‘Manspreading‘ is when a man rides on public transportation and takes up more than one seat by spreading his legs wide. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority does have posters around letting people know “spreading” is wrong and takes up space.
According to RT, the arrest happened back on May 22, a little past midnight, and this may very well be the first time that manspreading led to an arrest, as well as an appearance in court.
When the two men showed up in court, the judge expressed some skepticism. She said that because of the time of the arrest, she couldn’t believe that there were a lot of people on the train.
The judge didn’t dismiss the men outright, regardless of her admission, as well as the New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority rules of conduct, which prohibits people from taking up more than one seat if it interferes with the comfort of other passengers, or if it interferes with the train.
The judge ended up issuing an ACD (adjournment contemplating dismissal). This means that the charges will be dropped, but the men will have to avoid being arrested again for a certain length of time.
