Asa Lowe, 41, and Ray Cosby, 69, keep warm in Penn Station in New York City. Wilson Dizard/Al Jazeera America

As Rachel lay napping in New York City’s Penn Station on Tuesday, an Amtrak police officer approached and banged on the wall next to her with his baton, startling her from sleep.

The officer told Rachel to get up from the floor or risk being removed from the station. She stood up and said, “Arrest me. I don’t care.”

Moving along the wall, the officer woke a homeless man with a prodding kick, then roused several others.

Rachel, 43, has been homeless for seven years, and she said she has no choice but to stay inside Penn Station, one of America’s biggest rail hubs. The frigid cold outside is life-threatening, with temperatures dropping into single digits and wind chills as low as 20 below zero.

She and other homeless people who lie low at Penn Station on harsh winter days describe a coordinated campaign of intimidation and physical harassment by Amtrak police. When the homeless head to the station for warmth, Amtrak police often expel them outside if they lie down anywhere.

“We can’t sit down. We can’t lay down” without worrying about the crack or shove of an Amtrak officer’s baton, Rachel said.

“Some cops will hit you,” she added, describing a time when she saw a friend of hers forced up against a wall by police, or another who had a baton pushed against his chest.



The officers who roused the sleeping homeless referred Al Jazeera to a supervisor, who provided a number for Cliff Cole, an Amtrak spokesman.

“That’s not Amtrak policy to physically abuse any passenger or patron,” Cole said. Cole said Amtrak would look into the allegations.

Rachel, who is from Brooklyn, said many homeless people, including herself, would rather endure jail or possible abuse by police than go to a homeless shelter, where fights, theft and even sexual assault can occur.

Asa Lowe, 41, who said he lived in Coney Island until Superstorm Sandy forced him out in 2012, described treatment by Amtrak officers as unfair and the feel of the cold as “brutal.”

“The police are really threatening. Look at the brutal temperatures out there. Anybody who sleeps out there is going to catch pneumonia,” he said. “It’s cruel, and it’s going to continue all day.”

In New York, shelters are one of the limited options homeless people have, and New York’s new Mayor Bill de Blasio, sworn in on New Year’s Day, has mandated they stay open 24 hours a day, a change from his predecessor's policy.

But homeless people often resort to other strategies to keep warm, including staying in Penn Station, and also hiding underground in the subway.