This perv has a rap sheet with 30 arrests for sex abuse, 13 for jostling and two for grand larceny, according to the NYPD, and his behavior is so compulsive that he was barely out of the clink before he started up with the sexual abuse again.
About two weeks after he was released from prison, Freddie Johnson boarded a crowded subway train in Manhattan and illegally rubbed up against a woman, authorities said.I’m surprised this dick still has his wing-wang; surely if he rubbed up against my cousin, it would be swiss cheese by now.It is a fairly common crime on subways in New York. But this was no common criminal. Johnson has been arrested a staggering 53 times — the majority for groping women on the subway, police and prosecutors said.
In his latest arrest, Johnson was being followed by plainclothes officers who recognized him from police photos, authorities said. He was charged with persistent sexual abuse, and if convicted this time, he could be sent away for life. The district attorney’s office branded him a “recidivist transit grinder” at a court hearing earlier this week.
But the fact that Johnson was roaming the subways in the first place has raised questions about how the state deals with the problem of repeat sex offenders. His case even drew the scorn of a newspaper editorial this week that labeled Johnson the “Subway Rat.”
My story of pervy subway behavior is below the fold.
Back in the 80s when I was living in NYC, I was the unhappy recipient of transit grind by a perv. I fortunately was getting off at the next stop and yelled “perv” and pointed at him from the platform and watched as the doors closed.
I haven’t experienced any recent pervy subway behavior, but it seemed like they were all riding the trains back in the 80s. In another incident, I was dozing and the train stopped at Chambers Street/WTC and the doors opened and the train sat there for a while, waiting for the train ahead of mine to clear the next station, I’m guessing. I look out the door and this man in a long coat opened it and proceeded to take what seemed like the longest pee in the world right there on the platform facing the subway car, looking at the occupants and grinning.
The doors mercifully closed, the train slowly began its exit and he was still whizzing away.
Care to share your road warrior tales of craptacular pervitude?
Also:
* Woman sues over perv passenger next to her on flight
41 Responses to “NYC Subway ‘recidivist transit grinder’ busted for the 53rd time”
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Want to hear something really sad?
I live in NYC and had no idea that this sort of thing was a crime. Groping, sure, but jostling? Rubbing up against me?
Still happens all the time, though. I have to say the grinding/rubbing has gone down since I got a job outside midtown that requires me to come home a little after peak rush hour. But general sexual harassment on the trains is definitely as bad as it ever was.
Well, there was the time that a guy took out his massive schlong and masterbated for several stops. He was in a suit and looked normal enough, except for the perviness.
Nobody on the train would look at him. He got up, and as he got off, he held on to the railing.
I have always kept hand sanitizer around since then in case I ever have to hold on to something on the train.
There was another time on the el when this guy started caressing the hair on my arm. I shot him a look, and he said “Does it bother you when I do this?”
“Yes.”
So he stopped, but it was one of the weirder trips.
I think guys like this are part of 3 problems. One, the law-and-order government that apparently doesn’t think sexual harassment and assault are against the law, and two, the absolute failure of our public institutions that don’t provide a safe, welcoming environment to people once they’ve had the bottom cut out of them by privatization and downsizing.
Think about it: the subways are going from diamond to gold to bronze after 100 years, falling apart, and the last thing we’re spending public monies on is making the subway stations and trains well-lit, warm, and staffed. There’s no shortage of security cameras and goon squads, but these surveillance measures are there to stop terra-ism and manufactured petty crime. This is a system that doesn’t even treat the kind of behavior this dick is engaged in as criminal. So as long as there are dicks like this, and say, President Bush, who puts his hands all over German Chancellor Angela Merkel, we aren’t going to rein them in unless we shift our resources from making sure you don’t look too Muslim while riding a train to making sure you feel physically comfortable.
I don’t like leaving it at “this guy’s a perv.” One bad apple? No, he’s just one of the more rotten in the bunch. We’re living in a pro-harassment society.
Jeez, 2 problems. Early morning outrage.
His case even drew the scorn of a newspaper editorial this week that labeled Johnson the “Subway Rat.”
This is a big part of the problem, right here. If this gets mainstream NYC coverage (and I haven’t noticed any in my morning commute peeks at the Post, Daily News, or the free papers like Metro New York), it will be covered as a case of one bad apple. As if this never ever happens, except for this one freaky perv gone wild in the subways.
It’s not a case of a few pervy dudes unable to keep it in their pants on the subways. It’s a pervasive and systematic thing. In my opinion, it’s not even a matter of the subways being clean, safe, nice, etc. The times I’ve been groped or rubbed up against have mainly been rush hours on already crowded trains. Men don’t care how many people are around or who might see, mainly because, as I revealed above, most people either don’t think of it as a crime or don’t know it is one.
