The NYPD's crackdown on subway riders who put their feet up on seats or walk between cars has been going on for so long now you can't even really call it a crackdown—it's just the way things are. But some straphangers still haven't gotten the message, and continue to provide transit police with easy pickings for their monthly quotas. One such fish in the barrel was Jay Reisberg, 64, who got caught walking through subway cars on June 9th. He tells the NY Post police were writing him a $75 ticket when he got an additional bonus ticket, for not taking his hands out of his pockets.
"I felt intimidated," Reisberg says. "I wasn't doing it to be defiant. It's my personal habit. They handled me like I was up for murder. I'm 64 years old, couldn't they see I am a harmless man?" Yes, the NYPD's telepathy standards sure have fallen. Reisberg says that after he refused to comply, officers wrote him a second ticket for $50. The Post doesn't specifically say what violation Reisberg was written up for (the tabloid also reports that this took place on the F train at the Union Square station, which is not an F stop).
But this much is certain: cops are on the lookout for anybody who makes even seemingly insignificant infractions on the subway. No one is exempt, not even intellectual Libertarians or pregnant women moving between cars on a desperate search for a seat. Licking shoes and keeping rats in your mouth are apparently fine though.
