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Woman attacked on subway platform as workers looked on

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    [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]MSNBC.com[/FONT]

    She cried rape — and no one helped
    Woman attacked on subway platform as workers looked on
    By Mike Celizic
    TODAYShow.com contributor
    updated 8:33 a.m. CT, Wed., April 8, 2009

    The young woman had been attacked in full view of a New York City subway clerk, then dragged down the steps onto a deserted platform where she was raped and raped again, the assailant not stopping even when a subway train pulled into the station.
    Now, after nearly four years of constant nightmares, bouts of depression and anxiety, the woman has been told by a judge that two transit workers who saw her being attacked had no obligation to do anything to help her other than to signal their superiors that police were needed at the station.
    In response, the woman, who asks to be identified only by her first name, Maria, is going public with her story in the hope that something will be done to save other women from enduring a similar nightmare.
    “Hearing the decision about the case — it broke my heart. It really broke my heart,” the 26-year-old told TODAY’s Meredith Vieira Wednesday in an exclusive broadcast interview in New York. “I was really hoping that changes would be made, that other women taking the subway out there could feel safe and secure. The subway is raising their fares and spending even less money on security.”
    The former graduate student said she didn’t expect the ticket clerk to leave the safety of his booth or the conductor of the train that stopped at — and left — the station during her attack to jump off his train to aid her.
    “He could have just gotten over the intercom and said, ‘Hey! Stop what you’re doing! I’ve called the cops!’ Anything like that would have helped,” she said. “He didn’t have to get out of the booth. I don’t expect him to be a police officer. But he could have definitely said something over the intercom, or perhaps having a quicker system of notifying the police would have been effective, too.”
    Maria, a native of Russia who came to the United States at the age of 7, was 22 years old and two days shy of her birthday when she was attacked. She was a graduate student at NYU looking forward to a career as a writer when she took the Queens-bound G train to visit her boyfriend in Brooklyn in the early morning of June 7, 2005.
    It was shortly after 2 a.m. and the car nearly deserted as Maria occupied herself during the trip by listening to music on her headphones and writing in her journal.
    “The second I realized something was terribly wrong was that I felt someone touching my feet,” she told Vieira, reliving again the terrifying attack. “I just thought someone had brushed me with their foot, and I noticed that the only person sitting in the subway was sitting in a place where they could not touch my feet. So I realized it was someone touching me with their hands.”
    Missed her stop
    The train pulled into her station, but, she said, “When I attempted to get off the train, this person touched my feet again, and when I turned back to yell at him, I ended up missing my stop. Then I was alone in the subway car. I was terrified. I couldn’t wait to get off the train at the next station, and just run away from him.”
    Maria got off at the next station — 21st Street in Long Island City in Queens. She sprinted for the staircase that led from the platform to the upper level. As she reached the top of the stairs, she saw a clerk in the attendant’s booth. At the same time, her attacker caught her, wrapped her in a bear hug, and started to carry her bodily back to the deserted platform.
    She told the judge in the civil suit she filed against the Metropolitan Transit Authority that she and the clerk looked at each other for a full five seconds.
    “I actually was thinking, ‘Oh, thank god, I’m saved. Someone’s here that can help me. This is going to be done in no time and I’m finally safe,’ ” she told Vieira.
    The clerk pushed a button that notifies central command that a police officer is needed. Maria said he could have gotten on the intercom and scared the attacker off. But he did nothing else as she was carried to the bottom of the stairs screaming and crying.
    Threatening her life
    “After he pulled me down the stairs, he proceeded to rape me at the bottom of the stairwell,” Maria said. “I was screaming and crying and begging him to stop. He said, ‘If you continue screaming, I’m going to have to do something.’ I couldn’t stop crying, so then he took me by the scruff of my neck and my jacket and put me over the tracks, like a 45-degree angle, and said, ‘Don’t scream again or I’m going to let go.’ ”
    During the attack, another train pulled in and departed. She caught the eye of the train’s conductor. He, too, notified the command center that police were needed. But he didn’t stop the train or do anything else to stop the rape.
    At the civil trial, the judge who ruled for the MTA concluded that the clerk and conductor “had taken prompt and decisive action” in calling for help and had complied with work rules.
    The MTA issued a statement that said, “It is important to note that while NYC Transit workers are trained to the highest degree of professionalism in their assigned jobs, they are not and should not be expected to perform in the capacity of law enforcement officers.”
    “I was never expecting them to be police officers,” she told Vieira. “They could have stayed in their booth and gone over on the loudspeaker and said something. In terms of it being prompt, by the time the cops had actually got there, 10 minutes later, I had been assaulted twice.”
    As the police arrived, the assailant fled the station and has never been apprehended.
    After the assault, Maria attempted to continue to work toward a graduate degree. But she had panic attacks when she rode the subway and had to quit school. She is still in intensive therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
    But she has found that speaking out has been therapeutic.“The most important thing for me was breaking the silence and telling my story, because it was just haunting me and eating away at me. I was kind of a zombie, walking around with this enormous weight on my shoulders and blaming myself,” Maria said. “The more I got to speak out about my story, the better I felt. The most wonderful thing was that other women would start to come forward about their own stories that they had never told anyone else.”
    She said she has forgiven her attacker, but not the MTA.
    “Unfortunately, the man who assaulted me was obviously mentally ill and psychotic,” Maria said. “He probably had no basis of reality. He didn’t have a conscience, but the transit worker did. He was a human being capable of feeling emotions as I was. I just felt that it was so coldhearted and just completely abominable to basically look the other way.”
    Maria’s lawyer, Marc Albert, joined her on TODAY and told Vieira he’s not done fighting.
    “We’re going to appeal,” Albert said. “The transit authority claimed to be training their workers. There’s no training going on here and there’s no system in place. We certainly will be appealing.”
    © 2009 MSNBC Interactive. Reprints
    URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30105703/

