Alleged Tri Met Beater

They call Tri Met CRIME Met for a reason. While smart growth planners beam at the thought of the egalitarianism of mass transit and force more on us, the masses are scared. Especially in light of three incidents –two this week– in which people have been beaten for no reason. Add in the fact that it’s black on white crime and crimes against KIDS and you start asking questions:

• Are white kids safe on transit? 
• Are kids safe on transit? 
• Would you let your child ride alone on transit?

Mom Accused of Hiding Perps

As Lew points out here, the Transit Police, overseen by the Portland Police Bureau, have made arrests in the most notorious of the beatings. That one involved a 14 year old kid minding her own business and listening to her ipod who got hassled and then beaten by three raving teenagers. At least one of this pack of-out-of-control wolves calls the victim a “white girl.” See the :11 mark at the video below.

When you pick on someone for being of a particular race it’s called a “Hate Crime.” No, I don’t like hate crime designations, either. A crime is a crime, a beating is a beating. But if that designation is going to be invoked against one group it should be invoked for all. Sauce for the goose and all that.

You can bet that if the next incident had been captured on tape (and who knows maybe it has and we just haven’t seen it) and put on you tube it also would have been gasp inducing to watch.

The 15 year old boy was walking to the Max platform and across Interstate near in the Rose Garden area when a black man got out of his car and cold cocked the white teen. After knocking him down the man commenced to kicking 15-year-old Josiah Kuehl IN. THE. HEAD.

You never know whom you’ll be sitting next to on Max or the bus or light rail. Will it be a tweaker in need of a fix? An angry woman who doesn’t have fare and beats the driver when he asks for it? That one just happened yesterday. How about the guy with no pants sitting in the back of the bus drinking a bottle of merlot? That one was observed by a family member. How about a kid minding her own business and listening to her ipod who gets hassled and the beaten by three raving teenagers?
A kid listening to his ipod, crossing the street to catch the Max and beaten by a motorist?

As one of my listeners emailed me:

I’ve had to get involved in at least four incidents on Tri Met in the last 10 yrs.
One involved an old guy who was intimidating a female driver.
Another involved a female meth head who got in a fight with another female minding her own business.
A third involved a black woman who punched her 9 yr old son/brother in the side of the head, right in front of me.
It can get VERY violent on Tri Met, and people hardly ever get involved.

I’d say he’s caught his limit of drama on transit.

Here’s a tweet I saw last night:

Scared Transit Riders

The city of Portland and PPS subsidize the transit passes. This seems a fair question to ask: if you expect the kids to ride transit to school because you don’t provide a bus, isn’t it incumbent upon you to at least keep the kids safe to the best of your ability?

There’s also this: Are ipod wearing kids so oblivious to their surroundings that they fail to pick up certain social and danger cues? Are they not aware that outside the earbuds there’s a world out there of sounds that they would be smart to pick up on for their own safety? I’d say yes to both.

Meantime, Vancouverites and Clackamas residents both battling against light rail are watching.

And Tri Met has some explaining to do.