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ALPERN AT LARGE - Others have used the term “Wokers” at CityWatch, such as my fellow writer-in-arms Rick Abrams, so I’ll borrow his term and throw out a few witticisms of my own, like:
“We’re no longer in a battle between conservatives and liberals so much as we’re in a battle between adults and children.”
Because being too lenient towards crime, corruption, homeless/vagrancy law violations, coding/urban planning violations, robbing taxpayers blind, encouraging child sexualization and sex trafficking is just too prevalent…and it’s NOT “enlightened”.
Although there’s a growing legion of indoctrinated youth—and now their children, to boot—who would say otherwise, and they’re being enabled by all the older adults who ignored what they learned in school, ignored what they saw with their eyes, and ignored the examples of when following history, ethics, civics, science, and the law actually made things better.
There was once upon a time when the police and abiding by the law actually improved the lot of Angelenos of all races, ages, and localities. There were ABSOLUTELY a few horrible police subcultures where racism, subjugation of law-abiding citizens, and intimidation of certain neighborhoods occurred, but that was never—even in L.A., the “norm”.
I would certainly not be the last, nor the first, to suggest that a dreadful vicious cycle of black/brown gang violence and poverty occurred, leading to a sharp increase in police presence, and then turning into a “we need the police but sometimes they are the gangs we fear the most!” Then riots, then more police, then more violence, then more police, then…
Then Chief Bratton came along, told any racist cops to get the hell off the force and resign, threw out the idea of community-based policing, and things got better…until L.A. decided during the lockdown of our pandemic and witnessing the nightmarish and absolutely avoidable death of a black man in police custody…
…that the police (who are very different here in L.A. than in other major cities) were to be defunded, devalued, and derided at every turn.
Add a Mayor Garcetti and a City Council who lacked the cojones/spine/heart/brain to lionize the police who were NOT to blame, and now Metro has decreased ridership not just because of telecommuting, connection/commuting hassles, and other service-related issues, but because of…
Crime.
Crime!
CRIME!
You know, getting things stolen from you, groped, intimidated, robbed, assaulted…that kind of stuff.
The kind of stuff that makes individuals (particularly women and the elderly) conclude that they’re taking their SUV and move in a safer commuting environment. Perhaps they’ll buy a new hybrid or electric car to assuage any environmental/climate-related guilt.
Because Metro HAD its own police department, as per CBS news, between 1989 and 1997, called the MTA Transit Police Department. Then in 1996, the Metro Board chose to merge its MTA police with LAPD and LASD and contract with the city and county of L.A. for their police services. Made sense, right?
Hence a more recent study of note by Metro reported that tens of millions of dollars could be saved with a Metro police force connected and dedicated to Metro. Fare evasion, disorderly conduct, accountability of the Metro police to Metro…all could now be addressed.
Of note, the above link from KCAL/CBS news reported that an in-house department could reduce Metro law enforcement costs from $173 million annually to $135 million.
One can only imagine what greater service and enhancements we could offer for our regular transit riders…whose ranks will presumably swell with future athletic event-associated and Olympics-associated transit riders as the pandemic becomes a thing of the past.
Furthermore, there will be a police presence that we never did see with the sheriff’s deputy patrols.
They only rode the trains on 12 of the 178 weekly shifts…really? REALLY?
But I’m sure that we’ll hear the cries of the “police intimidation” again, and how they’ll be racists and classists and all that (despite the majority of riders being predominantly brown/black and of lower socioeconomic status compared to other Angeleno commuters, and who WANT protection and a police presence).
Other major cities (New York City, Boston, Baltimore, Houston, and Atlanta, for example) have their own Metro police forces. So why not L.A.?
I have little doubt that as more women, families, and any vulnerable groups out there become more assertive because they want way more mobility but without the fear, it’ll become evident that there’s only one group to be afraid of a Los Angeles Metro Police Force:
The ones who thought that the trains and buses were their own personal property and playground, and had no problem violating the law and rights of others on “their” trains and buses.
“Theirs” no more, it’s hoped. Just “ours” again, like it always was and should have remained when we chose to pay for our shared transit initiatives.
(Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D, is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father. He was active for 20 years on the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) as a Board Member focused on Planning and Transportation, and helped lead the grassroots efforts of the Expo Line as well as connecting LAX to MetroRail. His latest project is his fictional online book entitled The Unforgotten Tales of Middle-Earth, and can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)
