By Carol Tannenhauser
Police are asking for the public’s assistance in finding an unidentified man “carrying a blue umbrella” (pictured at right), who allegedly “forcibly grabbed the buttocks of a 24-year-old woman” inside a southbound B train approaching the 81st Street-Museum of Natural History subway station, on Tuesday, September 6th, at 6:30 AM.
The victim reported that the man said “he could touch anyone he wants” and that “he would stab people in the eyes.” After the incident, the victim and other bystanders fled the train at 72nd Street and Central Park West, while the perpetrator remained on board going south.
Anyone with information in regard to the identity of this individual is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM, or on Twitter @NYPDTips.
All calls are strictly confidential.
This is why I no longer take the subway.
I rarely do either but it’s because it’s creepy to know that if someone were to bother me, half the people would take a picture and the other half would look down or flee.
And no one called 911 when there is a Police station at the Columbus Circle station to hold the train and get an immediate police response. Does anyone think anymore?
Seems not
Around two million people ride the subway everyday. One unfortunate person had someone grab them. I’ll continue to ride the subway everyday as the odds are in my favor.
Well, it might be easier for you since you are BIG Earl.
I stopped doing it since I’m a woman and not strong.
Well, if you keep misleading yourself that there is only one person. Keep on doing what you are doing.
Is there any even point in looking for him? He’ll be released without bail and out on the streets within hours, free to do this again and again and again. It’s most likely one of dozens of arrests on his record already.
Thought NYPD are supposed to be patrolling the subway?
Police are limited to “mezzanine duty.” Most NYC cops have no idea what a subway train even looks like.
Think the city council prefers social workers to patrol subway. But hard to tell who the social workers are, will they be in some kind of uniform?
The usual. No police presence to prevent crime. And if they are present they do nothing. Then they rely on cameras and the public to solve crime. Basically police officers are secretaries who write down crime reports and tips. That’s it.
Why should they when “Hochul the Horrible”, the Mayor, and the ever so bright Manhattan DA look the other way, make excuses and even justify deviant behavior? I remember NYC before the mid 90’s when Giuliani implemented the “broken windows” policing strategy and data driven analysis. That’s all been brushed away and replaced by “social justice” driven policies.
How can they prevent this? A man was sitting, and then committed a crime? What could police do? They can’t and shouldn’t stop and frisk.
Remember a couple of years ago there were thousand of people in the street? Protesting the NYPD, Yelling F the Police, Defund the Police, Thousands of people, while MILLIONS of New Yorkers stood by and watched as their Police Department was Attacked, watched as their Police Department was Defunded, watched their Police Department be Destroyed. The morale of the NYPD has been destoyed and will never come back. Few people want the job anymore recuitement is nearly impossible and Cops are leaving in record numbers. Couple this with Alvin Bragg and Bail reform and it’s almost certain crime will continue to rise.
There was no defunding. All they did was move the school safety officers from NYPD to DOE but nothing really changed. There’s no excuse for NYPD to do its job to anything other than the best of their ability.
That whole “Defund the Police” slogan was twisted for partisan reasons so that its meaning was lost. Here, as far as I’m concerned, is what it was about, before it was & turned into a bludgeon to beat on the left (of which I do not consider myself a member).
Broadly speaking, let’s assume the police take 100 calls; most are about violent criminal complaints where the police are exactly the right people to call, but some, say maybe 25% are about people in mental distress, family arguments, nose complaints, women about to give birth; not true police work, but who else you gonna send?
Anyway, take away that 25%, from the police (both the funding AND the responsibility of responding to those calls) & instead send social workers/nurses/psychologists; a new organization that would utilize a different approach to persons in distress, without the need of guns and handcuffs.
The police would no longer be sent out on those calls because the police are a hammer. When you need a hammer it’s the perfect tool, but when you don’t it’s inappropriate and people sometimes die due to being inappropriately hammered by the police.
The police should absolutely have enough funding to do their jobs, it’s just that the description of police work would be edited down and those people with different more therapeutic skill-sets would instead respond to some calls where previously only the police were sent.
But that devolved, for political reasons into, instead: Get rid of the police!
No one meant that because it’s simply ludicrous to call for getting rid of all police.
It was never the idea until the far right made a parody of the original idea, turned it into a straw man they could beat on to fulfill their own partisan agenda.
The police department was never “defunded” nor was it “destroyed”. If cops were offended by citizens protesting the extreme brutality of cops, to the point of refusing to do their jobs, then they should find new employment.
I remember being in my 20’s and this would happen to me a lot, one time i got a cop at the next stop and he told me “what do you expect? look how you look” This has been going on for years and nobody cares about young woman being sexually abused on subways. Of course now that I’m in my 40s doesn’t happen anymore, they go after young girls and women.
It’s going to be hard to help find the police find “a man carrying a blue umbrella”.
…especially if it’s raining out.
Brian Lehrer did a deep dive into this summer’s crime numbers on yesterday’s leading segment.
https://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl
A closer look at the numbers (reported) vs perception. 2019 vs 2022.
This might actually be the same guy that grabbed my ass on the southbound B or D train in 2015! No one helped when I yelped in shock, and another guy actually shouted that I was only upset “because a black man” grabbed my ass. Genuinely one of the worst, most dehumanizing moments of my NY life.