A 49-year-old man already arrested more than 40 times was still not banned from New York’s subways when he allegedly assaulted a station worker at a Bronx train station on Aug. 11 who was trying to protect passengers from his harassment, according to CBS News.
Alexander Wright was ultimately charged Friday with felony assault and harassment, the outlet reported. New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chair and CEO Janno Lieber asked the same day that Wright be banned from the subway for three years, planning to send Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark a letter requesting the penalty, according to the New York Daily News.
Chair and CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Janno Lieber speaks during a news conference after a shooting at a subway station in the Brooklyn borough, in New York City, New York, U.S., April 12, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Wright cannot legally be banned for longer than three years, according to New York’s Spectrum News 1.
Wright had been arrested three times in one day last May for two assaults and criminal mischief that resulted in property damage, the New York Daily News said. He has also been charged with assault as a hate crime and synthetic marijuana possession in the past, according to the New York Post.
“The system has let society down [more than] 40 times,” Transport Workers Union Local 100 Vice President Robert Kelley told the newspaper Tuesday. “At the end of the day, these are all similar cases of assault.”
New York City Police Chief Keechant Sewell identified New York Aug. 3 as “the only state that prevents judges from considering the threat to public safety when making custody determinations.”
“That doesn’t serve the next innocent victim, it doesn’t serve our officers and it doesn’t serve quality of life,” she said.
“No one is talking about the victims,” Democratic New York City Mayor Adams said that day. “All we hear is how do we ensure those who commit crimes get justice?”
Clark’s office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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