Disorder | Fare evaders at Columbia Heights Metrorail Station, Washington, DC
It's pretty disturbing. This is clear evidence that the evaders don't care too much about community, public goods, etc.
And it's a point missed by the social justice types who fueled the decriminalization of fare evasion ("D.C. Council decriminalizes Metro fare evasion: ‘I’m sad that’s Metro’s losing money, but I’m more sad about what’s happening to black people.’," Washington Post, 2018, "Metro cracks down on fare evasion in D.C., leading to jump in fines," Post, 2024).
While people don't like the language, fare evasion is a gateway act to disorder and likely increases disorder and criminal acts.
The one thing I learned in DC during the 80s and 90s when things were really bad is that there is a fine line between order and disorder, and letting disorder fester ("Defining Deviance Down: How we've become accustomed to alarming levels of crime and destructive behavior," Daniel Patrick Moynihan, "Explaining Urban Social Disorder and Violence: An Empirical Study of Event Data from Asian and Sub-Saharan African Cities," International Interactions, 2012, "Disorder in urban neighborhoods -- does it lead to crime?," DOJ) always has bad outcomes. From the DOJ paper:
The research produced an alternative interpretation of the link between disorder and crime, one that sees many elements of disorder as part and parcel of crime itself. Typical activities categorized as social disorder, such as soliciting prostitutesand loitering, and incivilities like painting graffiti are evidence of either crime or ordinance violations. The forces producing these minor crimes may be the same as those that produce more serious crimes, with the difference only in the degree of seriousness. Viewed this way, disorder and crime are manifestations of the same phenomenon.
As charlie points out, it was the public safety improvements starting in the late 1990s, culminating in severe crime drops, that led people to choose to live in cities starting in the 2000s after decades when trends dissuaded all but the most motivated people from city living ("Claims of ‘lawlessness’ on New York City subways increase danger, critics say," Guardian).
-- What caused the crime decline, Brennan Center
-- Crime analysis for problem solvers in 60 small steps, DOJ
-- Center for Problem Oriented Policing, Arizona State
-- "Does "Broken Windows" Law Enforcement Reduce Serious Crime?," DOJ
Many elected officials and stakeholders don't seem to be aware of that or acknowledge it or recognize it or keep that top of mind when they make decisions ("Inside the D.C. Council’s turn away from progressive crime strategies," Post).
I understand that structural racism is bad, and have argued for community investment to address it ("Social urbanism and equity planning as a way to address crime, violence, and persistent poverty: (not in) DC," 2021) but it doesn't obviate responsibility for your acts and behavior, which the social justice movement doesn't acknowledge, especially with the crime law overhaul that passed in 2023, and has just been reversed with the recent changes.
-- DC Justice Lab
-- Criminal Code Reform Commission, DC Government
-- "What Everyone Is Getting Wrong About DC's Crime Bill," Washingtonian Magazine
-- "The Sentencing Project Condemns DC Council’s Passage of Secure DC Crime Bill"
Labels: crime, criminal justice system, equity planning, policing, public safety, social urbanism
posted by Richard Layman @ 7:00 PM&Permanent Link
8 Comments:
I love how this person is wringing their hands over fare evasion done by African Americans, when there are clearly more egregious crimes committed in this city daily- and many by the law enforcement and elected officials. Hypocrite.
Just about everyone in DC, to include the council, agrees fare evasion is bad. The decriminalization was never intended to make it ok, but was the realization that arresting someone and giving them a criminal record were disproportionate punishments. We don’t do that to speeders or those who run red lights or stop signs. The intent was to make it a fine, like speeding. Clearly the execution wasn’t ideal, but the closure of the loop hole regarding requirement to show IDs does seem like a significant step in the right direction.
https://www.thetrace.org/2024/03/new-york-subway-shooting-gun-carry-legal/
I don't think Anonymous 1 lived in DC in the 1990s. It's not about African Americans, it's about disorder.
wrt the second post, that's a good point. But there is a difference between decriminalization and enforcement. Also the fact that a lot of fare evasion isn't "innocent" resulting from not having the money to pay. And fare evaders often commit other crimes.
As crime rises, fare evasion enforcement signals a desire for civil order
https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2023/06/17/metro-transit-crime-fare-evasion/
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/24/nyregion/subway-safety-crime-nyc.html
What Would Make the Subway Feel Safer? Experts Have 5 Suggestions.
But just days after the reinforcements arrived, a shooting on an A train in Brooklyn underscored how fragile any sense of security can be and undermined officials’ message, supported by data, that the subway is safe. It also stirred a dread familiar to many riders, who have witnessed some of the city’s biggest problems — untreated mental health issues, illegal guns, homelessness — being amplified in the confined spaces of platforms and trains.
