Dear Sirs,
I have been riding the [Long Island Railroad info deleted 'cause I don’t want strangers knowing my daily habits] each morning for close to 3 years now and I have been subjected to the harassment of your ticket-taker for most of this time, yet I have never complained-- until now.
I didn’t complain when, having a hard time finding my ticket, I handed him a bill. When the ticket dropped out of the folds of the bill I said, “Oh here’s my ticket.” to which your ticket-taker replied, “Too late,” moved the bill out of my reach and proceeded to pull an on-board ticket out of his punch and punch it up [let me add here that there is a 5 dollar surcharge for buying your ticket on board the train].
I didn’t complainwhen he physically barred an elderly woman laden with packages from taking a seat. He forced her to the back of the car and stood over her, glaring, while she fumbled for her ticket with one hand through her packages.
But what I witnessed this week surpassed harassment andjumpeddirectly into lunacy. On Wednesday, September 17 of 2003 he again barred a passenger from taking her seat, herding herto the back of the car and then got into a shoving match with her. He shoved her right out of her slip-on shoes and then absconded with the woman’s shoes! He absolutely refused to give the woman back her shoes and when the other passengers added their (now raised and justifiably angry) voices to the request for the shes, the seemingly insane ticket-taker tried to hide them at the other end of the car. Lickily, a pssengersitting in the front of the car witnessed the ticket-taker stashing the shoes and pointed out the hiding place. To add insult to injury, the now hysterical woman was hauled off the train by five police officers the Jamaica station.
Apparently emboldened by the events on Wednesday, the ticket-taker did the same, exact thingto a different passenger. This time he ran off with the man’s umbrella. Again there was a loud, disruptive confrontation–instigated by the ticket-taker. And again the passenger was hauled off by a group of police officers.
There must be a file a foot think on this employee. It is not fair that your employee gets to harass paying customers, calls ahead to alert the police, then gets to watch the passengers herded of the train. Something must be done about him.
My only regret is that I’ve waited until now to say anything, especially since it is obvious he saves this treatment for the people of color who ride in his car. I have always been skeptical of cries of “racism” when stupidity could easily explain the foolish actions of some. In this case however, it is hard to see how it could be anything else since, to my experience of the last 3 years, the white passengers on [again, detailed info removed] have never haved to deal with this type of behavior from him.
Sincerely,
Biggirl
CC: Every news organization in the NY Metro area.
Yeah, I’m pissed.