Absurdity level: Twilight Zone

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.c...o-avoid-stereotypes/

BART Withholding Surveillance Videos Of Crime To Avoid ‘Stereotypes’

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) — In the last three months, there have been at least three robberies on BART involving groups of teenagers.

“I think people are genuinely concerned — they are fearful about the stories that have come out about the recent attacks, the assaults, the thefts,” said Debora Allen, who is a member of the BART Board of Directors.

April 22: Forty to sixty kids boarded a train at the Coliseum stop and robbed seven passengers, beating up two;

June 28: A group of four kids assaulted a passenger and made off with a cell phone at Dublin; and

June 30: A woman on a train with about a dozen teenagers had her phone snatched by one them before the group got off at the Coliseum stop. Thankfully, a good Samaritan was on hand to retrieve the phone.

So far, BART has refused to turn over surveillance video for any of these incidents.

Allen told us the agency issued an explanation for why it is being tight-lipped about the thefts.

“To release these videos would create a high level of racially insensitive commentary toward the district,” she was told. “And in addition it would create a racial bias in the riders against minorities on the trains.”

According to a memo distributed to BART Directors, the agency won’t do a press release on the June 30 theft because it was a “petty crime” that would make BART look “crime ridden.” Furthermore, it would “unfairly affect and characterize riders of color, leading to sweeping generalizations in media reports.”

The memo was from BART Assistant General Manager Kerry Hamill.

Allen emailed Hamill, “I don’t understand what role the color of one’s skin plays in this issue [of whether to divulge information]. Can you explain?”

Hamill responded, “If we were to regularly feed the news media video of crimes on our system that involve minority suspects, particularly when they are minors, we would certainly face questions as to why we were sensationalizing relatively minor crimes and perpetuating false stereotypes in the process.” And added her opinion of the media: “My view is that the media’s real interest in the videos of youth phone snatching incidents isn’t the desire for transparency but rather the pursuit of ratings. They know that video of these events will drive clicks to their websites and viewers to their programs because people are motivated by fear.”

Allen says scared passengers aren’t being unreasonable — being on a BART train is a vulnerable position.

“This is BART, people are sort of trapped in this train for awhile and they have a right to see what could potentially happen.”

She says all this raises questions, “What is the priority of BART? Is the safety of the passenger — of all passengers — is that a lesser priority than the race bias issue?”

According to BART spokesman Taylor Huckaby, state law protecting “juvenile police records” prevents them from showing the surveillance video, even though at least one of the people arrested for the April 22 attack is 19 years old. (He cited Cal. Gov’t Code 827.9) And, even if the faces of juveniles were blurred, Huckaby says watching the videos would be pointless gawking.

__________

BART MEMO (FULL TEXT)
TO: Board of Directors DATE: July 7, 2017

FROM: Kerry Hamill

AGM Office of External Affairs

SUBJECT: Providing public access to crime data via CrimeMapping.com

The BART Police Department is now sharing reports of crimes with the website CrimeMapping.com. The site processes crime data with its advanced mapping engine to show where a crime has occurred within the BART system. The decision to provide crime data to CrimeMapping.com was made by BART Police Chief Carlos Rojas as part of an effort to increase public transparency as well as to bolster community oriented policing efforts. This decision was shared with Board members and with the media in early June, 2017.

Crime data from BART is being fed to CrimeMapping.com from our Records Management System. This new technology has increased the efficiency, accuracy and transparency of our crime reporting. BART is following the lead of several large police departments in the Bay Area that already provide their crime data to CrimeMapping.com. That list includes police departments in San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Hayward, Richmond, and Berkeley. The website is used by law enforcement agencies across the country to provide localized and updated crime data to constituents to raise awareness and encourage prevention.

Previously, crime logs (in narrative form) had been manually entered and emailed to a small group of approximately 300 readers and local media. The data now is available to all members of the public, freely, on the internet. Recent reports have criticized this move as a step away from transparency. All of our crimes are still being reported, simply not in the way reporters previously received them. Many reporters remain unfamiliar with the interface.Furthermore, it is important to note that much of the criticism leveled at BART from local media on this topic was generated for the benefit of media themselves. Reporters (based on the recent phone snatching at Coliseum) repeatedly questioned why the District did not issue a press release (or would not be issuing a press release in the future) on the topic of petty crimes.

