Friday, September 21, 2012

NYPD On The Hunt For Subway Perv

NYPD On The Hunt For Subway Perv NEW YORK (PIX11)— PIX-11 is hitting the streets again, posting "wanted fliers" in the Grand Street M-Station where a perv ran off a train after a 32 year old woman snapped pictures of him as he exposed his genitals and pleasured himself during her commute. The Hispanic man in his 60's picked the wrong woman as a target. Wendy Poon was determined that cops should catch him, and prosecute him. She says she's been victimized before and was sick of the disgusting behavior. "The first time it happened, I was nine. A man in a car positioned himself so I would see him exposing himself. I was so young I didn't even understand what was happening," said Poon. Since then, she been groped several times in addition to men masturbating in front of her on the subway. This time, she was ready--snapping several pictures before he realized it and ran off. Then she headed to the closest precinct, the 112th in Forest Hills, and found a female officer inside to show the pictures to so she could file a report. "She looked at the pictures and she even passed it around to other cops, and they sort of chuckled, so i thought they were going to help me. But she said 'I can't help you.' She told me I should have followed him, then called police to come get him. She said it was common sense," lamented Poon, especially after PIX 11 informed her that was in direct violation to NYPD procedures--victims should never follow a perpetrator, and should only call police to have them track the criminals. Even though the female officer pushed Wendy off to the 104th precinct, she wouldn't give up. She went back into the subway, getting a transit officer to take her seriously, and take a report. We took this as a serious offense too--tracking her down on vacation in Argentina to do a report; now detectives say they have serious leads. NYPD Retired Det Sgt Wally Zeins used to head up the Special Victim's Division that handles sex crimes in Manhattan and says these guys repeat their crimes more than any other type of criminal. "This is a disease besides a crime; this is the beginning of a very serious crime. It escalates." Yet community involvement can nab and prosecute these guys--Shawn, a victim's advocate herself, couldn't wait to help us out. She works with women in Lefrak City, but after seeing us in the subway grabbed some posters and starting taping them up along the station. Meanwhile, the officer at the 112th who tried to push Wendy to another precinct to report her crime--was violating department orders. PIX 11 obtained this departmental directive sent to all officers in January of 2012. It was written after complaints from Council Member Peter Vallone, and, in part, demands that victims "not be referred to another command" meaning any officer, in any precinct, is required to take a full police report, then refer it on to the appropriate agency or group of detectives. Wendy, who is usually a private person, sighed and seemed to find a deeper resolve, "I hope to send a message to other women, not be scared, be brave, do anything you can to report this to police. Embarrass them. Catch them." Copyright © 2012, WPIX-TV

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