The first thing i noticed when reading this is:
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"What you've got to keep in mind is that fare abuse is a chronic problem," Baker said. "It costs MARTA millions of dollars every year."
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Now as the article says he made no money off from selling the coin to the person.
Secondly:
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"There are customer service phones for people who are having trouble getting tokens out of the machine," Baker said. "The fact is, our officer acted within the law."
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If you have ever had to use the customer service phones on a rail system, they can be slow. So that could cause you to be late for just about anything.
And thirdly:
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"I gave him a token and, I guess out of his generosity, he gave me the money for it," Pirone said. "But I didn't ask him for money."
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He never asked for the money. So as far as anyone knows he could have simply donated it to him. (even though that is kinda a stretch) But the police officer could not know for sure if a purchase had taken place, it may have looked like it, but looks can be deceiving.
As for how it affects FIRST, i really don't think it affects us at all. Your mentor should still be able to go and get you all tokens, or passes and hand them out. There should be no problem when groups travel, since it is just a lot easier for one person to get everything that for everyone to get there stuff serperatly. I think they understand that.