Melanie Eversley

USA TODAY

They may be part of what makes New York the city that it is, but the New York City Police Department is cracking down on people who dance and perform acrobatics on the subways for money.

More than 240 people have been arrested for "pass-the-hat" performances on the subway in 2014 compared to 40 this time last year. While it is not a major crime, it is against the law and can set the tone for further lawlessness, Police Commissioner William Bratton says.

"Is it a significant crime? Certainly not," Bratton says. "Does it have the potential both for creating a level of fear as well as a level of risk that you want to deal with?"

There's no new rule or edict within the department, it's just that enforcement has been on the rise, Lt. Paul Ng, an NYPD spokesman, said Tuesday.

One performer said he and others are just trying to get New Yorkers to notice one another and life outside of their bubbles.

"We all, as New Yorkers, get these force fields around us," said a performer named Besnkheru. "We just try to go inside the train and change the vibe."

A group called City Lore, which works with an organization known as the Street Performers Advocacy Project, says on its website that street and subway performers are a necessary part of the life of New York City. The group also says it believes in "a society which allows many cultural traditions to coexist on equal footing and encourages active participation in cultural life, not just passive consumption of cultural products."

Some riders enjoy the break from the grime, noise and crowds of the subways. Many performers wait for trains to start before turning up their music and beginning their routines.

But not everyone is for it. Some riders say they resent that they are a captive audience and they see the performances as an intrusion.

"I don't like all that action right in front of my face," commuter Kesia Hudson said.

Outside of the art and legal issues, some are saying there is another element to the debate. At least one organization is arguing that the crackdown targets young black and Hispanic men, who make up a majority of street performers in New York.

"Arresting young people who dance on the train, who are often from working-class communities of color, needlessly criminalizes those engaged in positive activities and only exacerbates the severe inequalities within our city," said Joo-Hyn Kang, spokesperson for the organization Communities United for Police Reform. "It's a wasteful use of limited police resources that doesn't help address violence or real crimes, and does nothing to make us safer."

Contributing: The Associated Press