The deputy commissioner for the city’s Commission on Human Rights — an agency that enforces the Big Apple’s discrimination laws — says she was the victim of a bias attack in which she was spit on and called the N-word by a man on the subway.
Marissa Jackson, 33, of The Bronx, also claims that she was initially blown off by police when she went to her local police precinct the day after the incident.
Jackson revealed the details of the “awful attack” in a lengthy string of tweets over the weekend.
The deputy commissioner says she was aboard a No. 1 train with a family member last Friday morning “when a man began harassing me on the train.”
“I ignored him and focused on keeping my husband’s aunt safe, as she is visiting from Senegal for the first time and is vulnerable,” Jackson said in a tweet. “Not receiving a reaction from me, he called me an ugly n—er bitch and spit in my face & hair.”
Jackson, who boarded the train at 9:30 a.m. at 116th Street, said that when the train got to Times Square-42nd Street “the man repeatedly stepped in & out of the train car, appearing to leave before turning & spitting directly into the train, directly & intentionally at me, spitting in my face and hair and coat and yelling.”
She said she and her aunt-in-law then got off the train at the next stop at 34th Street.
“The man who attacked me made fun of my hair on the train. He told me I was gross and ugly and that my hair was a mess. He told me I was worthless and that no man would want me. It was like typical intimate partner violence, but by a stranger,” Jackson tweeted.
She described the suspect on Twitter as a man “of medium height and build, with curly dark hair, a beard, and what I would call olive or light brown skin–not obviously belonging to one race or another.”
Jackson said that she felt “broken” from the attack and noted that “no one” aboard the subway car came to her aid “while the verbal harassment was happening.”
“The only person who stood up was another black guy who came on to busk and was harassed, too. But he got off the train,” she said.
Following the incident, “I screamed for someone to call the police or 911. Someone said it wasn’t necessary. A black woman brought me wipes and hand sanitizer. Everyone else stared and said they were sorry. One woman said I’d be fine,” Jackson tweeted.
“Not one white person was willing to protect me or assist in any meaningful way after the attack. They think I’ll be fine. I don’t feel fine,” Jackson, who said it was not the first time she was “harassed and attacked” while using the MTA, wrote in another tweet.
Jackson went on to say that “even though I’m the person who oversees civil bias response for the City of New York, there is no justice for me.”
She claimed that she mustered up the courage to make a police report at the 44th Precinct on Saturday only to leave there “with no report made.”
“I had to beg the officers in the complaint room to acknowledge me. They were nice once they did. The first tried to discourage me from reporting because I have no identifying info on my attacker. After 90 mins of waiting,” Jackson wrote in a tweet.
In a follow-up tweet, she wrote: “Second officer was lovely but also told me there was no point in making a report, that it’d go nowhere. I insisted. Waited some more upon his request & then he finally told me I have to go to the transit police. I was so tired and I felt tears welling up so I thanked him & left.”
NYPD Transit Bureau Chief Edward Delatorre reached out to Jackson via Twitter on Monday and told her to contact him “so we can get to the bottom of this incident.”
An official police report on the matter was made at around noon Monday, and police spokeswoman Sgt. Jessica McRorie said in a statement to The Post Tuesday that the department is investigating the incident.
“The NYPD is investigating what happened here. There is no place for hate in NYC, and anyone who is a victim of a crime will have their case investigated fully,” McRorie said.
In the days after the incident, Jackson revealed on Twitter that she was “scared to tweet this” and described herself as feeling “sad,” “numb” and “violated.”
She even said she had a “fear” of losing her job.
“I live with a fear of losing my job, so I panicked and decided I’d cover as I often do. Just shoulder everything, as usual. Not because I’m not doing my job, but because you’re never secure when you’re Black,” Jackson tweeted.
Jackson offered up a list of ways the city and its citizens can help to prevent similar situations.
“1. The MTA must take safety seriously, from an explicitly and intentional intersectional approach. Trans & queer folks, women, religious & ethnic minorities & people of color must be safe on the trains &buses. Security officers on train cars would be great (job creation!),” she tweeted.
She also said: “2. We need upstander training, but not just for white people–for everyone,” adding: “3. We need to deprogram almost every American’s conditioning regarding Black women. We need to expose the magical negro and mammy tropes in which too many of us have invested.”
In another tweet, Jackson asked city-goers to “look out for immigrants.”
“My aunt-in-law and I were speaking French and Wolof to each other, and I bet people assumed we were both Africans, & therefore insular & inaccessible. But we still obviously needed assistance, & non-verbal cues could have helped if we’d needed them,” she wrote.
In a statement to The Post through the Commission on Human Rights, Jackson said Tuesday: “At this time, I am focused on healing after this bias incident and am currently working with the NYPD to resolve this case.”
A spokesperson for the Commission on Human Rights said: “The NYC Commission on Human Rights takes all acts of hate and bias seriously and fights every day to protect New Yorkers from discrimination and harassment. The Commission also regularly works with the NYPD following bias incidents to ensure that victims get the resources and help they need and will continue to work with the department to make sure all New Yorkers are safe, supported, and protected.”
Source: Read Full Article