And, then of course, you have all the folks who think such a thing must be “flattering” or “sexy”.
When I lived in NYC in the ’90s, I frequently had the experience of a young woman approaching me out of the blue on the subway and asking if she could sit with me for the rest of her trip or even if I’d escort her out at her stop because some creep was harrassing her. She’s usually point the scumbag out, and the thing that amazed me was that the harrassers would stay in the same car. They were too cowardly to come close, of course, but for some bizarre reason they would stay there the whole time, either staring right at us or nervously pretending they were innocent. A couple of them even followed us out at the woman’s stop.
Happened about 3 or 4 times per year, and usually during daylight hours, too. The creeps ran the gamut from obvious derelicts all the way to Wall Street types in expensive suits, but they all gave off the same sense that they were somehow entitled to harrass and intimidate complete strangers. That kind of behaviour in so-called men still puzzles me.
I don’t live in NYC, and I’ve never even been there. I think if I did, and I saw this sort of thing happening a lot, it would be the sort of thing that would start me packing a hatchet in the briefcase before work every morning.
What’s the preferred solution for this sort of thing? A squirt of mace on the perv’s winkie would be plenty amusing, but I doubt that’s something other commuters on a closed subway car want to deal with, right?
I live in NYC now, I’ve seen it all I think. The only incident like this that I can recall is the one time I was riding the subway home late at night and some guy sat next to me. I was reading and not paying attention, until he sort of started rubbing his side against me. I looked over intending to ask him to move over a little, and lo, he had a porn magazine open.
I had a subway stalker when I lived in my old neighborhood. He’d follow me around during my morning commute. It happens that I had to transfer at a major hub and there were always a couple of cops on the platform there, so if I made like I was going to go talk to the cops, the stalker would back off.
But, yeah, this is life for most New York women. The thing that got to me about this guy’s story in particular, besides the 52 previous arrests, was that he said to reporters something like, “There are so many beautiful women in New York, how can you expect this not to happen?” I’d be preaching to the choir if I went into my rant about that here, so I’ll leave it at that.
My sister had to deal with this crap more than once on the Paris subway. She had to throw an elbow into one guy’s gut before he got the point to back off.
Having said that, “Recidivist Transit Grinder” would be an excellent name for a rock band.
I spent some time in Japan in college, and apparently it’s a huge problem there too. One of my professors told a story about an American woman riding a packed train durring rush hour. Some guy tried to grope her, and she grabbed his hand held it up and yelled out “Whose hand is this?” in Japanese.
Then why isn’t his picture posted in all the subway cars or at least at the ticket windows/machines.
Quick courtesy guide for men on busy subways when overcrowding causes you to be forced closed together (Which, yes, I’m aware, is a thousand miles from this guy’s crimes). Tense up any of the muscles touching the woman, to make it clear that the close proximity isn’t circumstance, not your choice, and you are moving it as far away from a caress as possible.
What sucks about people like these and the system that doesn’t enforce proper punishment for them is that the New York Subway System is one of the great social spaces in America. Almost economic levels rides the subway, and you get interaction, eavesdropping (Overheard in NY would disappear in a second if the R line shut down), a sense of what others are reading (I’m working on a theory that no one who reads Eat Pray Love will ever give up their seat), outre fashion shows, and yes, flirting, within proper social boundaries and with respect.
At 53 arrests, I think this guy’s behavior qualifies as pathological. While I sympathize with the sentiments expressed above, let’s try to keep in mind that this guy is probably mentally ill, and that if he ends up in prison, he’s going to have to deal with the double problem of his illness and his status as a sex offender. He’s not alleged to have raped anyone, but in prison in the US, he’s very likely to be subjected to more extreme sexual abuse than he’s subjected anyone to outside. So let’s maybe take a moment to think about the problem of prison rape before we cheer too loudly about this man’s impending incarceration.
Then why isn’t his picture posted in all the subway cars or at least at the ticket windows/machines.
Because what’s the point? You concentrate on watching out for this guy, and then you get rubbed up against by another 5 dudes.
While I sympathize with the sentiments expressed above, let’s try to keep in mind that this guy is probably mentally ill, and that if he ends up in prison, he’s going to have to deal with the double problem of his illness and his status as a sex offender.
Yeah, lets totes let all men off the hook for sexual harassment, because they’re probably pathological. And we wouldn’t want them to have to deal with being in some icky prison, now would we?