The Media Department has criteria for whether to issue a press release, and this incident did not meet them. The robbery was thwarted by the victim’s fellow riders, then the assailants were all detained and identified thanks to a bolstered police presence at Coliseum station. No property was taken, and no injuries required medical attention.

There is no benefit to riders, criminal procedure, BART police investigations, or the District generally to elevate such an incident with a press release. To do so 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. The new mapping tool presents crime in a context of what is occurring outside our stations—in the days following the recent attempted robbery, there were over 118 assaults and 33 robberies in the immediate area. All of these incidents were ignored by local media.

Furthermore, disproportionate elevation of crimes on transit interfaces with local media in such a way to unfairly affect and characterize riders of color, leading to sweeping generalizations in media reports and a high level of racially insensitive commentary directed toward the District through our social media channels, email, and call centers. The BART Police Department has a hard copy of all the data provided to CrimeMapping.com. It is available to the public at its Lake Merritt Station headquarters. Many police agencies, according to the Police Chief, provide written versions of their police logs for public review at their offices as standard practice.

Users can access the information by going to the CrimeMapping.com website and entering a station name in the search box. The information about specific crimes at that station will be displayed on a map along with crimes that have occurred in the surrounding neighborhood if that local jurisdiction participates in the CrimeMapping system. Users can look up the time and type of crime that occurred, and organize the map by agency, e.g., if you only want to see crimes that occurred on BART, you can turn off icons for crimes that occurred under other departments’ jurisdictions. CrimeMapping.com stores the data for up to 180 days.

The site can also display crime data in charts and graphs, illustrating whether there has been a recent spike or decline in criminal activity. TriTech Software Systems, the parent company behind crimemapping.com, is one of the largest vendors for tier one public safety software systems in the nation. As part of our Regional Anti-Terrorism Law Enforcement Systems (RAILS) project, we have implanted the entire TriTech Software Systems Inform suite, which includes: computer-aided dispatch, in-car mobile software, web-based records management system, IQ analytics, and crime analytics software (known as CrimeView). This has allowed us to capture and analyze data to help determine how to best deploy our resources in the field.

BART data has been live on the CrimeMapping.com site since early June. The Office of External Affairs continues to respond well within 24 hours to media inquiries requesting detail or commentary on any crime reported on the website, and continues to work with the BART Police Department to develop best practices for reporting on crime.

If you have any further questions, please contact me at ******* or Chief Carlos Rojas at *******.

Kerry Hamill

Assistant General Manager

Office of External Affairs

• • • •

From: Debora Allen

Sent: Friday, July 07, 2017 1:29 PM

To: Kerry Hamill

Subject: Re: Crime data transparency through the CrimeMapping system

Hi Kerry, this is helpful information. Thank you!

Question for you: Can you explain what this part of your memo means: “Furthermore, disproportionate elevation of crimes on transit interfaces with local media in such a way to unfairly affect and characterize riders of color,..”

I don’t understand what role the color of ones skin plays in this issue . Can you explain?.

Debora Allen

BART Director District 1

Debora.Allen@BART.gov

• • • •

From: Kerry Hamill

Sent: Friday, July 7, 2017 4:06:30 PM

To: Debora Allen

Subject: RE: Crime data transparency through the CrimeMapping system

Director Allen. Thank you for the question.

The social media reaction to the original Coliseum incident in April was startling in the level of racial profiling that it prompted. The General Manager got a call about the incident on her voicemail that used racist and incendiary language that made my mouth drop. Many posts used patently offensive language that often involved racial slurs (no news articles ever referenced the race of the offenders yet some members of the public leapt to their own conclusions). Some telephone calls and posts even involved vague threats. The media has proven its tendency to highlight material in the most inflammatory way possible. As a former journalist, I can cite for you a number of bias studies that have pointed out media bias and the damaging consequences of it.

The firestorm of criticism in the wake of the Oscar Grant killing centered around a belief that BART police were racially biased. If we were to regularly feed the news media video of crimes on our system that involve minority suspects, particularly when they are minors, we would certainly face questions as to why we were sensationalizing relatively minor crimes and perpetuating false stereotypes in the process.

