Teenagers Scolded For Running Down The Up Roosevelt Island Subway Station Platform Escalator - Teens Deliberately Tried To Break Subway Escalator Says Resident

A Roosevelt Island resident reports:

On Tuesday 1/19/16 at about 5:30 pm I saw several teenage males racing down the lower level escalator in the Roosevelt Island subway station. They took large jumps and landed on the bottom step with all their might.

Image Of Roosevelt Island Escalators at Lower Level Platform

They then raced to the escalator that goes from the downtown platform up to the mezzanine and ran down those steps, against the stair flow. Perhaps they executed a similar maneuver, although I could not see what they did.

About a minute later, I approached three teenagers on the platform, as I saw them laughing. I told them what they had done was not in the least funny. Other teenage males joined the group. Two other Island adult male residents approached the group of six and scolded them for breaking the escalator. When one adult asked if they lived on the Island, they mocked him and laughed.

In the attempt by the adults to have a rational discussion, several of the teens were egging each other on. They mocked the three adults, while a fourth adult went to the police cabin at the end of the platform to report the misconduct. (There was no police officer on duty at the time.)

I said to the two adults, “Let’s take a picture,” since it was clear that the young men did not believe they had behaved inappropriately. One adult took out his cellphone, but the teens ran away from the adults.

This incident is disturbing because of the deliberate effort the teens made to break the escalator and their complete disregard for the consequences of their reckless behavior.

I wonder if any of this activity was captured on a video camera in the station.

Here's what happened when one man tried going down an



up escalator (not on Roosevelt Island).