For what it’s worth, I’m not sure this guy belongs in prison. The crimes he’s been arrested for, though there are a lot of them, are probably not felonies. He’ll get 90 days in Riker’s Island (the city jail), if even that. Probably more like probation and tons of court ordered therapy.
At 53 arrests, I think this guy’s behavior qualifies as pathological. While I sympathize with the sentiments expressed above, let’s try to keep in mind that this guy is probably mentally ill.
And just as likely not. We don’t know. What we do know is that he’s broken the law repeatedly by invading womens’ physical space to an unacceptable degree, and has offered no insanity defence for this behaviour. Instead, he makes unapologetic excuses about being overwhelmed by temptation. Therapy only works when the subject acknowledges that he has a serious problem in the first place.
90 days in Rikers won’t solve this creep’s problem, either. The more effective punishment seems to be what happened to this mope, who was snapped by a camphone in flagrante delicto and had his picture plastered all over the tabloids. Combine that public shaming with a barely enforceable but still inconvenient 10-year ban from the MTA (automatic expulsion or arrest if he’s caught even trying to buy a Metrocard from a machine), and a prominent repeat offender like this will get the message.
TG, did you read the article you linked to? Apparently the mope in question certainly didn’t get the message. Unbelievable.
The prosecution apparently asked to have this fine gentleman incarcerated, but the judge opted for release and electronic monitoring.
I think the only real way to prevent this sort of thing is by doing what the NYPD seems to already be doing in the case of this one guy. Actually see this level of street harassment as a crime, encourage women to come forward, and then actively work at catching these dudes and prosecuting them to whatever extent the law allows. 10-year bans from the MTA, electronic monitoring, and the like are probably a good start in terms of realistic penalties.
The problem with media shaming is that the media has a really rusty track record of seeing this sort of thing as an actual problem — I can easily see a paper like the Post spinning this into some sort of fucked up editorial where the ultimate conclusion is the perp’s own defense: this only happens here because New York ladies are so hawt! You gals should take it as a compliment! What’s wrong with these frigid feminazi women?!
And of course putting this guy’s picture in the Times or some other slightly more sensitive paper is not exactly going to hit home in the same way.
TG, did you read the article you linked to?
I did read it. The point is, he isn’t pulling out his willy on the subway or other public property anymore. That’s the only message he (and Johnson) needed to get and, according to the article, he got it.
Now it’s also clear he doesn’t get the larger issue of his inappropriate behaviour, and is delusional about it in some hippy-dippy New Age way. But I don’t really care if he’s an exhibitionist elsewhere. If the jerk is stupid enough (as he apparently is) to whip it out on semi-public property like a dance club or a restaurant, he risks the consequences of getting stomped by the bouncer and/or patrons. He would doubtless whinge and complain afterward, but he’d have trouble gaining either the sympathy of the NYPD or the co-operation of witnesses if he tried to play the victim.
I also find it amazing that guys like think this behaviour is remotely acceptable, let alone desirable. But if they get the message that they can’t pull this stuff on public property, I’ll settle for that. I hope Johnson’s ankle bracelet is specifically set to go off if he walks through any subway turnstile in the 5 boroughs — after 53 arrests, he’s lost his NYC subway privileges.
If he’s mentally ill, let him get treatment. If he fails to do so, lock him up. Yes, it’s too bad for him, but I’m more concerned with the rights of women to ride the subway without being assaulted.
The problem with media shaming is that the media has a really rusty track record of seeing this sort of thing as an actual problem
True, but newspapers and TV and radio aren’t the only media anymore — see http://www.hollabacknyc.blogspot.com . A blog devoted to creeps like Johnson might not have the reach of the Post, but I doubt that the pervs want camphone pics of their deeds and the license plates of their trucks posted on the Net forever. Their buddies and co-workers might give them a pass, but their wives and mothers and sisters would probably find it less than humourous.
I’ve ridden the subways every day for years, and I’ve only seen one instance of this sort of creepy behavior. That said, how could you even tell if someone was grinding on you on the subway?I probably inadvertantly grind everyone that comes into my vicinity on a crowded rush hour train. I may have been a victim and not even known it!
The problem with hollabacknyc as “public humiliation” is that it doesn’t really have any reach. It’s not like some pervy subway wanker’s wife or mother or daughter is going to be surfing hollabacknyc and see him on there, purely by accident.
I agree that newspaper and TV aren’t the only media anymore, but one issue with the web is that, except for a few huge sites, it’s a niche market. Half the city sees the front cover of the Post every day, even if they never buy it or read it. It’s like a million tiny billboards, all over the city.
