BART. (Photo: bart.gov)
Pro-Crime Legislature Looking to Make Fools of Lawful Citizens with BART Bill
Decriminalizing fare jumping: The legislature shouldn’t give the green light to crime
By Ted Gaines, August 15, 2023 10:24 am
Will Rogers once said “Congress met today. I was afraid they might.” But even Rogers might be at a loss for words trying to describe the damage done by the California legislature, which is poised to fail – once again – at government’s basic duty of public safety.
At issue is Assembly Bill 819 by Assemblyman Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles), which will decriminalize “fare jumping” on the Bay Area’s Rapid Transit system (BART).
Now, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed any of the countless articles, videos, news stories, opinion pieces, and personal anecdotes about San Francisco’s death spiral. It is the homeless mecca, the smash-and-grab capital, the temple of brazen shoplifting, and the nation’s biggest open-air drug market. Commercial property prices are plummeting. Businesses can’t leave fast enough.
I pray the city, which is so important to the state’s prosperity, can turn itself around.
With all those problems, why would the legislature think now is a good time to turn BART into an accountability-free zone for criminals? The system itself is already a distillation of the city’s problems, having devolved into a rolling homeless shelter. The videos of drug zombies clogging BART stations are shocking. I can’t imagine a family hopping on a BART train and heading to San Francisco, knowing what might await them during and after their rides.
Incredibly, Sacramento wants to make it all worse.
AB 819 will eliminate the ability to charge chronic fare evaders with a misdemeanor. Under this bill, the worst possible punishment any fare jumper could receive would be a $400 fine. I will go out on a limb and say anyone repeatedly cheating BART out of fare will not be ponying up the $400. This will be mock justice that leads to an even sorrier system, hard as that is to believe. It will make fools of law-abiding citizens who want a clean, safe transportation system and dutifully pay their fares to support it.
Meanwhile, the legislature is contemplating raising the tolls on Bay Area bridges, all to subsidize BART, where ridership is down 60 percent from pre-pandemic levels. This is classic California legislative malfeasance, punishing the law-abiding to reward the law breaking.
If you are thinking “I never ride BART. Who cares?” know that the fabric of this state is frayed by bad laws and by laws that are treated only as suggestions. It breeds contempt for order and leads to more and worse crime.
Little crimes can’t be ignored or, in this case, sanctioned by the legislature. This is the central tenet of “broken windows” policing, which has led to spectacular decreases in crime in numerous cities.
But our legislators will be putting the rocks in criminals’ hands to break the windows. It will not end well.
Rural counties won’t be spared. This culture change will spill over into every region of the state. The carefree fare jumpers of BART will be emboldened to be the shoplifters, vandals, and trespassers of every town they visit. BART already has data that indicate most crimes committed on their system are committed by people who evade fares. Lawlessness breeds lawlessness, wherever it exists.
The legislature shouldn’t give the green light to crime. We need to get justice back on track or see BART’s chaos travel to every corner of the state. If you agree, call your legislators and let them know.
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This bill – which seems to cover ALL public transit in the state – is a direct result of the reparations task force.
From my story yesterday:
“In light of the decriminalization of jaywalking law – which was supposedly both racist and anti–sex worker – the task force asks that crimes like fare jumping be done away with because “(T)ransit mobility laws perpetuate vestiges of slavery to the extent that they criminalize poverty and race, limit economic opportunity, and lead to the displacement of African Americans.”
In case you missed it – https://californiaglobe.com/articles/the-reparations-quagmire/
It also refers to “token misuse” as well, which – terrible joke aside – seems to me to mean you can use slugs on the bus or counterfeit money to pay for a pass.
In the grand tradition of most of what’s wrong with California originating from the Bay Area…
They should just amend the bill to any crime committed is lawful – that is what their goal is, so long as you are POC.
This is how you turn first world into 3rd world quickly – They are doing a fine job with homeless everywhere, crime ever increasing, and illegals getting free stays at 3 star hotels. Yet there are people in this country thinking things are improving as democrats aggressively take more control towards communism – the insanity!
Just heard about an outrageous bill (AB 37) brought to us by the Usual Suspect Crime-and-Debauchery-Pushing team of Asm Mia Bonta and Sen Scott Wiener, which seeks to make unlimited funds available to lawmakers, by which they mean THEMSELVES, for increased SECURITY! For themselves! The nerve of these people!
https://freebeacon.com/california/fact-check-california-politicians-need-private-security-to-protect-them-from-conservatives/
AB 37 has passed the assembly, is in the senate now “on the precipice of passage.” Needs a 2/3 vote but it would probably be a good idea to contact our state senators anyway and tell them to VOTE NO on AB 37. Unbelievable!
Senate.ca.gov/senators
AB 37.
Only those without no other option would dare to ride BART (or other mass transit systems in California for that matter) that have become rife with criminal thugs, drugged out zombies and the homeless with nowhere else to go? Why would a Democrat Assemblyman who represents the 55th Assembly District in LA like Isaac Bryan push legislation like Assembly Bill 819 which will decriminalize “fare jumping” on BART? Democrat Assemblyman Isaac Bryan is a rabid promoter of defunding law enforcement and he was co-chair for Los Angeles County’s Measure J that diverts at least 10% of the county’s general funds “to address the disproportionate impact of racial injustice through community investment and alternatives to incarceration.” What’s curious is how a radical Marxist Democrat with an obvious racial bias like Isaac Bryan was elected in the 55th Assembly District which is relatively affluent, primarily suburban, where Democrats have a slim majority over Republican voters, and with a black population of less than 3 percent?
Simple – Bryan is a virtue-signal to those constituents…
A 21st century equivalent of those old lawn-jockey statuettes….
A living representation of the “This house…” signs that sprouted like dandelions in the wake of St. George Floyd and the summer of 2020….
We certainly see this all the time, CD9, so maybe that’s the answer. Wouldn’t surprise me.
However it does appear that something funky is going on with elections in that district. Maybe there has been “engineered low voter turnout” as well. Or maybe Bryan represented himself during his campaign (if he bothered to campaign) as someone quite different from his real self with his radical views. Also I have noticed that the reliably sensible community of Yorba Linda (just as one example), has been apparently infiltrated by radicals in recent years who seem to be looking to flip the place to just another leftist CA destructo-hellhole. Which brings us back to the possibility of a rigged election in AD 55. AD 55, as well as other state districts, as TJ has credibly argued in many of these instances.
P.S. By the way, why is a Dem/Marxist Asm from L.A. such as Bryan sticking his nose into BART doings in the Bay Area in the first place? Only because this bill, if it were to become law, would apply to L.A. Metro et al too? Or is it just that he drew the short straw in the Assembly and is the front man for other Dem legislators who desire further lawlessness and chaos up there in the Bay Area?
–“They are trying to wreck the country.” Tucker Carlson
When you look through that lens, and only when you look through that lens, everything the Dem Party and its cronies, collaborators, and comrades are doing makes sense.
The Dem rule CA as they do because they have no fear of the voters because (1) CA Dem voters will vote Dem no matter how bad things get because of Dem policies, and/or (2) the elections are corrupt and rigged.