I have worked in or with media since the 1980’s. My view is that the media’s real interest in the videos of youth phone snatching incidents isn’t the desire for transparency but rather the pursuit of ratings. They know that video of these events will drive clicks to their websites and viewers to their programs because people are motivated by fear. People can be fully informed about crimes that occur on our system without being shown images that will inflame some members of the public and paint the transit agency in a poor and ultimately misleading light.

Two words: Colin Flaherty

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Shugart:
Two words: Colin Flaherty

Yep. We've known for years that the media ignores these stories as a matter of internal policy, I'm not aware of any other entities that are on the record stating that as a matter of public policy that crimes committed by 'minorities' will be ignored and no attempt will be made to identify them, bring them to justice or alert the public.

That is just astounding.

It is indeed. AFAIK, he's the only journalist even discussing this. Here he is on the BART thing:



Link to original video: https://youtu.be/7eyjS779JVM

There were huge flash mobs of black teens attacking police in Philly over the weekend and all our local media can say is they were "youths".

quote:

Hamill responded, “If we were to regularly feed the news media video of crimes on our system that involve minority suspects, particularly when they are minors, we would certainly face questions as to why we were sensationalizing relatively minor crimes and perpetuating false stereotypes in the process.”

No, that is not perpetuating a false stereo typing, it is informing the public of who is committing the crime on BART and who the public should be wary of.

quote:

Hamill responded, ....we would certainly face questions as to why we were ...perpetuating false stereotypes in the process.”

Maybe the stereotypes are not false.

Of course they're not going to show the video. Not just cause they are California libs. If they showed a video of 50-60 young black kids rushing the train and beating up white riders, white folks ridership would all but disappear.

Former reporter Fred Reed has some interesting thoughts but you have to scroll down. https://fredoneverything.org/

"Media Department has criteria for whether to issue a press release" -- What is the criteria?

"There is no benefit to riders, criminal procedure, BART police investigations, or the District generally to elevate such an incident with a press release." -- What is the basis of this biased opinion?

"disproportionate elevation of crimes on transit interfaces with local media in such a way to unfairly affect and characterize riders of color, leading to sweeping generalizations in media reports and a high level of racially insensitive commentary directed toward the District through our social media channels, email, and call centers." -- So? You report the facts. The media is what it is.

"The media has proven its tendency to highlight material in the most inflammatory way possible. As a former journalist, I can cite for you a number of bias studies that have pointed out media bias and the damaging consequences of it." -- So? Again, report the facts. Why is it your decision to hide facts from the public you serve? As a former journalist, you are still influencing the media and subjecting it to your own bias through lack of transparency.

"If we were to regularly feed the news media video of crimes on our system that involve minority suspects, particularly when they are minors, we would certainly face questions as to why we were sensationalizing relatively minor crimes and perpetuating false stereotypes in the process." No, you would be reporting facts. The media and the public will always form their own stereotypes. And now the public is forming stereotypes about the racial bias that is pervasive of BART.

"My view is that the media’s real interest in the videos of youth phone snatching incidents isn’t the desire for transparency but rather the pursuit of ratings. They know that video of these events will drive clicks to their websites and viewers to their programs because people are motivated by fear. People can be fully informed about crimes that occur on our system without being shown images that will inflame some members of the public and paint the transit agency in a poor and ultimately misleading light." Perhaps true. But it's up to BART to manage safety so that it is not perceived in a poor light, deserved or not. By hiding facts, BART is now perceived to be unwilling to improve safety, rather just opt to attempt to hide the unsafe reality of BART.

Keep your rifle clean, you may need it soon enough...

But if a Bernard Goetz would shoot a few of them. they would be putting it on 24/7 showing the travesty

"OAKLAND, Calif. (KTVU) - There has been a sharp jump in the number of rapes and sexual assaults reported on BART property for the first six months of 2017.

Already, there have been seven rapes, the same number reported for 2015 and 2016 combined.

"The thing to remember, though, is this is a thankfully very, very low number considering the number of people that go through BART every day," said BART spokesman Taylor Huckaby.

In addition, there have been 28 sexual assaults on the BART system so far in 2017, the same number for all of 2016."


http://www.ktvu.com/news/268507685-story

quote:

Originally posted by oddball:
"OAKLAND, Calif. (KTVU) - There has been a sharp jump in the number of rapes and sexual assaults reported on BART property for the first six months of 2017.