    MSN Privacy . Legal
    © 2009 MSNBC.com
    Just watched this story on Kelly's Court on Fox News and it brings up a variety of emotions. Aside from holding back tears I am absolutely furious.

    From a CCWers standpoint, I want to spit on those guys for not helping. They're no better than the rapist in my book.

    From the woman's standpoint, I can't imagine crying out for help, staring into help's eyes, and left out there alone to be raped, twice.

    As a CCWing woman, this is why I carry. I'm not going to wait and put my life in some cowardly passers-by hands. I'm not going to pay with my body, twice, while I wait for cops to show up.


    I would like to see pro-gun advocates take this story and run. That act of calling 911 does not stop the attack. Before the cops got there this poor girl was raped TWICE. There were so many chances for this incident to go right. That lady should have been armed. Those loser subway workers should have helped.


    I'm sorry, I'm flaming mad. Sadly a number of women can relate to this poor lady's horror. Guys, this is your wife. This is your daughter. This is your sister. This is your mom. Are you ok with it being your family?

    Lastly, I can't believe that two witnesses stood by and ignored it. And I wave a finger in salute to the judge for his ruling. It should not be a written law that a person is required to exercise human decency and humanity to help a woman being raped right before one's eyes.

    Laws are worthless without principles. Its no wonder our society standards are going down the toilet. This world is upside down when doing right is wrong and wrongs are acceptable.


    Hurley's Gold
     

    DCortez

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    I remembered seeing a video of a man hit by car and left in the streets of Connecticut (iirc) to fend for himself. People even drove around the older man. That kind of crap sets me on fire.

    I've lived and traveled up north/northeast. They are not "Texas Friendly". I don't know if it's the cold, the crowd, or the crowded while cold, but it's not the same as the south.
     

    GM.Chief

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    I have to say I agree 100%. If you see something like that going on you've got to do something. If you're not armed yourself, use a backpack, a newspaper, anything to try and help. If this was happening to my wife, I'd be pretty pissed to find out people saw what was going on and didn't help out. What happened to a sense of duty inherent in the common person. Nowadays, it's mostly a sense of self preservation. It's sad when people think we should let our military help others, but don't want to do anything themselves. Good people get hurt because lazy self-centered people let the bad guys win while they wait for someone else to do something. These guys are like a bunch of sick voyeurs in my mind.
     

    Vellcrow

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    "When seconds count, the police are only minutes away." This quote is not a jab at LE, it is just a fact. The police department is a reactionary force, one that is not obligated to give citizens personal protection.

    Why would any governmental body not allow its citizens the right to protect themselves? What happened to that woman was beyond terrible, and yes, I think the MTA should be held accountable.

    "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."...applies to this situation in a very sad way.
     

    MadMo44Mag

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    I can feel for her and understand her frustration.:mad:

    In 1978 I was robbed in Houston at gun point while pumping gas.
    There were three other people pumping gas and the attendant was watching as well and no one stepped up.
    Shortly after my home invasion 4 weeks later I started carrying a 357mag.
    At the time I did not care if CCW was legal or not.
    As one tag line says; when seconds count, the cops are only minutes away.
     

    Starker

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    This is the quote that steamed me.

    The MTA issued a statement that said, “It is important to note that while NYC Transit workers are trained to the highest degree of professionalism in their assigned jobs, they are not and should not be expected to perform in the capacity of law enforcement officers.”

