Posted on 07/29/2023 12:16:50 AM PDT by thecodont
BART’s board of directors voted Thursday to formally oppose a bill in the California Legislature that would decriminalize fare evasion in the state’s public transit systems. The board’s 5-3 vote came after a heated debate among members.
Under state law, those who are caught evading a fare three or more times may face a misdemeanor charge, which could result in a fine of up to $400 and a sentence of up to 90 days in jail. If Assembly Bill 819 — introduced by Assembly Majority Leader Isaac Bryan — were to pass, the third violation would no longer be classified as a misdemeanor charge. Instead, a third violation would result in only a fine not exceeding $400. Bryan, a Democrat from Los Angeles, said that he authored the bill because he believes the enforcement of fare evasion rules is disproportionately used against people of color.
At Thursday’s board meeting, BART staff, including the transit system’s police department, said they had no position on the bill. They cited data that showed that only 2% of the 2,350 citations issued for fare evasion in 2021 resulted in a misdemeanor charge, and only 1.4% of the roughly 1,800 citations issued in 2022 resulted in such a charge. Therefore, they said, the impact of the bill — if it were to pass — would likely be “insignificant.”
But the system’s directors took a different position. They heard from Brad Wilson, the vice president of the BART police union, who said that fare evasion is directly correlated with crime on the transit system — roughly 80% of those arrested on trains or at stations don’t have proof of paying the fare, he said. In that vein, Director John McPartland said the fare evasion issue is a matter of public safety.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Just more reparations.
The U.S. has gone from “the land of the free”, to the “land of the freeloaders”.
“This is how crime rates explode, and the Demonrats are 100% responsible for leading the crusade for criminals at the expense of law abiding citizens.”
A lot of Republicans got also suckered-in due to their ‘sympathy’ for the ‘downtrodden’, including lawmakers who bought into things like cash-bail is biased against blacks. Last time that I checked, there was only ONE SCALE for bail, not one scale for blacks and one scale for whites.
That should be what happens after the FIRST time evading the fare.
Public transit systems could eliminate the vast majority of fare evasion via implementation of basic, readily available COTS and effective penalties, but there is only one problem:
They’d have to choose profit over liberalism.
This story is about the converse.
You’ve omitted one part of the equation:
Such lines always accompany separate development plans for ‘multi-family unit housing’.
THAT is the reason for the shift, not BART alone. BART and the-like simply facilitate urban sprawl and the cited spread of crime. The policies are inseparable.
It’s occurring literally in EVERY blue state with a public transit system, destroying neighborhoods one by one (more accurately, a gross at a time).
It’s less about public transit than it is about the bureaucrats & politicians placing the criminals’ housing smack in the middle of family neighborhoods (all except their own).
I used BART for the very first time when taking an Alaskan cruise out of San Francisco. Parked at the Walnut Creek Station where there was covered parking for $6 a day (Saturday and Sunday were free). Got on the train easily enough with our luggage and lots of room around where we sat for keeping our luggage. Got off in downtown SF and walked to the ship. If we were flying out of SFO we would have just stayed on the train. The train and stations were clean and we felt safe at all times. I don’t know why anyone would not take BART to SFO. No traffic, tolls etc. to deal with. Obviously, BART is trying to change its image and from what I saw they did a good job. So now a racist California politician is saying that black people are too dumb to pay the fare and shouldn’t face criminal charges.
I know! We'll all switch to mass transit!
Darker than my current ‘tan’ from working in the sun.
Fewer thefts, fewer 'turn stile jumpers'...covering the reality tjat it's more thefts, more turn stile jumpers' and soon to be many many moire...
And that's the whole game for democrats... trick the press bimbos and pretentious men who can't do math or read statistics into believing there's less crime when it's just plain old fashioned lying. And more crime. Guess fooling the idiots is easy since they want to be fooled by democrats.
“Broken Windows Policing”
“the enforcement of fare evasion rules is disproportionately used against people of color.”
It could not possibly be because people of color disproportionately evade fares.
It could not be!
“fooling the idiots is easy since they want to be fooled by democrats.”
One set of future crime victims are foreign tourists who are unable to get accurate crime statistics online.
They get to discover the “culture” of the natives the hard way.
Yes, of course that was what I meant to say. However, in today’s world, “broken glass policing” is a more accurate term, IMO, though I stumbled on it accidentally.
Thank you for the correction, however.
Since then, organizers close the Alameda County Fair at 6:00pm on July 4.
p.s. the Richmond line transfer to the Dublin/Pleasanton line in Oakland.
-PJ
Good point. That does happen.
It's not like you're a racist or something.
In a fair world, BART would be sued out of existence for the damage they caused.
“the enforcement of fare evasion rules is disproportionately used against people of color.”
It could not possibly be because people of color disproportionately evade fares.
It could not be!
All you have to do is stand by a BART set of fare gates and watch who jumps the turnstile. There is definitely a pattern.
Some BART stations have erected barriers above fare gates which eliminate the possibility of jumping (at least there).
“Bryan, a Democrat from Los Angeles, said that he authored the bill because he believes the enforcement of fare evasion rules is disproportionately used against people of color.”
Translation: most fare beaters are black.
I guess if most people arrested for murder are black, then the solution is we need to decriminalize murder.
Good point.
It’s funny how they start crying about how enforcement of laws is racist in intent when it impacts one race (generally) in effect. Intent = effect/impact, in their minds.
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