Trainman Arrested Again
Darius McCollum has spent nearly a third of his 41 years behind bars.
The crime?
An obsession with New York City’s transit system.
The November 11th New York Times reports:
Mr. McCollum’s fixation with the transit system first got him in trouble at 15, when he was arrested after driving the E train to the World Trade Center from Herald Square. Over the years, his list of offenses grew to include slipping into subway control towers, tripping emergency brakes, as well as impersonating workers. In June 2004 he was arrested for trying to take a Long Island Rail Road M-7 locomotive and train from a railyard in Queens.
Supporters of McCollum believe that he has Asperger’s Syndrome. Released from Sing Sing in June on charges of burglary and and forgery, McCollum had been living with his parents in Winston-Salem, NC. This Tuesday, McCollum disappeared after telling his parole officer that he was “fed up” with North Carolina (which does not exactly have a subway system) and disappeared. On Thursday, McCollym was arrested in Manhattan, wearing a “Metropolitan Transportation Authority-style badge, a construction hat and train conductor manuals.”
In court on Thursday, McCollum indicated that he knew full well that he was violating the terms of his parole but “”that didn’t remove the desire I had to be in a train yard or train.’”
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POSTED IN: Adulthood, Asperger's Syndrome, Crime, Legal Issues
4 opinions for Trainman Arrested Again
Someone
Nov 11, 2006 at 2:31 pm
I guess that it’s possible that he has AS.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Nov 12, 2006 at 2:53 am
It seems possible to me too—-no mention of how his obsessions are being “treated.”
David N. Andrews MEd (12-2006)
Nov 13, 2006 at 6:12 pm
I am utterly amazed at the lack of imagination on the part of the system there.
Firstly, his ‘impersonation’ of staff seems to have stemmed from actual staff previously having given him keys to various parts of the yard and to trains, and had him goign around doing the work they were too lazy to do themselves; that is, before they ditched the lad in the crap when the shit hit the fan.
I’d say that his deep interest in the train system (let’s call it what it is… a deep interest; obsession is an entirely different word with a different meaning in clinical settings) is a seriously good thing to use as a means to gain his cooperation in maintaining good/appropriate behaviour.
Given all the research that goes on in forensic psychology, it never fails to stun me how self-serving and irredeemably stupid the judicial systems of the world are.
It’s based solely on a thirst for revenge, rather than a desire to rehabilitate. Despite its many flaws, at least the Finnish system tries to rehabilitate educationally before getting to this sort of silliness.
BTW, Kristina, I’m hoping to get my Interviews article published soon, after which I’ll post the thing on that thread or another thread of your choosing. That okay?
Kristina Chew, PhD
Nov 13, 2006 at 7:28 pm
David, please do! It would be an honor to “host” your article, so to speak. I’m thinking the transit authority really needs to hear your perspective—-McCollum is being written about as having criminal or harmful intent, it seems.
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