Queens Supreme Court Justice Kevin Kerrigan was correct when he ruled last week that a subway conductor and a token collector had no legal responsibility to intervene when a young woman was raped twice on a subway platform. They were, in fact, following Metropolitan Transportation Authority “work rules” when they decided not to confront the rapist.
It seems these men cannot be held legally responsible for what happened and neither can the MTA. But simple common sense says that what they did — or, more precisely, what they allegedly didn’t do — was an act of moral cowardice.
The victim who brought an unsuccessful suit against the MTA claims the clerk watched as the attacker picked her up in a “bear hug” and dragged her downstairs to a subway platform. The attacker then raped her twice. The clerk pushed the emergency button inside the booth that connects to a manager who then decided whether to contact police. By the time the police got there, the rapist was gone and the woman’s life was shattered forever.
It gets worse. While she was being raped, a train pulled into the station. The conductor saw what was happening. He also pushed an emergency button and then pulled out of the station.
Both men did what they were trained to do. They purposely did not get involved. Their union and the MTA is standing behind them. The union is calling for more surveillance cameras and routine police patrols of the platforms. The judge concluded that, by law, everyone did the right thing.
But common sense and human decency trump the law. Any man in good health and not disabled who can watch a young woman get brutally raped and do nothing but push a button has forfeited the right to be called a man. At very least the token clerk could have left his booth to shout at the attacker and tell him the police were on their way. Either man could have grabbed a pipe or a stick and beaten the attacker who was on top of the girl.
No, the MTA cannot require or even advise such acts of bravery. But neither can it be happy with a policy that says “in the event of a rape or similar emergency, just push a button and don’t get involved.”
What if the victim had been a child? Would it still have been OK to do nothing?
