San Francisco’s BART Transit Hides Racial Identity of Criminals

BART has experienced three high profile crimes since April that have energized local media to get access to security videos.

The transportation agency claims it’s refusing to divulge racial descriptors because it doesn’t want to have media and the public produce “racially insensitive commentary.”

On April 22, a group of 40 to 60 “teenagers” boarded a train at the Oakland Coliseum stop and robbed seven passengers while severely beating up two of them.

Then, June 28, about a dozen “teenagers” assaulted a passenger at Dublin and made off with a cell phone.

On June 30 a woman on a train was accosted by about a dozen “teenagers” who snatched her cell phone before the group exited at the Coliseum stop. Fortunately, a good Samaritan was on hand to retrieve her phone.

The CBS affiliate in the Bay Area has tried to obtain the security videos but been refused by BART.

The controversial policy has caused friction within the agency. Debora Allen, a member of the Board of Directors, inquired about the policy, but was told “to release these videos would create a high level of racially insensitive commentary toward the district.”

Allen was also told releasing the tapes would “create a racial bias in the riders against minorities on the trains.”

BART Assistant General Manager Kerry Hamill said the agency did not issue a press statement after the June 30 incident because bystanders thwarted the incident and police responded quickly.

Revealing the information, according to Hamill, “would be grossly out of step with other transit jurisdictions and municipal governments, and would paint an inaccurate picture of the BART system as crime-ridden when incidents of crime on transit, including BART, are fewer than in the surrounding communities.”

Hamill also noted that releasing the information would “unfairly affect and characterize riders of color,” which would lead to “sweeping generalizations in media reports and a high level of racially insensitive commentary.”

Given the outrage over the deliberate media blackout and lack of transparency, BART Director Joel Keller, the head of the board’s Operations, Safety and Workforce Committee, termed the situation “very disappointing.”

If a rider reads these stories and sees it on television, they ought to be able understand what occurred so they can take precautions in the future.”

Keller is frustrated by BART’s lack of transparency.

Transparency trumps everything else. To not be willing to release information to the public because we think we know better what the public can handle is a mistake in my mind.”

As seen in the Bay Area, political correctness still rules the day in leftist outposts that sacrifice the safety of ordinary citizens to satisfy the sick obsessions of those in charge.

Source: Media Research Center