Youth Crime Rising on Washington’s Metro
A workmate sent us this link to a Washington Post story about the Washington Metro Transit Authority changing the student passes on trains and buses to ID the users in order to lower the crime rate on trains and buses;
The transit authority is trying to reverse a rising incidence of crime on its sprawling rail and bus network, authorities said.
“Unfortunately, our young people are running in groups, and they are taking advantage of people,” Transit Police Chief Michael Taborn said. He discussed the plan Thursday during a meeting of Metro’s board of directors.
I don’t know how that’ll help much. My solution to their crime problem is to sell off the Transit cops’ SUVs and make them get on the platforms and trains to provide a deterrence to the crime wave.
I know it’s like I’m ignorant, but I just don’t see the value of having a police force called “transit police” that all ride around from Dunkin’ Donuts to Popeye’s chicken joints to 7-11 for their whole shift in their big, fancy SUVs. I rode the Metro at peak hours for a decade and I’ll wager I saw cops on the trains and platforms (through DC’s northeast quadrant) four times.
The key to good policing is actually acting like you’re the police.
Of course, that doesn’t absolve parents of their responsibility to make their kids come home, either. The reason kids are wandering around in felonious packs is largely the fault of parents, but if Metro is trying to do something, kick those cops out on their beats.
Category: Society
The Pentagon stop usually has a few cops close by, but they are Pentagon federal cops, not the MERTO guys. After living here for almost a year, I can’t recall ever seeing one. When I lived in the Boston and Atlanta areas, the transit cops were all over the place, even with nice SUVs to ride around in.
“Unfortunately, our young people are running in groups, and they are taking advantage of people,”
Do the Transit tin stars have a problem saying “gangs”?
Yes, they do. Back in 2008, this happened:
D.C. officials insist on describing groups of young males as “crews,” rather than gangs, even when they are held responsible for violent acts such as the wave of killings in the city last weekend.
D.C. police, lawmakers and community activists say the groups are not gangs because their members are mostly teens who band together for personal protection. That, they say, distinguished them from conventional gangs, which are created for a criminal enterprise such as drug dealing.
The only time I see Transit POlice is when I see their names on my parking tickets for parking in the reserved space before 10am.
In 2008, DC officials were and still are full of bullcrap. The term “crew” is vernacular that has been in use since at least the 70’s, shorthand for criminal enterprise. “Gang” has been in use since uh like early US History…Revisionist asshats!
So, that fat-asses doughnut-eatin’ public employee-belonging train cops don’t even ride the train?
Must be the transit cops don’t ride the transit system because it’s dangerous? Seriously, being retired from LE, I can’t fathom not putting those guys/gals where they belong, on the trains. Holy Bat Shit, Batman, there’s crime on them thar trains, think maybe we ought to do something about it?
As for the PC speak about gangs, I had a chief who said, “they aren’t gangs, they’re groups of young men, banded together for a common purpose”. No shit, and that common purpose is crime, moron.
1. Get concealed carry as a “shall issue” condition in that state. After the first few criminals get shot, the rest will go somewhere else for their fun or grow up. After Goetz whacked those four assholes in NYC, subway crime dropped off dramatically.
2. Make the transit cops do their jobs or fire them. They don’t need SUV’s in any case. Think of how much their carbon footprints will decrease if they ride the rails and actually run in the criminals down there.