San Francisco Transit authority won’t release crime videos, might ‘incite racism’
In a new phase of liberal bias and political correctness, is the news from San Francisco that the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) authority has decided not to release surveillance videos of robberies occurring at BART stations for fear they videos might incite racism.
There have been numerous crimes, but fears of stereotyping and public relations matter more than safety.
Crime Scene Tape photo/edited pic from FBI.gov
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.”
According to CBS SF Bay Area, three different incidents are in question:
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.
Debora Allen, who sits on the BART Board of Directors, acknowledged that “people are genuinely concerned” due to these crimes and then explained her anger that officials around her have decided to put the safety of passengers behind politically correct behavior:
“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.”
It should be a crime to call robbery and assault a petty crime.
Allen told CBS SF Bay Area that “scared passengers aren’t being unreasonable – being on a Bart train is a vulnerable position.”
Kira Davis at RedState summed it up: “Not the actual criminals. They’re not the ones creating a ‘racial bias’ by beating and robbing people. No. It’s you dirty racists who would like to be informed of crime risks on the transportation you pay for dearly in one of the most expensive cities in the nations.”