    How about performing in the capacity of a "decent human being?"
     

    MadMo44Mag

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    This is the quote that steamed me.

    The MTA issued a statement that said, “It is important to note that while NYC Transit workers are trained to the highest degree of professionalism in their assigned jobs, they are not and should not be expected to perform in the capacity of law enforcement officers.”

    How about performing in the capacity of a "decent human being?"

    This is a "ME" world.
    You hardly every hear we, us, - it's always me or I.
    I aint gettin involved!!!!
    Back in 78 while waiting for the HPD I asked the gas station attendant why he did not call the cops? His reply was "not my problem"

    Most people don't give a dam unless it happens to them.
    I will say with exception that most CHL holders have a completely different view. I think this may because they themselves don't want to be a victim or see someone else become a victim.
    Man this tread is starting to piss me off.
    I can't stand people that watch an injustice and walk away thinking it's ok.:mad:
     

    Big country

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    Me neither. I was in the parking lot at the Leander post office last year (mailing rent) and there was a terrible head on collision and people just stood there watching while a road construction guy, wilco deputy and I started helping. People just don't care anymore. (Now I'm only 23) but when I was a kid we'd stop and help people, and I still do. We take things like rape seriously in Texas,I guess they don't in New York. I don't think someone could do that to a woman in Texas and get caught.
     

    GM.Chief

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    Exactly. I understand that it's me world, and I'll be the first to admit that it's hard to care about everybody all the time. Maybe that's why I try not to watch the news all the time, you get depressed or pissed when you see what happens out there. But I'll ssay this: it's one thing for you to be indifferent when you're at home watching TV, it's another thing when you're there in person. Get off your butt and do something. Don't stand there like a moron and think "hmmm...isn't that a shame?". How do these people even look themselves in the mirror. I may not be a totally selfless person, but I try to help when and where I'm at a place where things aren't going right. These people who don't care oughtta be given a swift kick in the rear. They probably sit in their pews at church and talk about how great a person they are...
     

    txinvestigator

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    OK, we all think others should help in such situations.....but the thrust of the article was that the woman wanted the witnesses held civilly responsible.

    Do you want THAT?
     

    MadMo44Mag

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    OK, we all think others should help in such situations.....but the thrust of the article was that the woman wanted the witnesses held civilly responsible.

    Do you want THAT?

    Yes they should be held accountable if they were able to assist. ie; call the cops, yell, throw trash cans, whatever it took to help prevent the incident.
    Just turning a blind eye is part of the problem with this country IMO.
    No one wants to be accountable!
     

    txinvestigator

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    Yes they should be held accountable if they were able to assist. ie; call the cops, yell, throw trash cans, whatever it took to help prevent the incident.
    Just turning a blind eye is part of the problem with this country IMO.
    No one wants to be accountable!

    Ok, who gets to judge if they "did enough"? What should the consequences be if they don't "do enough"?

    Do you really want to make the precedent that YOU are responsible for protecting everyone around you? That you could be PUNISHED if someone else, years later and with plenty of time for rational thought, decides you didn't "do enough"?
     

    MadMo44Mag

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    Ok, who gets to judge if they "did enough"? What should the consequences be if they don't "do enough"?

    Do you really want to make the precedent that YOU are responsible for protecting everyone around you? That you could be PUNISHED if someone else, years later and with plenty of time for rational thought, decides you didn't "do enough"?

    OK, lets look at this this way.
    The witness saw the act, knowingly failed to take any action and allowed the act to transpire with no sense of right or wrong or concern for a fellow human being, then there should be some sort of deterrent or punishment.
    I am not saying long jail time or huge fines; but you are open to civil suite with in a set time frame (6 months after a trial or the act)
    It only needs to be some sort of legal instrument that states you have an obligation to act as a human being and not be a door knob!

    Being a victim of violent crime myself where I was surrounded by people that could have at least called the cops and didn't I have a bit of a bitter taste for folks that just don't care or are to scared to get involved.
     

    Shorts

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    The Good Samaritan Laws comes to mind.

    Acting to help a victim is seen in a softer light than standing by watching a victim succumb to the threat.


    I think the specific failure of the two workers to do as little as possible in this situation hurt as bad as the terror of being raped. Not only did she have to submit to it, but she did so knowing that there was someone, not once but twice, seeing her in trouble and made no attempt to show her any help. The lady specifically said she didn't expect them to jump out there and help; simply stating that "at least" they should have said something on the intercom to try to help. If the workers would have gone to her aid they would have exceeded her expectations.

    She probably felt like she was left out there alone. And she was.

