Mayor Muriel Bowser used her veto power last week for only the second time, seeking to overturn a bill that eliminates criminal penalties for failing to pay fares on the Metro system. But lawmakers on the D.C. Council voted Tuesday to defy the mayor and uphold the legislation.

Under current D.C. law, fare evasion is a criminal offense punishable by a 10-day jail sentence, a $300 fine, or both. The decriminalization bill makes fare evasion a civil offense punishable by a $50 citation, eliminating the possibility of arrest or jail time. Like all D.C. bills, it has to move through Congressional review before it becomes official.

Bowser quietly vetoed the legislation last week in a letter to Chairman Mendelson, citing the potential for lost revenue on the system and saying that “we should not encourage lawlessness on Metro.” The mayor defended her decision last week on the Kojo Nnamdi Show’s Politics Hour, saying on air that she believes “lawlessness begets lawlessness.” Bowser also criticized the bill for failing to “set up a new civil adjudicative process” that creates enforcement tools for WMATA (right now, it happens through the criminal courts). It takes nine votes to override a mayoral veto, which must be done within 30 days.

The Council voted 11-2 to uphold the legislation, with only Chairman Phil Mendelson and Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans (who also chairs the Metro board) voting against the measure. Mendelson and Evans were also the only two “no” votes on the bill when it passed in December.

The measure has been controversial since it was introduced in 2017, despite support from the majority of councilmembers. For the last two years, WMATA has stepped up enforcement of fare evasion cases, which the agency says has kept the system safer and reduced assaults on Metrobus drivers. A 2017 Metro Transit Police report found that 23 percent of bus driver assaults are over fare disputes, though a Metro spokesman tells DCist that the agency believes the actual number is much higher.

One point of contention is the racial breakdown of arrests: a report by the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs showed that between 2016 and 2018, 91 percent of citations issued for fare evasion went to African Americans. This statistic was cited by nearly every councilmember who voted to override Bowser’s veto on Tuesday.

Metro Transit Police has also been criticized for the severity of some enforcement actions in fare evasion cases. In February 2018, police slammed a young mother to the ground, chipped four of her teeth, and fractured her knee after she tried to ride a bus without paying a fare. Her two small children were on the bus with her. At the Fort Totten station over the summer, police pinned a woman to the ground for evading her fare, threatening her with a taser. As they struggled on the floor, the woman’s shirt was pulled down and her breasts were exposed to passersby.

More than 45 local organizations signed on to a letter from the ACLU in support of the bill.

Metro officials, however, say that they rarely make arrests fare evasion alone, but for altercations with police or for outstanding warrants in other crimes. (The Superior Court Trial Lawyers Association, which defends many low-income people in the District, says that its lawyers do often represent people who are “arrested, taken into custody, and prosecuted for fare evasion alone.”) WMATA has adamantly opposed decriminalization from the start, arguing that it will result in serious revenue losses for the already cash-strapped agency and make the system less safe for riders.

“The Council missed an opportunity to address the significant issues with this legislation outlined in Mayor Bowser’s veto memo. We continue to believe that decriminalizing fare theft without an enforceable alternative will have safety and financial consequences for the region,” WMATA spokesperson Dan Stessel told DCist via email.

The union representing transit workers, ATU Local 689, was also in favor of Bowser’s veto. “Our union’s membership is made up of more than 80 percent people of color. We are mindful of the disproportionate effect of fare evasion citations, but we do not believe that inviting theft is a reasonable way to resolve this issue,” the union wrote in a public statement. “The Council’s bill, as written, encourages more evasion that leads to assaults on bus operators and station managers, and creates greater tension between paying riders and fare evaders.”

The mayor addressed the veto override during a press conference on Tuesday. “I’m just really clear about how we should go about having the safe use of our Metro. The Council always has the ability to come up with specialized or customized fare subsidies, like I have done,” Bowser said. “We can decide to support free Metro for whoever we want to customize a program that works, but I am concerned about making sure that everybody follows the rules of the road, or the rules of the Metrorail as it were.”

Most councilmembers were resolute in their support of the override on Tuesday. At-large Councilmember Robert White, in particular, said that opponents of the bill have tried to mislead residents about what it does: “This bill does not abolish consequences” for fare evasion, he said on the dais. White and others also criticized Bowser’s comments about lawlessness on the system. Councilmembers have often compared fare evasion to failing to pay for a parking ticket, and they say that the penalties for both should be comparable.

This story has been updated with comments from Mayor Bowser’s press conference.