I have heard it said that BART is still safer, despite these recent crimes, than walking the streets that BART travels under.
Lawyer: ‘It’s a Free for All’ for Criminals on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)
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Re: Lawyer: ‘It’s a Free for All’ for Criminals on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)
#12Does BART have unlimited liability for the actions of others? Probably not. Should BART have more security at problem stations? Sure. Most of this sounds like a failure of the local police though, transit security is generally not going to handle reporting assault and theft, as those are the jurisdiction of the municipality where the crime occured.
I think crimes on Bart are the jurisdiction of Bart police.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_Area_Rapid_Transit_Police_...
Re: Lawyer: ‘It’s a Free for All’ for Criminals on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)
#13If you take BART and ride into Oakland -- you are on your own.
There is no one that will protect you. My next door neighbor was assaulted. She was brutalized. Sigh. It was bad. THEN she went home, reported it with police.
This is where it gets weird. The people that assaulted her -- armed with her ID card went to her APARTMENT -- luckly she was somewhere else with her parents. The people that brutalized her ransacked her apartment without care of being caught.
The detective on the case was really awesome from Oakland PD. He talked with me since I saw one of the guys leave the apartment. He mentioned: "She is lucky". Unfortunately, he explained, there is no way to prosecute these guys unless there is camera evidence.
Re: Lawyer: ‘It’s a Free for All’ for Criminals on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)
#14My coworker was sexually assaulted on the BART, on the East Bay side of the tracks. A group of youths started sitting around her, took off her headphones, groped her, took her picture several times with them groping her, laughed and then left after terrorizing her for 10 minutes unabated. There was nothing she could do, she is a tiny, attractive Asian female sitting by herself and no one stepped in to help her (to be fair, who would risk themselves by stepping in against a large group of youths). She contacted the police, but they said there was nothing they could do and frankly they couldn't have cared any less. She never took the BART again, and moved to the peninsula.
There's nothing stopping criminals from victimizing you except the law of large numbers, meaning your only protection is dumb luck these days, and not the police. And if it happens to you, the police largely won't do anything about it.
Re: Lawyer: ‘It’s a Free for All’ for Criminals on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)
#15Does BART have unlimited liability for the actions of others? Probably not. Should BART have more security at problem stations? Sure. Most of this sounds like a failure of the local police though, transit security is generally not going to handle reporting assault and theft, as those are the jurisdiction of the municipality where the crime occured.
BART police are sworn California law enforcement, same as SFPD or Oakland PD. Only difference is their jurisdiction is BART so technically they should be enforcing the law.
That said, I’m down for making any change to this status quo that sees them actually enforcing the law and public order, or a different responsible PD altogether.
Re: Lawyer: ‘It’s a Free for All’ for Criminals on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)
#16Maybe they should issue more concealed carry permits in bay area counties. It's wrong for the police to simultaneously neglect your protection and also prevent you from protecting yourself.
Re: Lawyer: ‘It’s a Free for All’ for Criminals on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)
#17I read a lot of anti-police and criminal apologist rhetoric from that part of the world. Granted I may have some sort of selection bias or sampling bias, but it really does not surprise me to see this take place. It seems to me that there are certain political movements that you can't really criticize publicly for a variety of reasons, who have - through political pressure, rendered the policing power of the state to be largely ineffective.
Unrelated to the Bay area: in a region with similar politics - Portland Oregon, I was watching some YouTube videos where some very obnoxious black clad youth were attacking and threatening cars passing to the area. One elderly driver was asked to "go back to North Carolina". It was unlike anything I had ever seen before - and frankly shocking to see in a first world country. This kind of thing routinely happens here in India when there is unrest - police are told to stand down for political reasons when there are violent protests. I imagine that a similar kind of politics have taken hold in some of these areas.
I believe Oakland is also the place where a college campus was attacked by the same extremist group. From what I remember reading of the incident, the city's Mayor asked the police not to establish law and order, and they essentially watched on while it happened. I watched a young lady participating in an interview wearing a "Make Bitcoin Great Again" hat get pepper sprayed by one of these miscreants.
Is there a reason why this group has not been designated a terrorist threat?
Re: Lawyer: ‘It’s a Free for All’ for Criminals on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
AFAIK bart police are actual peace officers: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_Area_Rapid_Transit_Polic... I remember i used to see ads of theirs years ago, prominently displaying their 150K starting salary. Anecdotally, i agree that riding bart has felt sketchier the past few years. I generally ride from SF to Lake Merritt or 12th St Oakland.
> prominently displaying their 150K starting salary I thought that seemed high, but they are still paid quite well. https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Bart-Police-Officer-Salarie...
There are lots of BART security job vacancies, probably because no matter how high the salary it would be a very dangerous job. This is similar to the social situation in NYC when the Guardian Angels were formed, but what is extraordinary is how wealthy the bay area is today compared to 1980's New York area...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardian_Angels
Re: Lawyer: ‘It’s a Free for All’ for Criminals on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)
#19Maybe they should issue more concealed carry permits in bay area counties. It's wrong for the police to simultaneously neglect your protection and also prevent you from protecting yourself.
I don't want somebody shooting for any reason on the BART.
Re: Lawyer: ‘It’s a Free for All’ for Criminals on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)
#20Maybe they should issue more concealed carry permits in bay area counties. It's wrong for the police to simultaneously neglect your protection and also prevent you from protecting yourself.
It's probably safer to just carry a little extra cash and pay off the robbers..