Ban the Pervs — Now
One criminal-justice reform isn’t even on state lawmakers’ agenda but should top the list: protecting women and children from subway sex perverts. Which is not to let the MTA off the hook: It has ignored years of NYPD pleas to ban these criminals from the system permanently.
There’s plenty of outrage over The Post’s report Monday that a dozen serial sex offenders are driving up subway crime numbers through repeated incidents of grinding, groping and public lewdness.
But the MTA has turned its back, trying to pass the buck — when it could at least try to ban these perverts for life.
One problem, The Post’s Tina Moore and Aaron Feis noted, is that most such crimes are misdemeanors, so offenders are out of jail in no time at all (if they’re even sent there in the first place).
To fix that, Sen. Diane Savino (D-B’klyn) wants to raise the severity of many sex crimes from misdemeanors to felonies. After all, these aren’t low-level “quality of life crimes”; they’re aggressively physical, degrading attacks. And the sickos can’t commit them if they’re behind bars.
Make no mistake: These guys won’t stop offending. People like James Hunt, a public masturbator with 78 arrests, 32 for sex crimes. And groper Roger Reid, with 20 sexcrime arrests. All together, the subway “dirty dozen” have 341 arrests between them, including 159 sex crimes. Five are Level 3 sex offenders, the most likely to repeat.
The MTA claims all it can do is ask prosecutors to seek temporary bans as a condition of probation, which the criminals either ignore or wait out. Yet police and prosecutors insist they’ve long asked the MTA to file for permanent “trespass notices,” similar to those barring serial shoplifters from stores.
That would ban them from even stepping foot on MTA property and, if they do, subject them to instant arrest and further charges. The agency can also push for a permanent ban to be part of any plea bargain.
Gov. Cuomo on Tuesday said he supports bans for repeat offenders but claims the “trespass order” tactic “really hasn’t worked.” Why won’t the MTA even try? It won’t say. Action to keep riders safe is long overdue: The MTA and the Legislature should both get moving.