On The Way: MTA fare inspectors beat up man over fare he says he paid
MTA Chair Janno Lieber is brushing aside the Mamdani administration’s claim that a violent incident earlier this month where MTA inspectors tackled a suspected fare evader shows the need to eliminate bus fares.
An “unfortunate physical conflict” between a rider and MTA fare inspectors “doesn’t mean you get rid of fare payment,” Lieber, who's also the state-run agency's CEO, said at a press conference at Bryant Park on Thursday.
“Honestly, you know, traffic agents and customers who get parking tickets get into fights sometimes,” Lieber said. “We don’t say that we’re not gonna have parking tickets when that happens.”
Kyle Taylor, an employee at a Brooklyn public school, said he was stopped by the MTA’s EAGLE fare enforcement unit on Oct. 6 while attempting to exit a B14 bus. When the officers demanded to see proof he had paid for his fare, Taylor said, he explained that he had used a paper transfer ticket.
One of the officers told police that Taylor “fell out of the bus,” according to a summary of the NYPD complaint.
But video of the incident captured by a surveillance camera near the Rockaway and Pitkin Avenue stop shows the four enforcement officers slamming Taylor against a bus shelter and wrestling him to the ground.
