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  • WMATA: Man assaulted, pushed onto tracks at Navy Yard

  • Discussion related to DC area passenger rail services from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, MD. Includes Light Rail and Baltimore Subway.
Discussion related to DC area passenger rail services from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, MD. Includes Light Rail and Baltimore Subway.

Moderators: mtuandrew, therock, Robert Paniagua

 #1520994  by njtmnrrbuff
 
My heart and prayers go out to the man and his family and friends. These teenagers are sick and need to be prosecuted. The southeast section of the Green Line passes through many sketchy neighborhoods. It might be interesting from a railfanning perspective but when riding or photographing they stretch, be very careful and if it involves going with a group, you are better off.
 #1521041  by RailVet
 
Here's a story from last year as well (below). Unfortunately I have seen stories of incidents all over the system, with some attacks taking place not just during the late hours but also during the middle of the day and during rush hour, and at locations one might ordinarily assume to be safe. [redacted by mod]

As for the claim that overall crime has dropped, keep in mind that municipalities all across the nation have been fudging their numbers to make themselves look better. In one case in DC, a criminal with a lengthy record was arrested and, among other things, charged with assaulting a police officer. If you thought that would inspire the city to keep him in jail, you're wrong. They downgraded his offense from felony to misdemeanor and released him the next day, a practice some refer to as "catch and release." With the wave of a hand and the stroke of a pen, the felony disappeared and only a misdemeanor remained. Crime is down, right? The following day he was at it again. Aboard a Red Line train he attempted to rob a young man of his phone and, when he resisted, the perp stabbed him about 30 times and then jumped up and down on his body. Then, with his bloody knife in hand, he robbed other passengers in the car, demanding of them, "What you got?!"

Of course, he was soon arrested again and city officials said they'd get to the bottom of why such a dangerous criminal was released yet again to prey upon those unfortunate enough to cross his path, but if they ever released a statement, I missed it. Quite likely they knew the public's attention span is limited and people would move on to other topics. The true reason is that it's policy, and you do railfanning and photography on Metro at your own peril.

https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/loca ... -585884552
Young people committing surprisingly serious crimes on Metro

Disturbing new data has been released from Metro.

Statistics released about a year after WUSA9 requested them show surprisingly young children arrested in the transit system for allegedly committing surprisingly serious crimes.

Police have arrested children as young as 10 for crimes like assault, robbery and attacking an officer.

WUSA9 asked for these numbers after a series of attacks on trains committed by young people. But they are just a snapshot, and don't give us a sense of whether crime committed by juveniles on Metro is going up or down.

...

Bruce Leshan, WUSA9, August 20, 2018
Last edited by mtuandrew on Thu Sep 26, 2019 7:30 pm, edited 1 time in total. Reason: Edited for content and for fair-use quote
 #1521069  by mtuandrew
 
A few links:

WMATA’s crime statistics, both year-to-date and five-year, as well as the daily blotters: https://www.wmata.com/about/transit-pol ... -stats.cfm

WMATA’s release on the lower 2018 crime numbers: https://www.wmata.com/about/news/2018-crime.cfm

A story from WAMU from 2011, giving the highest-crime stations, of which 3 of the 18 are on the Green Line south of L’Enfant and another 5 of the 18 were on the concurrent Green/Yellow Line between L’Enfant and Greenbelt. I haven’t found a more current source of crime by station, but one probably exists.
https://wamu.org/story/11/09/22/wmata_r ... for_crime/
 #1521074  by mtuandrew
 
Moderator Note: against my better judgment I’m leaving this discussion open. We don’t have a current thread on crime statistics on the Metro system.

However.

I have a hard-and-fast ground rule: be specific, factual, and respectful.
-No vague references to “the hood” or winks and nods about “those people”. Implicit or explicit racism will be deleted, and you will receive at least a two week ban plus a permanent warning.
-No repeating the old fable about robbers riding the train to the suburbs to steal your TV. That’s been largely disproven in dozens of studies nationwide.
-If you make an assertion about crime rates in any neighborhood from Anacostia to Woodley Park, back it up with hard statistics.
-If you make an assertion about who is committing the crimes, be it race or gender or socioeconomics, be prepared to back that up too.
-If you can’t say something without making it provocative, consider whether it needs to be said. RAILROAD.NET isn’t here to spread rumors about groups of people, only about Turboliners ;-)
Last edited by John_Perkowski on Thu Sep 26, 2019 8:24 pm, edited 1 time in total. Reason: Admin modification of sanctions.