New York police have defended their actions after a bystander was shot in the head as two officers tackled a fare-evader armed with a knife in a busy subway station.
The man was in critical condition after the shooting at Sutter Avenue L station in Brooklyn on Sunday afternoon. Three others, including the suspect, were wounded.
I would also accept a “pay what you want” system. Wasting money on enforcement of $3 fares is idiotic.
IME this is largely the stance that the LA Metro buses* take, as long as you’re not causing trouble. A lot of the time I get waved on for the card not reading quick enough (resulting in a free ride), and I’ve literally never seen a driver tell someone to leave because their card won’t scan or they don’t have the money for it.
Which, when you think about it makes sense. The $1.75 or so they’re ‘losing’ from the passenger not paying (the bus will be going that route anyway, regardless of whether they board or not) will be FAR exceeded by the cost of paying a bus driver to sit there with a bus out of commission for however long it takes cops to get there and force someone out, PLUS a literal bus full of now pissed off people who may be missing connections because some bus driver had a stick up his ass. It absolutely doesn’t make sense unless the fare-evader in question is either a chronic problem causer or an immediate threat.
* trains/subways are a different matter, they have cops checking randomly onboard there to fine people