The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to eat bread while waiting for a BART train.
12 Likes
Now you’re talking my language.
2 Likes
Came here just to say this.
Is it your opinion that we (folks in the US) are and/or should be obligated to show identification whenever a law enforcement officer asks for it? And that upon refusal, arrest is appropriate?
(and for the record, I’m not being snarky–I’m really curious if that’s where you’re coming from)
4 Likes
I was myself snarking at the original statement from a first time poster who suspiciously popped up with all the classic talking points for letting bully boy cops off the hook.
11 Likes
I suppose that I’m willing to assume Poe’s Law this once.
4 Likes
Normally I try to be the devil’s advocate on the ACAB posts, but in this case I really can’t see any possible justification for this behavior. Every possible explanation boils down to absurd racist power tripping.
The only downtown BART station I’ve been in recently is Powell, and situations may vary, but (weird as it may seem) I do recall seeing signage on the platform. It’s the way it’s always been: although it’s routinely ignored, the only Bay Area transit system that’s really permissive with food and drink is Caltrain. There are no vendors in the paid areas, and there typically are signs on the indoor platforms and in the vehicles.
It is genuinely odd for a cop to care. Bears mentioning that last time I was in town there was a drunk guy urinating off the platform unchallenged, which is not only definitely against the law, but potentially an amazingly bad idea with a third-rail system like BART. If nobody can be bothered to stop an impaired guy from whizzing himself to death, how does a sandwich become a high-alert event?
I’m definitely not saying what happened here is okay. Poorly-advertised overregulation combined with highly selective enforcement is the main vector for systemic discrimination today. I can’t imagine somebody who looks like me having a cop call for backup because I was eating a sandwich. But I also would have known I was technically in the wrong in that situation if a cop did say something to me, and would have said “oh, right, my bad” before putting my sandwich away. Given the stellar history of BART’s finest, I doubt this is the hill this guy wants to perhaps literally die on.
1 Like
It’s not just Coppola. Here’s a longstanding case of corruption that dates back to the late aughts/early teens. (Actually I had to dig a bit to find it, I feel like some of the bad actors involved must have paid some sort of search engine reputation management firm to clean up after them.) https://www.villagevoice.com/2012/06/27/when-a-cop-lies-about-sex/
If you want to get really inside baseball about it, I have some stories to tell about people in my cycling club minding their own business getting hassled by this travesty of a mockery of a sham of a police department.
Nobody should be surprised that lying pigs are liars. It’s sad that they are so shameless about it, because they know they can be.
1 Like
All the ferry systems are good with eating and drinking AFAICT. Also, the policy on SMART trains seems to be pretty reasonable:
Drinking and eating: Consumption of food/drink is permitted on trains only. Provided it is in a manner that does not damage SMART equipment, leave litter or create a disruption to other passengers.
So, not on platforms, but on the train itself is okay. Reading more, open alcoholic beverages aren’t allowed, unless you actually buy them on the train in which case they’re A-ok. Odd, I guess really they just want passengers not to get three-sheets-to-the wind…
2 Likes
Fair enough. I only took ferries rarely when I was local, and never rode SMART at all.
2 Likes
Don’t Whiz on the Electric Fence - Extreme Edition
2 Likes
I think that only sets the bar for incarceration as a punishment at multiple infractions. Arrests would be covered under a more general statute and I don’t have the familiarity with California’s legal code or the willingness to dig through it now to find out.
from what i read:
and according to the law this is only a misdemeanor on the third offence.
This arrest rode solely on the thin line of failing to present id for the issuing of the citation, EXCEPT according to california law THAT is only a misdemeanor when issuing a citation for a misdemeanor, which this wasn’t.
So it is looking like legally it is shaping up that the cop was in the wrong and ignorant of the law.
6 Likes
…as long as if you’re drinking booze, it’s booze you bought from their overpriced onboard bar!
1 Like
Apologizing for fascist authoritarianism on Veterans Day.
Welcome to Boing Boing. Papers, please.
25 Likes
A perfect encapsulation of the reason laws that shouldn’t exist are left on the books: to have something to charge victims with when they aren’t breaking any laws people agree should exist. The purpose is not to maintain the peace, but to punish the vulnerable and protect uniformed thugs.
Daylight disinfects to some extent. As someone else noted, the cop being recorded is what prevented him from turning violent and they blaming the victim by lying in the report. But the only way this will ever really stop is with substantive criminal justice reform. Cops operate above the law under the shield of qualified immunity, with predictable results. There’s a reason police unions fight tooth and nail against criminal justice reform, including fear-mongering to sheltered white people about how they’ll be overrun with brown people if the cops aren’t given a blank check to oppress and murder them.
12 Likes
Do you think that’s because they’re police for BART, or because they’re police? They are not “playing at being cops” because they are, in fact, actual cops. Your description is what we’d get if they were security guards.
…and once again, do you think that has something to do with where they work, or because they are cops? Bad cops are bad cops, regardless of where they work.
If anything, these problems you list are the types that are actually worse if it’s security guards. If you think police not reporting rapes is bad, what about the security guards who the college can literally threaten to fire for that? You think a police officer working for BART seems like he’s on a power trip? Switch that to be effectively a “mall cop” and see if that works out better for you. Typically it won’t, as a large number of people in those private security guard positions are either college kids working part time, or unstable assholes on power trips that even the police won’t take.