Already, there have been seven rapes, the same number reported for 2015 and 2016 combined.

"The thing to remember, though, is this is a thankfully very, very low number considering the number of people that go through BART every day," said BART spokesman Taylor Huckaby.

In addition, there have been 28 sexual assaults on the BART system so far in 2017, the same number for all of 2016."...

But we aren't going to release any video because it might help find the perps. We can accept rapes, we can't accept racism.

quote:

Originally posted by Scoutmaster:

quote:

Hamill responded, ....we would certainly face questions as to why we were ...perpetuating false stereotypes in the process.”

Maybe the stereotypes are not false.

DING! DING! DING!


Also, if suspects haven't been identified, how do they know they are minors?

And another thing, anyone on that train can record anything that happens and put it out since it is legal to record folks in public and there is no expectation of privacy. This is just smoke and mirrors BS. Just think if people see the video, maybe bad guys would be ID'd. Hell, maybe even caught...

Here's an American Thinker article from April that goes a bit further into the black crime issue on BART. An interesting tid bit is on a phone app tool for reporting BART crime, labeled racist because most of the reports were on blacks;

quote:

Two years ago, the local media were aflame with reports of racism after it was revealed that BART Watch, an app where riders could report just this kind of criminality, was in fact a tool promoting white racism: most of the complaints about criminal behavior on BART said the offender was black.

Black people make up 10 percent of the riders but 70 percent of the complaints – which, of course, matches the percentage of crime as well.

Good article.

BART cannot afford to lose everyday, multi-ethnic business commuters.

On a similar note from the utopia of San Francisco.

SF Muni mob attach

A pack of 10 thieves followed a man and robbed him on a Muni bus on Monday evening near the San Francisco Civic Center, officials said.
The mob robbery occurred about 6:50 p.m. near the intersection of Market and McAllister streets when the victim, identified as a 27-year-old man, boarded a Muni bus and got into a verbal altercation with one of the suspects, said Officer Robert Rueca of the San Francisco Police Department.
The man then got off the bus and boarded another to avoid conflict, but ten people, including the one involved in the argument, followed him, Rueca added.
Once on the bus, the suspects surrounded the man and “bum-rushed” him, stealing his cell phone before fleeing, Rueca said.

No arrests have been made. At least one of the thieves was described as an 18-year-old man, and the others range in age from 15 to 25, Rueca added.
“If you can just imagine, in a split moment, a crowd of people come up on you and then grabs your stuff. It’s hard to establish all those details when everything is just rushed right upon you,” Rueca said.
No injuries were reported.
The police department is working to obtain surveillance footage of the incident from the Muni bus.

If and when a person who is at least part White defends himself with a gun, we know what the response will be. Therefore, it IS against the law to defend yourself in this area.

quote:

Originally posted by synthplayer:
If and when a person who is at least part White defends himself with a gun, we know what the response will be. Therefore, it IS against the law to defend yourself in this area.

I'd gladly carry on BART if my employer would allow me to carry in the office.

What if this had been a group of Hispanics, Asians, Filipinos, or Indians youths? Would BART release the surveillance videos?

Nothing is going to change until we start shooting these fuckers. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Shoot the MF'r and walk away. You were afraid for your life which is why you shot in the first place and fear continued after the shooting so you left. You thought the mob was going to come after you. Avoid going to your car if possible and try to blend in somewhere else.

quote:

Originally posted by Bulldog7972:
Nothing is going to change until we start shooting these fuckers. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Shoot the MF'r and walk away. You were afraid for your life which is why you shot in the first place and fear continued after the shooting so you left. You thought the mob was going to come after you. Avoid going to your car if possible and try to blend in somewhere else.

Excellent advice.

But, if you're caught on camera and they find and get you, AND you can prove the point that you were in fear for your life, they will still get you for carrying a firearm without a CCW - which IS impossible to obtain here.

Further, as we witnessed with George Zimmerman, the media will hound you for the rest of your days, lying and mis-characterizing your every word, thought and deed.

With the Liberal judges and the extremely liberal media supporting the Black community no matter what their members do, you have to wonder which is worse: Taking a beat down, or being George Zimmermaned.