Crown Heights mother Avigail Levy accused Metropolitan Transportation Authority officers of “reverse racism and antisemitism” after their interaction last week with her 15 and 8-year-old daughters, according to the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic news site COLlive. 

Levy told COLlive that her daughters didn’t know they needed to pay to ride the bus. As a result, Levy said, the officers took the 15-year-old and “her little 8-year-old sister off the bus, and spent 30 minutes harassing, frightening, and intimidating her for not having ‘proof of payment.’” 

“They demanded ID, which she repeatedly explained she did not have on her,” Levy said. “They kept threatening her that they would bring the police, and that she would be arrested.” Levy told the news site that the incident, which took place in the Flatlands section of Brooklyn, left her older daughter sobbing and unable to remember her own date of birth.

Levy gave COLlive photographs of several MTA officers making purchases in Walgreens. She said that she went in there to “confront” them and take video and that they had left her girls outside the store once they had finished “harassing” them.

“They could have spent 2 minutes simply explaining that in the future, she needs to pay, instead of traumatizing both her and her sister,” Levy said. “Honestly, I see this as reverse racism and antisemitism. They did not pick on anyone else on the bus.”

In a statement to Shtetl, MTA spokesperson Eugene Resnick said it was looking into the case. "The MTA takes allegations of harassment and discrimination very seriously and we are looking into this incident,” he said. As a reminder, all customers must pay their fair share to ride public transit unless you're a child under 44 inches tall with a fare-paying adult on local, limited, or Select Bus Service buses." 

Levy told COLlive she filed a complaint, but an MTA representative told Shtetl the agency has not received the complaint.