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Police: Man punches cop in the face after being ejected from Harvard T stop for fare jumping

Travis Artist

Transit Police report arresting a Boston man they say attacked a cop at Harvard Square station around 3:30 p.m. yesterday.

Police say the officer stopped Travis Artist after spotting him going through a fare gate without paying. The cop wrote him a citation and then Artist mouthed off, at which point the cop told him he was now trespassing and ordered him out of the station.

Approximately 10 minutes later Artist, ignoring his trespass notice, again entered into the station. The officer approached and explained that due to his tumultuous behavior moments earlier he would have exit the station. As the officer was escorting Artist out of the station Artist became verbally aggressive and refused to comply with the officers commands. A struggled ensued Artist violently struck the officer in the face. Due to the officer's determination and assistance from a private security guard he was able to subdue Artist. During the struggle the officer sustained multiple lacerations to the mouth and was stuck by an uncapped needle in his arm.

Artist is scheduled for arraignment today in Cambridge District Court on charges of assault and battery on a police officer, resisting arrest and trespassing, police say.

Innocent, etc.

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Comments

Guy should be charged with attempted murder. It's almost a guarantee he has at minimum hep c.

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You need to show some sort of intent to charge somebody with attempted murder.

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It's not as if the guy didn't intend to prick the officer. Why wouldn't intentional infection (or possible infection) be grounds for attempted murder?

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We know the officer got pricked by an uncapped needle. If the guy was holding it in a threatening way, yes, maybe I'd agree with you (although more likely the charge would be assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, not attempted murder, unless the guy knew the needle was infected with AIDS or Ebola); it he happened to have an uncapped needle, or the cap came off during the struggle, that's something different.

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This wasn't an accident. Bottom line, if the prep didn't scrap with the officer in the first place, the officer never would have been stuck and in harms way. Throw the book at him. We don't want fare jumping, police attacking junkies in our neighborhood in the first place.

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Or they just like to run irresponsible stories with inaccurate headlines. They've got a story on their website now with the guy deliberately striking the officer with the syringe.

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Hopefully BPD has a great health insurance package. HCV 3-month treatment with Ribavirin (an interferon) and Harvoni is average $300,000.

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Same issue, but different police department.

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Don't fear, our tax dollars will pay for it, as they should, for police officer's health is priority. Now $300k price tag, which police department has no expertise in, should be debated with elsewhere - crooked and greedy doctors, pharma companies, and politicians, in that same order.

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That would fall under workers comp, as it is an on the job injury.

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But I'm on board with "assault with a deadly weapon."

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Attempted murder is a bit of a stretch, but assault with a deadly weapon - like they charge someone who kicks someone with a shod foot (the shoe being considered a deadly weapon in that case) - seems more reasonable.

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Even for me.

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For these pathetic and sordid T crimes. When a cop, a rich person, or a public official Is booked for something the mugshots seem to be an awful lot harder to come by. Remember that cat Ford who was selling oxycontins out of city hall a few years ago? To this day I couldn't tell you what he looks like. I still say, do a mugshot with each and every crime post or don't do them at all.

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Guy who can't afford to pay fare tries to jump turnstile. Cop catches him and writes him a citation. Guy mouths off. Cop, a consummate professional who doesn't take this kind of predictable Invective-spouting personally, tells him to have a better day. Guy mouths off a bit more then leaves. Violent confrontation averted. I know it doesn't always work that way, and it's not easy, but this was my first thought upon reading the narrative. Glad nobody's injuries were life-threatening.

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You lost me at your very first sentence, "guy who can't afford to pay the fare"..

Wouldn't it be more accurate to say, "Man commits crime by jumping turnstile.."?

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This is how it happened - and then the mouthy guy came back again after being told to get lost, and got violent.

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