Illegal pandemic parties have erupted all over the city in recent weeks in all the places where summer parties would normally take place, whether they are on rooftop hotels, under bridges, in restaurants or on boats. But this weekend, another kind of party took place in a much less likely place: an MTA bus.
Thousands of people without face masks took over an MTA bus in Queens early Sunday morning for an impromptu hookah dance party. The MTA says the incident happened at about 3:35 a.m. Sunday at the Grand Depot Bus Depot (at 49th Place and Grand Avenue).
The MTA says the bus driver left the Grand Avenue Depot with no passengers when it was blocked by double parked cars. When the bus operator tried to get the cars to move, revelers followed the bus, as you can see in the videos below.
Within 30 minutes, the audience had dispersed; the MTA noted that the bus was later disinfected. The NYPD confirmed that it was monitoring the videos as part of an investigation into the incident.
The MTA said parties violated multiple COVID-19 health and safety laws. “This group not only put themselves in danger, based on the fact that no one wore a mask, but more importantly for me, they put my bus operator at risk,” said Craig Cipriano, president of MTA Bus. “Bus operators are out to move the city – they’ve been doing this since March. In this troubled situation they are full there, no one is wearing masks and it’s important to keep that in mind as we take the next step in working. law enforcement. “
MTA employee Tramell Thompson, who posted the video of the party above, told ABC, “This is not the time to hunt down clout in the midst of a pandemic, when you could put your family members at risk, MTA workers at risk, and who else is at risk. Help us your boys help, let us do our job safely. “
Also on Sunday, more than a thousand people gather in Prospect Park for a party that is paid as Litnic 20; the event left the park covered in trash on Monday.
After Gothamist wrote last week about the revival of Provocateur, which last month was illicit parties from the back of Café Tucano in the East Village, the Sheriff’s Office ruled it out. They also brought a party boat up after it returned to dock in the Lower East Side, carrying more than 170 people.
And the week before, a “secret” rave drew more than a thousand people to a small park under the Kosciuszko Bridge on the border of Brooklyn and Queens. One of the organizers defended the event against Gothamist: “If you think people will not gather, you’re crazy – there’s no stopping it.”
