The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which operates the city’s subway, asked for the first time in its history that a passenger who assaulted a passenger be banned from its entire network. a worker, and drew attention to the fear felt by the staff of being victims of violence.
According to a statement, the chief executive of the MTA, Janno Lieber, will send a letter to the Bronx District Attorney’s Office to request that a judge impose a veto on Alexander Wright, a man accused of attacking a subway cleaner and who has a wide criminal history riddled with arrests.
Wright, 49, is on remand for assaulting 35-year-old Anthony Nelson a week ago, leaving him hospitalized with a broken collarbone and dislocated nose, after the janitorial worker tried to stop the defendant from harassing other passengers at a station in the Bronx.
The subject, who is accused of assault and harassment, is an old acquaintance of Justice and has been arrested more than forty times, including one last year for an unprovoked attack on an Asian woman who fell unconscious to the ground, which was considered a hate crime and shocked New Yorkers.
Lieber said the organization wants to do what it can to keep passengers and workers safe, calling the ban “justified” in Wright’s case because of his extensive criminal history.
The president of NYC Transit, part of the MTA and which operates transportation in the Big Apple, Richard Davey, added that assaults on employees are recurrent and criticized that it should not be part of his job “to look behind his shoulder out of fear to be attacked.”
The MTA indicated that it will ask the Prosecutor’s Office that when the penalty for Wright is known, a judge prohibits him from accessing the system, including the subway, trains, buses and its facilities, for three years, which is the maximum time possible under the law. .