ALBANY — The City Council’s plan to decriminalize fare-beating doesn’t stand a chance of being passed in Albany, lawmakers from both parties told The Post.
Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito (D-Manhattan) would need the Legislature’s approval to change the fare-evasion charge — one of the six relatively minor offenses she wants reduced — because it’s a state-governed law.
“If it had to come up for a vote, I wouldn’t vote for it. My recommendation is that the council shouldn’t do it either,” Assemblyman Peter Abbate (D-Brooklyn) told The Post.
The other offenses Mark-Viverito is targeting — public urination, cycling on a sidewalk, public consumption of alcohol, being in a park after hours and failing to obey a parking sign — fall under city administrative code and don’t need the Legislature’s OK to be changed.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle warned that speaker’s plan, if it were somehow enacted, would result in a rise in crime across the city.
They also lauded the effectiveness of NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton’s “Broken Windows” policy of targeting minor offenses.
“It seems crazy that they want to turn back the clock on what’s been a very successful crime-fighting policy,” said upstate Assemblyman William Barclay (R-Fulton).
Abbate said that although the offenses are considered minor, they still should be treated as crimes and not civil offenses punishable by just a fine.
“Urinating in a public place or fare jumping? That’s ridiculous, that’s not a summons. That’s a crime,” Abbate said.