XPost: alt.los-angeles, alt.society.liberalism, soc.culture.african.american   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: deport@illegal.aliens   
      
   A video circulating on social media captured the moments a bus driver was   
   stabbed Saturday night by a passenger in Willowbrook as other passengers   
   watched.   
      
   The driver survived and is recovering at home, but the incident heightens   
   concern about the safety of Metro’s bus drivers and passengers. The attack   
   came less 24 hours after an argument among passengers resulted in the   
   stabbing of a 70-year-old man on a bus in Silver Lake and less than a   
   month after another man hijacked and crashed a bus in downtown Los   
   Angeles.   
      
   Metro’s head of security, who was recently fired after filing a complaint   
   to the agency’s inspector general, says that law enforcement isn’t doing   
   enough to prosecute those responsible for such crimes, and the local union   
   representing drivers said they are worried about their members’ safety.   
      
   “It has got to stop, it has got to stop,” said John Ellis, who represents   
   six union locals that account for 5,000 bus and rail operators working at   
   Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. “There are   
   people that are afraid to go to work.”   
      
   Ellis has been working with Metro to produce a fully encased protective   
   barrier that could prevent attacks such as this one, but he says the   
   process has taken too long.   
      
   “There’s a lot of red tape and some of that can be eliminated,” he said.   
      
   As Metro ridership has gone up, so too has the number of assaults on its   
   bus and train operators — 168 in 2023, a slight increase from the previous   
   year. The assaults included being spat on and being stabbed.   
      
   The figures underscore a stark national trend. Assaults on transit workers   
   have tripled over the last 15 years, according to research from the Urban   
   Institute, making it more difficult for public agencies to recruit and   
   retain their workers.   
      
   “It’s devastating,” said Lindiwe Rennert, a senior researcher associate at   
   the think tank. “To go into a work environment where you are fearful for   
   your well-being. No one should have to deal with that, especially someone   
   who is a public servant.”   
      
   Rennert reviewed federal data between 2008 and 2022 and found the number   
   of assaults resulting in deaths or medical transport rose to 492 from 168   
   nationwide.   
      
   Among transit agencies Metro had the sixth highest number of assaults, she   
   said. The nation’s busiest transit agency, in New York, topped the list.   
   What Rennert found when she compared economic and social variables, was   
   that there was a statistically significant relationship between assaults   
   on transit workers and both income inequality and civil unrest.   
      
   Eliminating fares could help ease the stresses, she said. But Rennert   
   warns against flooding areas with law enforcement, a move that often   
   temporarily reduces crime but doesn’t provide a long-term solution.   
      
   “You will see see drops in assault counts in spaces where cops and law   
   enforcement are momentarily, and then when they are gone, the counts spike   
   right back up,” she said.   
      
   What the limited federal data didn’t capture was the extent of violence or   
   battery exacted on transit workers. New standards that will require   
   agencies to report a wider range of assaults should illuminate that in the   
   coming year.   
      
   In Los Angeles, a log of assaults on bus and rail operators, regularly   
   presented to the Metro board, details some of the abuse bus drivers   
   endure.   
      
   In January alone, a man attempted to rape a bus driver in Culver City; a   
   passenger bit a bus driver because they didn’t stop and then pepper-   
   sprayed security in El Monte ; and on 7th and Alvarado streets a bus   
   driver got into an altercation with a passenger after asking the person to   
   stop cursing near a woman and her small children. The man swung at the   
   driver several times, before the driver got him in a headlock and punched   
   him. The suspect bit the driver on the chest and fled.   
      
   “These are hyperviolent examples but unfortunately it is par for the   
   course,” Rennert said. “Sexual assaults and stabbings are the types of   
   assaults we hear about nationwide.”   
      
   Metro’s recently fired chief of safety and security officer, Gina Osborn,   
   a former FBI agent, has been critical of law enforcement agencies   
   contracted with Metro. According to her calculations, the Los Angeles   
   Police Department and the county Sheriff’s Department have presented fewer   
   than 30% of the assault cases to the district attorney or city attorney,   
   despite having cameras on buses.   
      
   “That to me is the most egregious,” Osborn said. “There’s no coordination,   
   there’s no collaboration, there’s no searching to make sure that this   
   person isn’t coming back tomorrow.”   
      
   She pointed to the hijacking in downtown L.A. last month, where a man   
   armed with an airsoft gun forced the driver to steer the bus to several   
   locations before crashing into the Ritz-Carlton hotel. When she asked law   
   enforcement officers whether the suspect was the same person as one in a   
   similar incident the week before, she said, they didn’t know.   
      
   LAPD Deputy Chief Donald Graham, who oversees the Transit Services Bureau,   
   said Osborn fails to understand the intricacies of local policing   
   agencies, including which cases are prosecuted and on what charges. He   
   said he expects his team to present a case to prosecutors every time there   
   is an arrest.   
      
   He points out that as of Sunday, Part 1 crimes — including homicides,   
   violent assaults and robberies — on buses, trains and stations are down   
   41% so far this year in areas patrolled by LAPD compared with the same   
   period in the previous year.   
      
   He said the agency is increasingly working with other law enforcement   
   agencies, Metro security and ambassadors to identify suspects. Weapons-   
   and narcotics-related arrests have surged, and since Jan. 1 in the transit   
   system, the LAPD has arrested 904 people for trespassing — often for not   
   carrying a TAP card needed to board trains or buses.   
      
   Capt. Shawn R. Kehoe of the Sheriff’s Transit Services Bureau, said the   
   Sheriff’s Department solved and filed with the district attorney’s office   
   15 of the 54 bus driver assaults reported in its jurisdiction last year.   
      
   “Our current clearance rate is 27%,” he said. “We take every crime   
   seriously. Our Transit Services Bureau detectives are assigned solely to   
   investigate public transit crimes and investigate each crime to the   
   fullest extent possible using all available resources.”   
      
   Metro’s executive board has been grappling with issues of policing on   
   thousands of Metro buses, trains and stations for years. Whereas social   
   justice activists are calling for the board to decrease the number of   
   armed officers, employees are worried about safety. The cost of   
   contracting with law enforcement has been ballooning, and Metro has been   
   weighing whether to create its own police force.   
      
   Osborn, who backs the idea of a Metro-run police agency, acknowledges that   
   prosecutions might have done little to deter the latest attack. But she   
   said there’s a general malaise when it comes to policing transit.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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