For months now youth gangs have been terrorizing BART. Many have wondered how they got away with it. Easy. First BART has FEW security camera’s—most are as fake as the competence of those running the system. Second, apparently most of the gangs are of one color, so using the excuse that “they look underage”, the BART security team has refused to release the available tapes of vandalism, assaults, thefts and terrorism. Oh, almost all of those terrorized are the white riders of BART.
But there is a way for this to stop, put up real camera’s. Release the photo’s of the criminals that are doing this. Or, refuse to be a victim and stop using BART for a week—maybe those highly paid bureaucrats and the Board will get the message.
“Police say a total of seven passengers were the victims of strong-arm robbery. Items taken included five mobile phones, a purse and a duffel bag. Two people were beaten by the robbers and were treated by paramedics for head and facial injuries.
“A bunch of these teenagers started banging on the door,” said Justine Lin, who reported losing her iPhone in the robbery. “Initially we were just kind of confused because it was very loud, a lot of commotion. I thought they were just messing around, horsing around, just being loud.”
Lin, 27, who was on her way home from San Francisco, said passengers began screaming as the youths began grabbing items from people on the car.
Could it be that the attacks are racist in nature—just asking.
BART Cops Investigating Weekend Train Robbery in Oakland
By Dan Brekke, KQED, 4/24/17
BART police and investigators from several other agencies are trying to identify those involved in a Saturday night incident in which 40 to 60 youths took over a train car at Oakland’s Coliseum Station and robbed and beat passengers.
The initial BART police summary of the incident — reported at 9:26 p.m. — says dozens of juveniles jumped the gates at the station, dashed upstairs to the platform and rushed onto at least one car of a train headed to Dublin-Pleasanton.
Police say a total of seven passengers were the victims of strong-arm robbery. Items taken included five mobile phones, a purse and a duffel bag. Two people were beaten by the robbers and were treated by paramedics for head and facial injuries.
“A bunch of these teenagers started banging on the door,” said Justine Lin, who reported losing her iPhone in the robbery. “Initially we were just kind of confused because it was very loud, a lot of commotion. I thought they were just messing around, horsing around, just being loud.”
Lin, 27, who was on her way home from San Francisco, said passengers began screaming as the youths began grabbing items from people on the car.
“They started hitting passengers and stealing their stuff,” Lin said. “They were really attacking one family of three. … They were hitting the dad a lot on his neck and on his head, they were trying to grab his phone. They hit the mother — they stole her purse and her phone.”
Lin said she was not harmed when one of the attackers grabbed her phone and ran. She said the entire episode lasted 30 to 60 seconds. Police say the suspects ran from the station and dispersed into the surrounding neighborhood. No arrests were made.
BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said the agency’s investigators are enlisting other agencies to try to track down the attackers.
“We are in the process of pulling all the various surveillance images available to us and sharing them with Oakland police, Oakland Unified School police and Oakland Housing Authority to help identify them,” Trost said.
She added that since the suspects are all believed to be juveniles, the images would not be released to the public.
Trost said six of the nine cars on the train had working security cameras. However, since victims could not say for sure which car they were on, police are in the process of looking at images from all six of the cars equipped with cameras.
BART is in the process of retrofitting all of its 600-plus cars with cameras, a process it says will be finished by July 1. The agency made that move after a murder last year led to the disclosure that most trains carry only “decoy” cameras — nonfunctional boxes, with red or green lights on them, that don’t record or transmit anything.
Lin — one of the passengers victimized Saturday — said the episode and apparent lack of security cameras on trains has left her feeling uneasy about riding BART.
“When I do need to go downtown, to San Francisco, I will BART,” Lin said. “But I’m kind of scared to now.”
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