On the other hand, very few people have a habit of perusing Hollabacknyc.
That fact, and the fact that most men don’t realize that their mothers/sisters/wives have to go through this crap daily is just so sad.Bubbaray, you’d know. It’s not an inadvertant bumping relating to the bumps in the road or other passengers moving by.
You *know.* Most of all, b/c the pervs want you to know. That’s part of the kick–they’ve got you trapped, you can’t run away, so what are you going to do? Women in our society are told to be quiet and not create a scene.
The problem with hollabacknyc as “public humiliation” is that it doesn’t really have any reach.
Agreed, as noted by myself above. The strengths of Web sites are persistance and focus. MSM stories about pervs usually disappear after a few days. But the ones on niche sites like Hollaback are there to see pretty much forever for anyone who’s intrigued by the topic (see also the embarrasment fests of Facebook and MySpace, and lots of other smaller niche sites). On locally focused niche sites like Hollaback, that means there’s a fair chance you might see someone you know. HollabackNYC is of interest to NYC women who’ve been harrassed, and those women just might be the sisters or mothers or employers of other NYC harrassers who appear on the site.
Hollaback would be more effective if it had a searchable DB behind it, allowed instant posting from cams, and had other technical enhancements. But even as-is, the archives are available going back a few years. That gives the casual flasher or wanker more of a chance, small as it is, to be caught by an aquaintance than in years past. And that might cause him to think twice before he whips it out.
The MSM only does public shaming for extreme cases, anyhow — the kind that can be painted as “bad apples.” Hollaback shows the small-time creeps. But whatever the medium, shaming or fear thereof seems more of an effective long-term deterrent to these poor-impulse-control excuse-making types than therapy (”not relevant to a New Age raw food expert like me”) or a short stint at Rikers (”so unfair for a victimless crime — I was the tempted one”).
Whether they’re chronic offenders like the guy in the article, or your garden variety cat-caller, these guys only want to get caught by strangers, not by people they know. If the latter happens, they completely lose the thrill they’re really seeking: a sense of power.
now this sounds like a wonderfull use for cellphones with cameras. someone doing that sort of shit? snap his picture.
I would love to see a website where pictures of people in the act can be posted. I’d hope it would become a stop for many places when checking a resume for hiring… that’d be nice wouldn’t it? be a dick, lose your job!
http://www.hollabacknyc.blogspot.com
oh, i’ve been groped, but alas, not on the subway. pervs like this want us to be shamed into silence when they do this shit. not me. when this happens i make a big, fucking scene.
and if i run into this perv on the subway in nyc, i will, most likely, grab and squeeze his balls until he turns blue in the face.
TG wrote:
You write as though this fine gentleman is thinking and acting rationally. After 53 arrests, he knows full well that such behavior is neither legally nor societally acceptable, and he certainly knows that engaging in this behavior on public property — and I’d guess most private property as well — can’t be done.
Yet he does it anyway. That, in itself, is the definition of someone who is simply messed up mentally. Logic and punishment simply does not deter someone who feels such compulsions. He may or may not be treatable, but he needs to be locked up.
Yet he does it anyway. That, in itself, is the definition of someone who is simply messed up mentally.
“Messed up mentally” is a broad category, Dana. The fact that a judge saw fit to release him despite 53 previous arrests indicates how broad it is. A lot of sociopaths think and act rationally when it serves their own interests (see the present occupant of the White House), and those who end up in court often use that ability to exploit the grey area of how the law defines “messed up mentally” (i.e. very narrowly).
To be clear, the law doesn’t allow you to have it both ways. If he’s mentally ill (i.e. presents a legal affirmative defence of insanity), by definition he doesn’t “know full well that such behavior is neither legally nor societally acceptable” and thus he can be committed to a mental health facility. If he isn’t presenting an insanity defence but shows no remorse for his actions when found guilty (as happened), the judge has to sentence him according to criminal law guidelines and precedent. Apparently, doing this sort of nonsense doesn’t get even a recidivist locked up for very long in NYC.
Now I’m not denying Johnson exhibits extremely poor impulse control, nor am I claiming that he’s capable of seeing reason when it comes to his disgusting behaviour. But since the system seems incapable of locking him up long-term, the most we can hope for at the moment is damage reduction. Realistically, that means keeping Johnson out of his favourite hunting ground and taking away his sense of power by making him a public laughingstock.
Unfortunately, I don’t think the electronic monitoring is intended to keep him out of the subway. And the MSM will move on to other stories. But no doubt Johnson’ll offend again, and maybe the 54th arrest will be the one that sends him to the mental asylum.
