I have previously mused that Philadelphia Inquirer main editorial writer Daniel Pearson could actually be a conservative, though ‘moderate Democrat’ would probably be far closer to the truth. Though Mr Pearson is not the Editorial Page Editor, I would guess that he has some influence. And I have noted how the newspaper has granted outside OpEd space to people who seem to share their general editorial positions.
That seems to have led to this:
Why Pa. should deploy the National Guard to SEPTA right now
Unless conditions improve, SEPTA’s survival is at stake. Deploying the National Guard can bring riders back and make SEPTA safe for everyone.
by Brian Pollitt, for the Inquirer | Wednesday, April 3, 2024 | 5:00 AM EDT
When a bus shows signs of a mechanical problem, you call a mechanic. The goal is to do preventive maintenance, rather than waiting for a complete failure. But if buses and stations are plagued by a breakdown of civil society, who do you call?
I’ll admit it: upon that last, the movie there, “Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!” ran through my head. 🙂
But I wonder if it was that simple question which inspired the Inky to publish this OpEd, because, even though the editorial staff are clearly Democrats and liberals, they are at least somewhat aware, possibly deep down, that they still depend upon a civilized society for their lives, safety, and professions. And, as much as the newspaper touts public transportation, they can’t ignore four recent shootings involving SEPTA buses. When even Philly’s George Soros-sponsored, softer-than-Charmin-on-crime District Attorney, Larry Krasner, says that the Ogontz shooting brought him to tears, and promised “swift justice,” and “This is an absolute outrage. It will be solved, and those responsible will be vigorously prosecuted,” Miss Richards and the SEPTA brass can’t keep things quiet.
Every day, SEPTA employees see criminal acts, fare evasion, people experiencing mental illness, homelessness, or drug addiction. The union I lead, Transport Workers Union Local 234, which represents 5,000 SEPTA workers, has been sounding the alarm that unless conditions improve, the very survival of the public transit system is at stake.
In response, we have been asked by image-conscious SEPTA managers and other public officials to tone things down and not draw too much attention to the transit agency’s challenges. During a Philadelphia City Council hearing on SEPTA safety issues in November 2021, I pushed back against this “head in the sand” approach and accused state and city elected officials of “leading from behind.”
In the 28 months that have passed since that City Council meeting, little has changed.
Yeah, it’s certainly true that SEPTA chief Executive Leslie Richards and her $75,000 raise to $425,000 wants to keep things quiet, something kind of difficult when so many people are paying attention. When we have a President and a significant community of activists who want to reduce Americans’ dependence upon privately-owned automobiles and push public transportation, attention will only increase.
Two years ago, our union called for the state to assist the thinly staffed and often overwhelmed SEPTA Transit Police Department with a show of force by sending in the National Guard to help patrol SEPTA’s buses, trains, and trolleys. State leaders listened to our request at the time, and looked at us like we needed our heads examined. They were concerned about poor optics.
We believe the temporary deployment of the National Guard can serve as a powerful deterrent, and buy time for the system to fully recover. Studies across the country show that as ridership goes up, crime and other societal problems go down. Deploying the National Guard can bring riders back and make SEPTA safe for everyone.
Perhaps it’s the other way around, that when crime and “other societal problems” go down, people find public transportation safer and more desirable? Regardless of that, in the wake of Governor Kathy Hochul (D-NY) deploying 750 National Guard troops to patrol New York City’s subway system, Governor Josh Shapiro (D-PA) made it clear that he is not considering doing the same for SEPTA. I can certainly understand that: with Mr Krasner and his hatred of the police and loving to prosecute the same, I can just imagine what would happen if a Pennsylvania state trooper or National Guardsman shot a criminal on a SEPTA bus or subway or train station.
I can understand Mr Pollitt’s frustration. Born and reared in the City of Brotherly Love, and starting as a bus driver in 1990, he’s now president of the 5,000-strong Transport Workers Union Local 234. That’s 34 years of commitment to public transportation, and now he has documented how several other municipal public transportation systems have had to install protective booths or shields to keep operators safer from assault by the uncivilized and the junkies. I’m guessing that the editorial staff at the Inquirer, at least those other than Will Bunch and Jenice Armstrong, realize that society’s, and their, civilized lives depend upon reining in the uncivilized. Reining in the uncivilized means getting them out of the way, incarcerating them if they are criminals — and junkies are criminals — and putting them in mental health care facilities if they are not.
Yes, SEPTA needs help, help in the form of more police officers, doing more patrolling, and fewer of the ‘Social Outreach’ workers, who “engage people experiencing homelessness, addiction and mental illness,” to stop being nice to the junkies, and just roust them out of the system entirely.
But it’s more than that. Yes, SEPTA needs to be cleaned up, but most of the city does. New Mayor Cherelle Parker Mullins recognized that, and made it the basis of her campaign, but the oh-so-nice advocates for kinder, gentler treatment of the uncivilized are resisting the strong and harsh tactics which are needed. Sometimes you just have to be an [insert slang term for the rectum here] to do things right.
“Perhaps it’s the other way around, that when crime and “other societal problems” go down, people find public transportation safer and more desirable?”
Yep, they’ve got cause and effect exactly reversed. I work in the public transit sector (I’m not a bus driver or anything, I work for a company that provides technology solutions to public transit agencies).
I can say for sure that when public transit is perceived as clean, safe and timely, “normal” people will use it. When it’s perceived as dirty, unsafe, and unreliable, the only people who use it are those that have no other choice…and a few “true believers” who virtue signal by riding transit instead of driving or taking cabs…and browbeat everyone they know about it (they’re almost as bad as vegans).
I enjoy their analogy about vehicle maintenance. They mention doing preventative maintenance in order to avoid a complete failure, but don’t seem to be able to follow that analogy through:
Calling out the National Guard is a symptom of complete failure, not preventative maintenance. Preventative maintenance would be all the things that liberal governments refuse to do: Keep the bums and addicts out of the stations and off the vehicles. Clean up the stations and vehicles. Enforce the rules and laws, exact consequences for violating them and keep lawbreakers out of society for the longest period possible.
And, above all, let the cops do their jobs without fear of being thrown under the bus (so to speak) if they are forced to employ violence to affect an arrest against members of certain demographic groups.
Even throwing the National Guard into the mix isn’t going to help a thing if those guardsmen know (or even suspect) that they’ll be abandoned, lose their jobs and possibly prosecuted at the first sign of trouble. They’ll do the same thing the cops are doing now: look the other way and play Sergeant Schultz.
Sailor Curt wrote:
Heaven forfend! That’s why the good people of Philadelphia elected Larry Krasner, to go after cops!
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