Do The Right Thing, Hire Darius McCollum
by Judd WileyJune 17th, 2008, 1:45 pm
Darius McCollum, the well-known “transit nut” from Queens who has spent more than a third of his life behind bars for various “transgressions” related to posing as a New York City Transit Authority worker, was recently arrested for the 24th time.
His lengthy rap sheet includes commandeering an E train on a trip to the World Trade Center from Herald Square when he was just 15, taking a number of city buses for joy rides, sneaking into a subway control tower at 57th Street and tripping the emergency brakes on an N train, and descending to the tracks in a NYCTA uniform to sort out the various messes he created.
He most recently entered a restricted area at Columbus Circle.
The NYCTA has rejected McCollum for employment on many occasions. However, he is reported to know more about the trains, schedules, procedures, and rail operations than any current NYCTA employee, according to Wikipedia.
Here’s what I don’t understand. Why does the NYCTA hire other ex-cons, but not Darius McCollum? From NYCTA’s “Examination and Application Tips” for new applicants:
Note: a record of previous criminal convictions does not automatically disqualify an applicant; failure to disclose such a record does!
McCollum suffers from a magical and unexplainable love of the Transit Authority that causes him to occasionally act outside the boundaries of the law. He acts this way because he wants to work at the NYCTA. Why can’t the city of New York do the right thing and give this guy a job - any job - doing something - anything - related to the trains and buses he so clearly loves?
Instead, we kick Darius McCollum in the face, send him to jail, laugh at his obsession with trains and buses, and then fill these positions with other ex-cons who are less capable, less enthusiatic, and who give us the following work product (direct quotes from my brother, who lives in NYC and rides the subway to work every day):
- Not opening the door for 30 seconds
- Pumping the brakes incessantly
- Waiting in the station for 10 minutes when you have a green light
- Telling your riders that your train is an express, while making local stops
- Saying there’s no express service on the line, while the express zooms by
- Blaming everything on train traffic ahead of you
- Pulling out of the station just as the express train pulls up and lets off riders who needed to get on your train
- Giving instructions in such poor English that no one can understand you
I’ll bet $100 that you’d have none of these problems if Darius McCollum was at the helm. The NYC Transit Authority should give this poor man a job, and relieve taxpayers of the cost of imprisoning him. This whole story is disgusting.
Posted in Buses, Government Workers, Mass Transit, Subways, Uncategorized Rage |
Judd,
I couldn’t agree with you more. I wish that DC metro operators had half the interest in their jobs that this McCollum guy does.
What the hell is New York’s problem?
I vote we start an online petition to get this guy hired.
You know Judd, I’ve been thinking that another thing we could do if the morons at NYCTA won’t hire this guy is to take up donations to start a trust fund that would hire this guy to ride the trains all day.
We could give him real assignments. We could even turn him into a correspondent of some sort. He could help feed stories to us and The Daily Commuter.
Game on. Darius McCollum is a national treasure, like Harvey Keitel, or Aaron Copland. He deserves a job at NYCTA, and we’re going to start lobbying aggressively for it. I want this guy running the entire show.
I bet if this guy ran the show you wouldn’t be spending a billion dollars on escalators that don’t work.
That seems really cruel to throw him in jail. The guy has Asperger Syndrome. One sympton is an intense and unusually focused interest in certain topics or areas. Darius McCollum is fascinated with mass transit.
I’m sure they could have found this guy some kind of city job where he can be around trains all day long. What a bunch of jerks.
They could have, but they prefer to punish a poor guy who only wants to do his best while hiring people who are only aspire to mediocrity.
Judd and I will not let this injustice stand.
If it is true that Darius has Asperger Syndrome, then our courts and NYC MTA are discriminating against him for a behavior that he can not control. Not to mention, he’s not harming anyone (at least not to my knowledge). It’s too bad that the authorities are choosing to look at him as a problem as opposed to benefiting from his interest with the NYC MTA. He could work as a tour guide at The New York Museum of Transportation or MTA New York Transit Museum.
I am a person with Asperger’s Syndrome and as such can understand the obsession Darius has with trains. His Asperger’s is what causes his behaviour and he needs help not jail. I agree he is being discriminated against and he should be hired as an employee he would do a really great job.
Catorina -
We couldn’t agree with you more. I don’t see why they shouldn’t hire Darius McCollum - he obviously knows a lot more about the systems than most of the employees, and he seems to genuinely love the job. They should give him one.