Which New York tabloid correctly pegged the number of Charles Barry’s arrests is probably inconsequential, although the career criminal might like to go with the higher count.
The New York Post says he’s been arrested 141 times.
The New York Daily News reports 140.
Either way, cops have nailed him at least seven times since January 1, the day New York’s bail reform law took effect.
It says you can’t hold certain criminals in jail. They must be freed without bail.
The Latest
Cops nailed Barry for the seventh or eighth time this year on Tuesday, the Post and Daily News reported, this time for ripping off a Belgian tourist.
Barry introduced himself as a transit worker to a Belgian tourist “who was buying a MetroCard at a vending machine at the 42 Street-Bryant Park Station around 10:50 a.m. when Barry duped her out of $32,” the Post reported. He “had already fled by the time the rube realized the card was bogus.”
The 23-year-old woman, the Daily News reported, “was fumbling with a MetroCard vending machine” when Barry conned her. The 56-year-old crook knew a pigeon when he saw one.
On February 4, the Post noted, Barry swindled “$20 from a 73-year-old woman trying to refill her reduced-fare senior citizen pass Feb. 4, according to police, who added that Barry has been pulling this subway scheme since March 2006.”
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Barry enthusiastically supports New York’s new bail law, which requires cops to release him after each and every subway theft. As the Daily News reported when cops arrested Barry the 139th time five days ago, Barry had high praise for the lawmakers who made his job so much easier:
“I’m famous! I take $200, $300 a day of your money, cracker! You can’t stop me!” Barry yelled to a Daily News reporter late Thursday night as police led him out of NYPD Transit District 1 headquarters in the Columbus Circle station.
“Bail reform, it’s lit!” Barry said. “It’s the Democrats! The Democrats know me and the Republicans fear me. You can’t touch me! I can’t be stopped!”….
“It’s a great thing. It’s a beautiful thing,” he said. “They punk’ed people out for bull–t crimes.”
Long Record
But Barry doesn’t just rob subway riders. He skips court hearings, too.
Last week, after he had been arrested and released a mere six times since January 1, the Daily News reported that “twice he was charged with stealing money unsuspecting straphangers were trying to insert in MetroCard vending machines.”
Barry found himself in trouble again Thursday just hours after his face appeared on a Daily News front page that headlined the MetroCard machine heists.
Officers who’ve gotten to know Barry over the years were looking for him that day because two warrants had been issued for his arrest after he missed court dates.
One court hearing Barry skipped is related to a Jan. 19 incident in which he was given a desk appearance ticket for allegedly stealing $50 out of a woman’s hand inside the subway station at W. 42nd St. and Sixth Ave. near Bryant Park. The other hearing he missed was related to a theft in December.
Barry’s attorneys say cops are rousting the put-upon scam artist, the Post reported.
“The NYPD is clearly hell-bent on pinning any wrongdoing on Mr. Barry,” they said. “This most recent allegation screams of blatant profiling — consistent with the NYPD’s crusade to criminalize Mr. Barry — and we are prepared to fight these charges in court.”
Barry’s career in crime isn’t what one would call a success, at least if measured by how often he seems to get caught.
“His criminal record includes six felonies, 87 misdemeanors, and 21 missed court hearings,” the Daily News reported. He’s been in prison six times.
That rap sheet means Barry has committed some crime or infraction of the law at least twice annually for each of his 56 years.
Barry isn’t the only beneficiary of the controverisal new bail law that’s became a major morale killer for cops, Fox News reported.
Another fine citizen, Scott Nolan, was arrested and released three times in one day: Cops in Troy nailed him at 9 a.m on Monday on suspicion of shoplifting and released him with a ticket. They bagged Nolan again five hours later for assault and, of course, released him again. Two hours after that, he “hit someone with a brick. He was arrested yet again and given a third ticket for a court appearance.”
Image: P_Wei via iStock / Getty Images Plus
R. Cort Kirkwood is a long-time contributor to The New American and a former newspaper editor.
