NYT: 'I Was Groped on the Subway.'

Awesome story.

The undercover officer asked if I would give her a written statement right there. I nodded, and she handed me a piece of paper. My hand shook as I wrote, my words jumbled. Finally, I handed her the sheet filled with crossed out inappropriate words replaced by slightly less inappropriate words. She said her partner would come talk to me in a minute and pointed toward a bench. There was the man in the navy sweat pants. He sat calmly, hands cuffed behind his back with a plastic zip tie. I hadn’t even realized they had stopped him, let alone that they were arresting him.

The other officer, a man wearing camouflage cargo shorts and a ripped T-shirt, told me they were watching for pickpockets, but that groping was “the real epidemic.”

“I saw your face first,” he said. “I have daughters and a wife, so I knew right away what that look meant. Makes me sick.” He assured me there was little I could have done, that my groper had picked the busiest train at the peak of rush hour for that very reason. I clung onto his words, grateful for his empathy.

http://nyti.ms/11zpOXZ

 

I didn't do it!

 

Or maybe he did.



Where's that right hand?

 

Nice shirt, Jared Subway Tool.

And you make how much money?

 

No need for him to grope anyone on the subway. He can get his hands on some perky Bs in the privacy of his own home.

 

<i>"When we arrived at Times Square, I pushed passed him with the force of the other riders behind me."</i>

Pushed "passed" him? In the New York Times? Or at least on the website?

More to the point, how effective is prosecution in a case like this? Can't the perp argue that the train was crowded and that contact was incidental? Is the eyewitness testimony of undercover cops enough to establish intent? Do the courts and cops really have the time and inclination to pursue these cases?

 

Being groped on the subway in NYC counts as news? I thought that was sort of a regular occurrence.

 

If high school softball players were involved, I assume there would be interest from a poster or two here.

 

Further nitpicking: Was the victim actually "groped?" I thought hands had to be involved to grope.

I guess this is a feelgood (no pun intended) story that they nabbed a subway pervert, but I don't really see much substance.

 

A jury of his peers would know it is entirely possible to ride in crowded subway cars every day for years on end without becoming obviously aroused and repeatedly rubbing that part -- and that part only -- against someone else. In fact, I find subway cars so disgusting (although some people eat there, contributing to the odors of others who haven't bathed or just farted), that I'm pretty sure most of us would need some chemical assistance to reach this state. It's a loud, stinky, sweaty, moving petri dish filled with all kinds of lowlifes. Even without being groped, short women like my wife wind up wedged under somebody's armpit somedays. Not a turn-on for most folks.

 

You're showing your age. I remember when it was possible to get wood from reading an especially spicy Ann Landers column.

 

Frank's post is an ethnic slur or two from John Rocker territory.