New Yorkers got a chuckle on Thursday morning when Hillary Clinton rode the subway. On her way into the station, Clinton had a little bit of trouble swiping her MetroCard: it took five goes for her to finally get the green light and pass through the turnstile.

This little incident became the cause of much mirth. “Clinton struggles to get through subway entrance,” said Politico. “Former New York Senator Hillary Clinton Struggles to Swipe Her Subway MetroCard,” reported ABC. “Video Shows Hillary Clinton Struggling With MetroCard At Bronx Subway Station,” said the local CBS affiliate’s website.



There was another problem with Clinton’s ride aboard the 4 Train, one that the media all but ignored: Hillary Clinton broke the subway rules, and did so within full sight of New York City officials and law enforcement, who stood around and watched her do it.



According to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) Rules of Conduct, the subway system is for transporting riders to their destinations, and nothing else. But the rules list several exceptions, including “campaigning”. So far, so good, Hillary Clinton.

However, Section 1050.6(c)1 of the subway rules states unequivocally that none of these activities may be performed on the actual subway cars.



This is the rule Clinton broke. Clinton’s defenders might think the short subway trip wasn’t actually campaigning, but I’d urge them to watch a video of her two-stop ride – from Yankee Stadium to 170th Street – that clearly shows Clinton glad-handing on the train itself.



She’s aided in doing so by Rubén Díaz Jr, the president of the borough of the Bronx, who introduces her to strap-hangers as “the next president of the United States, Hillary Clinton”. If that wasn’t enough, Clinton then takes some questions from the press aboard the 4 Train car.



The incident is all the more galling because there are actual, regular New Yorkers trying to make ends meet who are arrested for violating the same rules that Clinton disregards with impunity. These regular New Yorkers are, of course, the acrobatic showtime performers and musicians – a cultural point of pride for the city – who perform legally on platforms and other areas of the transit system (not always without harassment) but are barred from playing on board subway cars by the same rules that should have prevented Clinton’s campaigning.

“When performers are playing music they are thought to be committing a crime and arrested,” Matthew Christian of BuskNY, a group that does advocacy for New York subway musicians, told me. “And apparently when Hillary Clinton does public speaking on a train car that is not considered a violation of the statute.”

Buskers who get busted can face criminal charges – where the “court may impose a fine not to exceed $25 or a term of imprisonment for not longer than ten days” – or civil fines, which can rise to a staggering $100, according to the MTA’s explanation of its fines and penalties for breaking the rules.



You can bet that Clinton will face no such prosecution or fines, despite the clear evidence of her breaking the subway rules. Not that she couldn’t afford it: unlike the musicians struggling to make $40 an hour in donations, Clinton and her husband are reportedly worth more than $50m.



I’m all for doing away with these rules: there’s no good reason for either Hillary Clinton or buskers to be punished. But so long as buskers face arrests and fines for breaking these subway rules – Christian told me harassment of musicians on subway cars is “ongoing” – Clinton should show not get special treatment.

In fact, she should seek out the next subway busker she can find and give him or her $125, an amount equal to the potential criminal and civil fines for the statutes that she violated this morning.



That would be a suitable way for the campaign to put this behind her, and to show that rich and powerful New Yorkers won’t simply take advantage of their positions to break subway rules without a nod towards those who can’t get away with it so easily.