Strengthen gun checks
Some experts believe more must be done to keep guns out of the system.
Rigorous and widespread bag checks, which the police already conduct at random, are an effective way to achieve that goal, said Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, the interim dean at U.C.L.A.’s Luskin School of Public Affairs.
Provide more help for those who need it
Fears about subway safety arise in part from high-profile attacks in which mentally ill homeless people have seemingly targeted riders at random. There is, however, no data to suggest that people with mental illness are more likely to commit violence than those without it. Mentally ill people are actually more likely to be the victim of a violent crime.
A visible presence of social and transit workers can help deter crime and de-escalate tense situations, advocates said.
Some mass transit supporters have urged the M.T.A. to create a more robust internal division for helping homeless people. These advocates cite the agency that operates Philadelphia’s transit system and runs a program that employs about 50 social service outreach specialists. In Philadelphia, homeless people can be directed to the Hub of Hope, a drop-in center within the transit system, that provides showers, medical care and food.
Alter the physical environment
Bright lights, see-through staircases and other structural features can make the system feel less claustrophobic.
Help riders be prepared
When something frightening happens in the subway, riders often do not know what to do.
Transit officials in the San Francisco region have sought to help female riders on the Bay Area Rapid Transit, or BART, system avoid harassment with a campaign that teaches bystanders how to assist someone being victimized. Transportation safety leaders say the M.T.A. could adopt a similar program.
Increase fare enforcement
Dorothy Schulz, a retired captain with the Metro-North Police Department and emeritus professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said law enforcement officers should stand at gates and stop people who did not pay the fare.
The M.T.A. has struggled for years to rein in fare evasion, and it has begun considering options other than relying on the police. Left-leaning politicians and advocates for poor New Yorkers have denounced aggressive policing efforts, which they say unfairly target the city’s most vulnerable people and are not effective.
Transit leaders have responded by trying other tactics, including experimenting with increasing fare subsidies, media campaigns urging riders to pay, and new fare gates that are harder to circumvent.
“If you stop people at the fare gates — particularly those who are obviously not intending to pay — you’ll pick up a lot of weapons and a lot of people with warrants,” Ms. Schulz said. “That’s the solution.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/17/nyregion/brooklyn-subway-shooting-video.html
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/23/new-york-city-subway-violence-law-enforcement-response
Claims of ‘lawlessness’ on New York City subways increase danger, critics say
“When [some people] hear from the leadership or from people running for office or from people in the media over and over again that the subway is not safe, they take matters into their own hands,” Pearlstein said, “whether they become vigilantes, or arm themselves inexpertly, and the results can be catastrophic. There have been vigilante murders in the subway – in this case, the person was shot with his own gun, and it’s a catastrophe.”
Police say, following a spike in January, the number of crimes committed on the subway decreased by 15% in February compared to the same month in 2023, but Hochul acknowledged that perception is different from reality.
“Saying things are getting better doesn’t make you feel better,” Hochul said as she announced the deployment of the national guard.
“Especially when you’ve just heard about someone being stabbed in the throat or thrown onto the subway tracks. There’s a psychological impact.”
... In 1980, 250 felony crimes were committed on the subway every week. In 1982, the New York Daily News reported that subway ridership was at its lowest rate since 1917, due in large part to “to straphanger fears about transit crime”.
That’s a far cry from the current day. Felonies are still committed every day on the subway, but far fewer than in the 1980s – despite the fact that the annual subway ridership of more than 2 billion people in 2023 is double that of 41 years ago.
“There’s been some really high-profile incidents, as far as shootings go, as far as murders go. So I think those of us that ride it [the subway] worry about these things once in a while. We also know assaults are up, and that’s one of the more high-volume crimes. But I do think a lot of it is blown out of proportion,” said Christopher Herrmann, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
... “A lot of the violence, whether it’s above ground or below ground, is very concentrated in small areas. So if you live in a high-crime neighborhood in Brooklyn or the Bronx, you’re much more likely to be a victim of crime than if you’re riding the subway.”
The solutions to reducing subway incidents in higher-crime areas are the same as those above ground, Pearlstein said – better investment in social services.
“Every social problem is present everywhere in society, but it’s most visible in the subway,” he said.
“The police are the front-end response, but they can’t do the back end, they can’t provide people housing. They can’t provide people healthcare, they are not addiction counselors, they cannot provide treatment. We can’t ask that of them.
https://www.inquirer.com/transportation/septa-bus-shootings-operators-trauma-call-outs-20240324.html
‘Always in the back of my mind.’ Bus-related shootings fall hard on SEPTA drivers
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