Busted for Illegally Skimming in NYC Public Transportation, Released After Over 170 Arrests
Cybersecdn– Police say there should be a “Hall of Fame” for subway crimes for a person who was caught 171 times but wasn’t charged, according to police officials and sources.
Officials say that Michael Wilson, 37, was caught selling MetroCard swipes illegally. This was his 27th arrest in just eight months, but “in the interest of justice,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office did not press charges.
In a harsh X post, NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper said, “If there was a hall of fame for Subway offenders—this guy would be a first ballot inductee.”
“But some parts of our criminal justice system seem to think otherwise.”
Fare evasion hasn’t been tried by Bragg’s office since 2017.
A spokesman for Bragg said that the office will continue to “hold accountable those who put the safety of other subway riders and transit workers at risk.”
“We worked closely with our law enforcement partners to cut down on transit crime across the borough last year, and we continue to do that every day,” the spokesman said.
Police sources told The Post that Wilson’s long list of offenses goes back to the time of train tokens, when he was arrested 171 times, most of them for crimes related to public transportation.
There are more than 170 arrests made for 37-year-old Michael Wilson, most of which were for transit crimes.
Wilson has been arrested for several transit crimes, such as criminal tampering, price evasion, possession of counterfeit tokens, and selling a fare card without permission.
Sources say that he is also charged with bail jumping, guns, and drugs from 2005.
The person Kemper wrote about in his post didn’t directly mention Wilson. Instead, he talked about a “subway recidivist at the heart of lawlessness and disorder our riders are subjected to at the turnstiles” who had been arrested more than twenty times in the last eight months.
“Almost all of them have something to do with the illegal and sometimes violent sale of Metrocard swipes.” This time, inside Midtown Manhattan’s Penn Station, he openly resisted arrest as well, Kemper wrote.
Sources say that Wilson wasn’t charged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office because it was “in the interest of justice.” LP Music
Wilson was caught for the last time just before 10 a.m. on February 2 when police saw him using a MetroCard to pay someone cash to get through a gate.
He was told to leave the subway station at West 34th Street and Seventh Avenue, but he refused. He then began flailing his arms and stiffening up to escape being arrested.
In the end, Wilson was arrested by the police. They found six MetroCards on him and bent them along their magnetic strips so that they could not be used. The man also had a MetroCard for students.
During the arrest, no police officers were hurt.
Wilson was caught in the train on February 2, 2024, at the West 34th Street and Seventh Avenue stop. Stephen Yang, but law enforcement sources who know about the case told The Post that Wilson wouldn’t be charged because it wasn’t “in the interest of justice.”
Kemper didn’t agree with the DA’s reasoning, and he used it exactly as written in his X post.
“Who is justice for?” crooks who want to commit crimes again or law-abiding New Yorkers who just want to ride the subways without being bothered or breaking the law openly?” Kemper spoke up.
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From what police say, Wilson is still being investigated in Queens after being arrested on December 7 of last year and later given a warrant. More information about that case was not available right away.
