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Train burglaries in LA

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Re: Train burglaries in LA

#61

Post by basementcat »

unityByFreedom wrote: post #53
mngnt wrote: post #36

I would expect this kind of pictures from a third world country... How come no one is incentivized to fix this - protect the trains, prevent this loss of property? Who pays for the stolen goods? I presume it would be the retailers, is it just a drop in the ocean for them? In some more dystopian movies there were trains crossing vast areas of postapocalyptic hellscape protected by soldiers with machine guns and flamet…

I'm pretty sure Buffett's company, which invests in both Union Pacific and insurance, is incentivized to resolve this. This photojournalist probably just helped him make a bunch of money by identifying a prime location for an ongoing problem. The fact that we saw it before UP did doesn't mean they aren't incentivized to stop it. It's obviously bad business if their deliveries are missing packages.

I think Berkshire Hathaway owns Burlington Northern and not Union Pacific.

Re: Train burglaries in LA

#62

Post by kingcharles »

rdtsc wrote: post #3

Wonder how organized that looting is. Is just individuals over many months or years, or a large gang over a few weeks time. On the one hand it’s shocking to see it in LA in US. On the other I am surprised it’s not happening more often. In large cities, some of my acquaintances had to get PO boxes as their packages kept getting stolen. But why bother wasting time going house to house, when you can hit a whole train ca…

When I was in jail I met dozens of people who have done this. None of it was organized that I was aware of, it was just opportunistic. Some friends would get together and say "Let's go wait for a train and bust open some containers." There are literally thousands of places where it is possible to do this.

Re: Train burglaries in LA

#63

Post by mlyle »

systemvoltage wrote: post #29
nightsd01 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very few people want to actually defund the police. But try being a black friend of mine, who got thrown out of his car without resisting and beaten so bad he had to go to an ICU, purely because he was driving a car that “matched the description” (that didn’t even match the color) of a crime in the area, and perhaps you can begin to understand why the “other side” is frustrated… And let me guess. You think these trai…

I am well aware of the colloquial term "Defund the police" which is often met by "No, not literally defund it". But the reality is that there is a strong support to reduce resources and move towards soft-policing. Have you been to the Bay Area? Apartment complexes and condominiums are hardened like castles while their kids play in the safe courtyards and the outside is rotting to the point of unsafe for male padestri…

> Have you been to the Bay Area? Apartment complexes and condominiums are hardened like castles while their kids play in the safe courtyards and the outside is rotting to the point of unsafe for male padestrians, let alone women and kids.

I don't think this is a fair description of the vast majority of the SF Bay Area. Perhaps it describes well some bits of Hayward and Oakland.

Large amounts of the SF Bay Area have crime rates well below the national median.

Re: Train burglaries in LA

#64

Post by [deleted] »

zo1 wrote: post #57
threatofrain wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not LAPD responsibility, and the HQ of the responsible force is in Omaha Nebraska.

It's still a consequence of general lack of policing or soft policing. Whether this is LAPDs responsibility or not, the overall society and its view on crime like this is a huge component to this occurring. We can't have nice things if people are just going around and stealing because "hey it doesn't hurt anyone".

[deleted]

Re: Train burglaries in LA

#65

Post by unityByFreedom »

basementcat wrote: post #61
unityByFreedom wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure Buffett's company, which invests in both Union Pacific and insurance, is incentivized to resolve this. This photojournalist probably just helped him make a bunch of money by identifying a prime location for an ongoing problem. The fact that we saw it before UP did doesn't mean they aren't incentivized to stop it. It's obviously bad business if their deliveries are missing packages.

I think Berkshire Hathaway owns Burlington Northern and not Union Pacific.

I believe they've invested in UP in the past. I don't know how to look up how much.

Re: Train burglaries in LA

#66

Post by systemvoltage »

nightsd01 wrote: post #55
systemvoltage wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am well aware of the colloquial term "Defund the police" which is often met by "No, not literally defund it". But the reality is that there is a strong support to reduce resources and move towards soft-policing. Have you been to the Bay Area? Apartment complexes and condominiums are hardened like castles while their kids play in the safe courtyards and the outside is rotting to the point of unsafe for male padestri…

Dude, I literally live in the Bay Area. And crime here is no where even close to bad as it was where I used to live in Texas. It’s all relative. Especially when politics is involved. I see absolutely no reason to believe that raising police budgets would somehow magically fix this. It wouldn’t. We have deeper societal issues at hand.

Certain areas in Bay Area (may be south bay) are probably better than others.

Digging around a bit, SF (and generally the rest of the bay area follows) has a substantially higher crime rate than say Austin or the US average: https://www.bestplaces.net/compare-cities/austin_tx/san_fran...

There are probably better sources than what I linked. It is really bad here in my experience and I want to move out.

Re: Train burglaries in LA

#68

Post by thebradbain »

systemvoltage wrote: post #58
thebradbain wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LAPD funding went _up_ 12% during and after the George Floyd protests (The highest it's ever been! The highest in the country per capita!). In fact, LASD/public schools got a cut in funding to help fund the LAPD budget. Granted, per the article, LAPD doesn't service freight rail lines, maybe because they'd say they'd be stretched too thin – and to be fair, 800+ of them are on leave for COVID, and falsely blaming it o…

I am talking in general, not specifically about LAPD. There seems to be a rude awakening, where I live: https://www.npr.org/2021/12/11/1063408465/oakland-city-counc... > The city council voted last summer to redirect money proposed for Oakland's Police Department to social services. But this week, defund the police became refund to the police. The same city council approved two new police academies and voted to hire…

If we're not talking about Los Angeles – which is what this entire article is based on – then you're opening up pandora's box.

What about Scandinavian or Western European countries, then? Maybe closer to home, what about NYC – the year the NYPD went on strike, crime went _down_ (not just a drop in arrests, but actual murders, theft, etc). and NYPD realized they'd have to voluntarily restart policing (without the desired increase in labor terms), or NYC City Council might realize they're not as necessary as they originally set out to prove.

https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-proacti...

https://www.vox.com/2015/1/6/7501953/nypd-mayor-arrests-unio...

When you fund a prison-industrial complex, you're creating a system that incentivizes incarceration, not rehabilitation. These systems don't want to solve crime – they want to set out to look for (or, some would say, create) crime. Other countries realized this, and seem to have much less actual crime as a result, while protecting things that actually matter (i.e. their major trade routes/people's lives/the general wellbeing of society). The US seems to have this idea that... if you don't have a home, or you're addicted to drugs, or you need a wellness check, you're more dangerous than a murderer or a thief (given that the former group makes up the vast majority of those incarcerated)

Re: Train burglaries in LA

#70

Post by metaphor »

Are other cities that operate major Class I freight rail seeing the same looting issue, or is this just LA/UP "market disruption" that hasn't caught up with the rest of the country?

EDIT: To be sure, I wonder because my city is both HQ and a significant hub for one of those F500 major Class I freight rail operators, but I haven't heard of such brazen exploits happening locally...yet?

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