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Camera phones are becoming the frontline defense for women to stop subway perverts in their tracks, experts say.
Self-defense pros say the power to humiliate flashers and gropers by exposing their overexposure with a snapshot is an even more powerful weapon for women than a can of Mace or kick in the groin.
"The simplest thing that someone can actually do with zero training is to employ public humiliation," said Rudy Zadwarny, 50, who teaches martial arts and women's self-defense. "These guys try to do it when they think no one knows it."
To those ends, photos of convicted gropers and flashers may soon be posted inside subway cars under a plan proposed by City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr.
"If it were up to me, I'd expose these sleazy riders to the third rail," Vallone told The Post.
"But since exposure is what they want, that's what they should get. There should be a public wall of shame on every subway line."
The Queens legislator is also drafting a bill that would increase the maximum penalties for these crimes from 90 days to a year in prison.
MTA officials said it was too soon to comment on the plans.
Vallone may have the first candidate for his wall in Tarsheen Lovett, 33, who was nabbed Wednesday night on a Staten Island Rapid Transit train masturbating in front of a 14-year-old girl, according to Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan.
Thirteen other perverts were busted in 36 hours last month in an undercover sting dubbed "Operation Exposure," which police said was prompted by a spike in reported cases.
These wandering hands and unwanted exhibitionism have tormented women on the trains since the subways first opened a century ago.
Back then, so-called "subway mashers" faced up to 30 days in the workhouse if they were caught "insulting" female passengers.
But while many say technology could turn the tide against this age-old crime, others aren't content just to take pictures.
"Why do that?" asked Diana Tavarez, 23, of Manhattan, waiting on the platform at the Rockefeller Center station. "Just punch them like a true New Yorker would."
Additional reporting by Erika Martinez
jennifer.fermino@nypost.com
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