For this guy to have actually gotten arrested 53 times pretty much demonstrates some kind of mental problem. Given the transit police non-focus on this kind of assault, it’s like managing to acquire 53 arrests for jaywalking. Is he being shamed, or is he getting the attention he craves?
I don’t know how clean American trains are, but after a hard day at work, and an hour of standing in a stinking, crowded train or tram here in Melbourne, Australia, my thoughts never seem to turn to frotteurism.
You’d have to be a pervert to…oh, wait…
For this guy to have actually gotten arrested 53 times pretty much demonstrates some kind of mental problem. Given the transit police non-focus on this kind of assault, it’s like managing to acquire 53 arrests for jaywalking. Is he being shamed, or is he getting the attention he craves?
That’s my question — after arrest #30 or #40, wouldn’t a sensible judge send the guy to Bellevue for a 72-hour hold and evaluation? (It’s 72 hours here in California — not sure what the involuntary mental health hold is in New York.) It seems pretty bizarre that they could get to 50+ arrests for the same offense and no one has even considered having his mental state evaluated.
I want the monitoring bracelet set to trigger an alarm whenever he goes into a subway station.
mnemosyne:
If I remember correctly, the standard for commitment in NYC is some kind of disconnect from reality that poses a clear danger to self or others. So even if you got an evaluation of mental state, how many judges are there (not that that’s necessarily a good thing) who would be willing to put a man in indefinite confinement because he thinks there’s nothing wrong with rubbing himself against women on the subway?
This makes me think of those cases where they trank bears and other wild animals that have become too much of a nuisance to humans and release them hundreds of miles from where the problem occurred. Maybe this guy should be confined to a region without mass transit.
So even if you got an evaluation of mental state, how many judges are there (not that that’s necessarily a good thing) who would be willing to put a man in indefinite confinement because he thinks there’s nothing wrong with rubbing himself against women on the subway?
I’m not even saying he should be committed, just evaluated. It seems odd to me that he could rack up this many arrests and not have anyone question his mental state. Like it’s so normal for a man to be assaulting women on the subway that there’s no possible way that someone doing it so compulsively could be mentally ill.
What if he had demonstrated other pathological behavior? This guy gets off on humiliating and dominating women. That is the motivating factor in his behavior. So what if he committed more violent acts of humiliation and domination, like rape? If he had committed 53 counts of rape, I guarantee that no one would be dismissing him as mentally ill.
Since no one is allegedly hurt by his behavior and since his behavior is merely weird, he’s mentally ill. No, sorry. Too many men in this society enjoy humiliating and dominating women. It’s not mental illness.
If this guy’s behavior is pathological then New York, P0aris, Toronto, Montreal, London, etc. are teeming with crazies. Who, for some odd reason, manage to have nice suits and lead regular lives but just go nuts when they get on the subway. Weird.
Yeah, life in prison seems a bit much (and highly unlikely when you look at rapists’ prison sentences), but how about a little more than a slap on the wrist for guys who think it’s okay to touch, grope, rub up on and ejaculate onto anyone who dares to ride the subway while female.
Reading about this has really raised my hackles… But I feel compelled to share. Probably because I was so pressured to keep quiet at the time by the adults in my life. (I was 16)
It took me years to be comfortable riding public transportation, after two men, by their dress, independently of each other, decided to assault me. One rubbed against me from behind, while the other reached his hand up my skirt and raped me. This was on a subway during rush hour.
I was too shocked by the whole thing to say a word, and unable to push away from them through the crowd.
TG, I didn’t mean to come off as accusing you at all, I was just absolutely gobsmacked by the mope’s assholery in the article. For instance:
As you said, he may have gotten the message that he’ll be in legal trouble if he does something like this again, but he certainly has not gotten the message that what he did was wrong. Or why it was wrong.
The “Subway rat” has been doing this sort of thing for years because *he has gotten away with it* without significant jail tome. But it must be hell on keeping a steady job if a couple of times a year you gotta take a 90-day vacation at State expense.
According to the NYT article, this guy started doing this when he was a teen because he saw someone else doing it and that the guy *got away with it.*
So I guess he figured, “H*ll, why not?”
What I find most telling was that what the turning point was that he would not be punished. He, presumably, would not be doing this unless he *wanted to,* and what stopped him before wasn’t that it was demeaning to his victims, or frightening to them, but that he thought he would be *punished.*
Talk about “feelings of privilege.”
p.s.: I really have no sympathy about the job prospects, if he is having trouble keeping work.