Local 100 President John Samuelsen Issues Statement on The Assault of a C/R By an Off-Duty NYC Police Officer

I am shocked to learn that the person who assaulted one of our members, a Conductor in uniform and on duty, in the Bronx on Dec. 23, 2014 is an off-duty NYC Police Officer.  Transit workers deal with physical and verbal abuse from the public on a daily basis, but to have an off duty Police Officer engaging in this inexplicable act of violence is an outrageous breach of the public trust.

We have spoken at length with the Conductor and a second MTA worker on the scene and we are confident that they acted professionally at all times.  The officer’s version of what happened on that platform is not believable, not supported by the facts and a pure fabrication. The fact that he waited more than a week to report anything, and only did so once his picture was made public, underscores his culpability in this case.

The Police Officer who perpetrated this crime should have already been arrested.  Had the roles been reversed, our Conductor would have been arrested on the spot.  We will not allow this case to be swept under the rug.  Nobody has the right to assault a transit worker in the course of his/her duties in service to New York. Under NYS law, assaulting a Conductor who is on duty and in uniform is a felony, punishable by up to seven years in prison.  I fully expect the Bronx DA to prosecute this case to the fullest extent of that law.

Union officers are in touch with the Conductor and will continue to assist her as she recovers from this ordeal.  They will also be meeting with their counterparts at the TA to review the TA’s policies for assigning personnel to isolated station platforms.

UPDATE: The victim, identified only as a female Conductor, aged 28, spoke with Pete Donohue of the NY Daily News in an interview published January 3, 2015.

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