Current News from the MTA LC
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3:
(AM NEW YORK)-- MARCH 3 -- Four of the five district attorneys stood with TWU Local 100 Wednesday and called on the state Legislature to elevate spitting on a transit worker from a violation to a misdemeanor. The 5th DA sent the head of his Trials Division. Bronx DA Darcel Clark was first to the podium. https://www.amny.com/.../mta-workers-get-traction-in.../
The city’s five district attorneys urged state legislators to amend the penal code to upgrade spitting at a transit worker to a misdemeanor from a violation. The reclassification would, technically, make spitting punishable by up to one year in jail. In practice, most misdemeanors result in very little if any jail time, according to Matthew Galluzzo, a criminal defense attorney in Manhattan.
Transit workers were spat at more than 200 times last year, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement. “Spitting on a bus or train operator is an egregious act and with the still-raging Covid pandemic, potentially life threatening,” he said.
The state-controlled Metropolitan Transportation Authority warned of a rise in assaults on its workers at the start of last year. Harassment and attacks have continued throughout the pandemic despite a steep decline in ridership, according to Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents almost 40,000 subway and bus workers in the city.
“We come to work to do a job, not get assaulted and abused,” the union’s leader,Tony Utano, said at a news conference in Brooklyn. “We need help from the state Legislature, and we need it now.” https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-prosecutors-urge-tougher-punishment-for-spitting-at-transit-workers-11614811467
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