot at the ticket counter or else...well I don't know or else because I paid it (about $20 equivalent, it was Francs at the time, i know, I'm old). They gave me a receipt for the paid fine and let me on my way. I saved that receipt for a long time in fact I might still have it in a box of memories somewhere...
Safety at Ashmont
A few years ago the Greater Ashmont Main streets and the local civic groups would hold meetings with the Boston and Transit Police at the Ashmont Grill to work together to make safety at the station a priority. Senator Linda Forry and City Councilor Arianna Pressley would work with the police and the civic groups to develop solutions to crime related problems in the area. Now that the two champions of the neighborhood have left the meetings between the police and civic groups are no longer held and the station is no longer safe.
The Champions took the prizes
The Champions took the prizes ; congressional seat and six figure salary. They were not in it to help us. The MBTA needs personel, boots on the ground. A child was recently sexually assaulted at Ashmont, there is open air drug use, drinking and human trafficking.Hundreds of commuters of color pass through the station and no stores or services catering to them. Lamo.
Aggresive Piggypackers
Same thing happened to me about 2 months ago at Ruggles. Except the piggybacker was little and couldn't push me through. He then started mouthing off at me because I didn't give way enough to let him to squeeze through before the gates closed between us. I did help him out in another respect, though - I didn't turn around and punch him in the face like I wanted to.
About a week after that, I felt a guy swooping in behind me at Andrew. A split second before the turnstile, I quick-shifted lanes and went through the turnstile to the right, and the guy ran into the dead end of the closed gate and couldn't hop around to the next one in time before the gates closed behind me. And again, the failed piggybacker starts bitching at me.
It's one thing to be a freeloader re the MBTA. But this kind of thing crosses over to harassment. Innocent riders become direct victims.
Don't prosecute fare evasion
Other cities have stopped prosecuting fare evasion because it is racist; it disproportionately penalizes black people.
Just because it
Just because it disproportionately penalizes black people doesn't make it racist.
How about the Green line
How about the Green line seems like open house to me
Ok
What is your explanation for the disproportionate arrest results of fare evaders?
I really couldn't say.
I really couldn't say. Poverty?
I have seen fare evaders stopped at Central Square (Ahem, including my white self) and it doesn't in any way appear that the disguised officers are targeting black people.
I would say
Black people are disproportionately poor in Boston so it is racist one way or another.
Let’s discuss further some other time.
Correlation doesn't equal
Correlation doesn't equal causation.
It is so true that these two
It is so true that these two things are closely intertwined. So closely that they are almost the same thing.
Say Jim Crow politicians
Say Jim Crow politicians everywhere.
Then
Why bother to charge a fare at all? I'd be happy to ride the T for free rather than shelling out $84.50/month.
Exactly
When you have a country that was designed to make black ppl lower income. And you have one of the most racially inequitable in the nation. Black people are more likely to be strugggling and poor and want to evade fares.
Y’all have to realize it is harder for a large chunk of black people to pay those fares then it is for white people. There is 3x as much poverty in he black community it’s as the whites. Enforcing fare evasion in a coty like Boston (politically, economically, culturally) just opens up a nasty can of worms so it will never happen. Even if other cities do it the power imbalance in Boston and money imbalance and our national rep as racist make that a no go.
Unless they come up with a more passive enforcement system. Boston can’t even push the poor people out if they wanted because most towns nearby don’t have housing for them. Skilled politicians and state agencies are fully aware of all of this.
That’s the reality of this city and I don’t see that changing.
In that case....
Let's legalize embezzlement since that disproportionately penalizes white people.
It's almost like those two
It's almost like those two issues are on completely different scales and have totally different levels of impact.
You have the DOJ-FBI statistics backing up that claim?
Whites most likely make up the over-all majority due to the fact whites are the majority 'race' in the U.S. However, do they disproportionate to their percentage ofthe adult population actually commit a disproportionate amount of fraud?
It penalizes people breaking
It penalizes people breaking the law. Are you stating that people disportionately commit crime because of their ethnicity? That's blatantly racist.
Evidence
Please show us any evidence of racist transit police
Are black people being
Are black people being accused of fair evading that are not? That is your implication. Please stop making up racist events. Not ok.
More than fare evasion
This guy put his hands on someone.
when i worked at osco drugs
when i worked at osco drugs in davis square years and years ago, the lost prevention guy told us never chase a shop-lifter. its not worth getting stabbed for a pair of aa batteries.