In spite of Mayor de Blasio’s protests that there’s no official new policy encouraging cops to hone in on MTA panhandling, the subway breakdancing crackdown we’d suspected is very real: DNAinfo reports on a 20-year-old and a 17-year-old that were arrested for breakdancing on a rush hour L train near Union Square last week.
Information is being withheld on the younger of the two, but the older dancer was charged with reckless endangerment, a charge that was later dropped to disorderly conduct. DNAinfo described the pair as “blasting music and swinging their arms and feet near passengers’ heads,” which sounds about right.
Elsewhere, Gothamist confirms that these types of arrests continue to skyrocket, and that subway vendor and panhandler arrests have climbed 174 percent from this time last year. Enjoy “SHOWTIIIIIME” while it lasts.
Follow Virginia K. Smith on Twitter @vksmith.