    Sure there was no "obligation" to help her, as defined by legal. It's the human element that is pathetically lacking.

    OK, we all think others should help in such situations.....but the thrust of the article was that the woman wanted the witnesses held civilly responsible.

    Do you want THAT?

    Want it? No. Is it a reality, yes. As a CCWer I am prepared mentally, physically and financially in hopes of not ever needing to use those preparations. But they are in place just the same.

    Same thing in Health & Fitness. As a trainer I am liable for my clients. Did I want to be? No. It is a reality? Yes. A liability insurance policy is required. Trainers don't operate without insurance. Trainers are only suppose to do good. They help people reach their physical fitness goals. That doesn't stop unhappy clients from filing suit for mental or physical anguish.


    Did I post to say I think those cowards should be sued because she was raped? No.

    But I am saying they acted like worthless pieces of human beings for walking away. A civil suit doesn't change that. There's more meaning to life than the USDOJ.
     

    Big country

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    Most people would feel a moral obligation to stop the rape, I'd probably have gone over there and used what ever level of force needed to stop the act of violence. Do I expect an elderly person to do the same? No. Do I expect a capable person to do something? No not necessarily as far as using force. But I do expect some one to call 911 if they see someone getting brutally attacked, it is only right to at least call the police. In my line of work we are often told to call a supervisor before we call the police, but if I'm witnessing a rape or possible rape (especially on an armed site) I will by-pass that and call police give them details and then if there is no apparent threat to me or further threat to the victim (a gun, knife or other weapon) then I move in on the attacker and use any level of force necessary to stop the attack. Those people should be open to civil liability for this. And yes I'm okay with that. Are you telling me that you think it is was right for them to watch this woman get raped and not catch any shit for not calling the police? I expect someone to do every thing in their power to stop a rape in progress, weather it means calling the police or or using some level of force. I would also like to say that had this woman been armed she might have been able to stop this at "assault by contact" instead of it turning into rape.
     

    MadMo44Mag

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    You didn't really answer my questions.

    12 peers, just like any other trial. Defense has their job and the Persecution has theirs. Same with a judge.
    There is a human element that has been lost. People have been turned into numbers that have NO responsibility to each other or for their public acts or lack of..

    txinvestigator you sound just like my oldest daughter when she first got out of the academy. It's all about the law or lack there of. The human element was gone.

    After a few years on the force in Memphis TN that attitude changed.

    People need to be held accountable for their acts or lack there of in public; in any venue where people are involved there is a human element.
     

    DoubleActionCHL

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    It's a shame no one got involved. To hold individuals civilly responsible for not getting involved is a bit of a stretch. Suing the NYC Transit Authority for failing to protect her might be an option. Although it would never fly, I'd be in favor of suing NYC and NY State for stripping this woman of her right to protect herself.

    People just don't get involved anymore. We've become a society of 'watchers'. We just sit and watch bad things happen on TV, on Youtube, and apparently in real life. We've conditioned ourselves to look on these horrible acts as normal. It's sad, really.
     

    MadMo44Mag

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    I've taken some heat for stating civil action should be an option and I'm good with that.
    My point is we need an instrument that places "WITNESSES" with some responsibility to help protect a fellow human being.
    That's really all I would like to see.
    Some sort of instrument that states you can face some sort of prosecution as a witness who stands by and witnesses a violent act carried out against a fellow human being and did nothing to help.
    Just like in this case, if one of the transit workers called their supervisor who then after being informed call the cops: well all good then.
    There was an attempt by witnesses to help this victim; no legal action of any kind can be taken.
    When witnesses stand by and do absolutely nothing, then they should accept responsibility for their lack of action.
    That's all I saying.
    This is not brain science, just people take responsibility for their lack of action when they could have help prevent a violent act carried out against a fellow human


    I'm all done here!
     

    DoubleActionCHL

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    Here's the problem with allowing victims to take civil action for not getting involved:

    In this case, we had a clerk in a booth and a train conductor. That's pretty easy. We've got two people we can sue by name.

    What if this happened on a busy street with hundreds of people around? Who do you sue? Do you want to be the unlucky one in 500 who happened to be identified and sued?

    Secondly, unlike law enforcement, private citizens have no legal duty to get involved. Suing someone for not getting involved implies that they have some legal duty to do so.

    Next, you assume a tremendous amount of liability by getting involved, and, in most cases, once you get involved, you are committed and ceasing your assistance could be actionable.

    The problem is our sue-happy society has made getting involved such a risky business that no one wants to do it; combine that with the fact that we've raised a bunch of narcissists. If you're going to sue me for not getting involved, you'd better stop suing me when I DO get involved.
     
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