Brooklyn cops shoot alleged fare-beater, also hit 2 bystanders and officer
www.nbcnewyork.com
Four people were injured Sunday afternoon at a Brooklyn subway stop in what started as officers’ attempts to apprehend a man accused of skipping the station turnstile.

Police opened fire on a subway platform in Brooklyn during a confrontation with an alleged fare-beater, striking the man cops said was armed with a knife, two straphangers caught in the fray, and one of the firing officers, NYPD officials said Sunday.

One of those two passengers hit by the cops’ bullets, a 49-year-old man, was hospitalized in critical condition after he was hit struck in the head, according to the NYPD.

The two officers who opened fire were assigned to patrol the Sutter Avenue subway stop in the 73rd precinct when they spotted a man skip the station turnstile and walk through an open gate toward the train platform, Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey explained at an evening press conference from Brookdale Hospital.

  • Fades@lemmy.worldEnglish
    62·
    2 months ago

    straphangers

    What the hell, I’ve NEVER heard or read this word in my entire life.

    The first known use of straphanger was in 1896. Defined as a standing passenger in a subway, streetcar, bus, or train who clings for support to one of the short straps or similar devices placed along the aisle

    I guess that might explain part of that… but I’m seeing consisntent uses from merriam webster’s recent examples on the web for the word.

    Strangely enough there is a military alternative definition:

    “Straphanger” seems to have a different, and negative connotation in current US military parlance. Since this is a militarily-oriented movie, it is probably the definition that applies.

    In an article unrelated to Zero Dark Thirty, I found a reference to strap hangers.

    "We have a saying in the SEAL Teams about the 90-10 rule. It goes: 90% of the guys that make it through Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training are solid Operators and go on to do great things. The other 10% are constantly bringing the community and their team down. We are always trying to cull the 10% out of the herd. In the military these guys are commonly referred to as “strap hangers”....grabbing at the straps of the good men that participated in this operation."

    source

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
      2·
      2 months ago

      Trust Hollywood to get it wrong. In the military the term strap hangars can be derogatory, but it’s not any better for the person being held on to if it’s used this way. It has to do with patronage systems and people not making it on their own merit. Rather than constantly trying to cull the hangars, the people with the straps are enabling them. “There goes Colonel Good Idea Fairy and his straphangers.”

      Alternatively in the Airborne community it means someone who isn’t scheduled to jump but shows up anyways, hoping there’s an extra parachute. This isn’t derogatory because airborne soldiers have to jump every so often to maintain their status and pay, and life happens so there’s no telling why they’re in need of a jump. “We have five extra parachutes for straphangers.”