It seems like the Bay Area is going through what New York City went through in the 1970s and 1980s.
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)
#32If 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…
I feel that surveillance in the form of Little Sister (https://medium.com/@chaostheory/little-sister-14bf095d3441) will be even more prevalent if not ubiquitous. Decent megapixel cameras now can be bought for about $25. Between the crime that you mentioned and the rise of petty crimes such as package theft, many people are willingly putting Amazon's and Google's eyes both inside and outside of their homes.
Re: Lawyer: ‘It’s a Free for All’ for Criminals on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)
#33All of California is a victim-disarmament zone. The criminals arm themselves freely, the strong have free reign over the weak, but the law-abiding citizen is prohibited from carrying a weapon that makes them, in a fight, the equal of any criminal or strong-man who wants to harm them.
Re: Lawyer: ‘It’s a Free for All’ for Criminals on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)
#34I 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…
How is this story related to these political movements you're describing? The events in the article seem like the usual robberies, unrelated to any political cause.
Like I said it seems like the local governments in both these places which share the same politics, are involved in actively holding back the local police force from doing their jobs.
Is it not reasonable to hold the local government responsible for safety on the train? Given their track record for asking the police to be hands off, isn't the prevalence of unchecked crime in trains, crime on campuses and crime on the streets consistent with that track record?
Re: Lawyer: ‘It’s a Free for All’ for Criminals on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)
#35Maybe 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.
I don't either, but I'll be damned if I'm going to let some scummy BART thief rob and assault me when I have a concealed carry permit.
Re: Lawyer: ‘It’s a Free for All’ for Criminals on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)
#36Maybe 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..
As long as that's all they want.
Re: Lawyer: ‘It’s a Free for All’ for Criminals on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)
#37Maybe 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..
I don't think that's a good idea. Seeing you have some cash on hand is a signal that you are more well-of and they might be more incentivized than they were previously to take your bag/wallet/etc. Basically there's no incentive for them to stop at just taking that extra cash when they can take that and whatever else they were planning to.
Re: Lawyer: ‘It’s a Free for All’ for Criminals on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)
#38This is why it's hard to get support for public transit funding. People don't want to take public transit if they will fear for their lives, or be surrounded by drug addicts and mentally disturbed people yelling at and spitting on other passengers.
BART trains and stations are like this on a regular basis; Muni has the same problems but not as bad. I've seen this kind of thing happen on Caltrain late at night also, but much less often. I have never, ever seen it happen in London or anywhere in Japan.
It's easy for people in the Bay Area to believe this is what all public transit is like, unless they have experienced better systems elsewhere. Why would they want to use it, or pay for it with their tax money? It's safer to take your own car, or an Uber.
I'm a big fan of public transit, especially trains, but it's just never going to be improved in the Bay Area if people don't feel safe.
Re: Lawyer: ‘It’s a Free for All’ for Criminals on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)
#39I 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…
How is this story related to these political movements you're describing? The events in the article seem like the usual robberies, unrelated to any political cause.
First off, I'm almost positive the "political movement" is Antifa. No need to beat around the bush.
The alleged connection, if I'm reading GP right, is the shackling of police due to political pressure, and a more general breakdown in law and order. I'm not sure the Bart police are restrained from above, as it could also be a lack of resources that prevents them from patrolling the trains on foot. But a growing disrespect for the law does seem to be occurring in West Coast cities over and above what is happening elsewhere.
Re: Lawyer: ‘It’s a Free for All’ for Criminals on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
How is this story related to these political movements you're describing? The events in the article seem like the usual robberies, unrelated to any political cause.
Like I said it seems like the local governments in both these places which share the same politics, are involved in actively holding back the local police force from doing their jobs. Is it not reasonable to hold the local government responsible for safety on the train? Given their track record for asking the police to be hands off, isn't the prevalence of unchecked crime in trains, crime on campuses and crime on the…
I don't see it. Crime is up on the subway, so you think this is part of a politically motivated strategy to "[hold] back the police force from doing their jobs"? The article says they have a lot of vacancies. Maybe they can't find people who want the job? Maybe their budget for policeman salaries doesn't fare well compared to the area housing prices? I could think of quite a few possible reasons for a rise in crime before getting to the idea that this must be some leftist plot to help the criminals.
A track record of holding police back from political protests isn't relevant. There's no political group supporting these robbers.