Um, no. He is not “enforcing the laws of the land” in any way as he is not empowered to do so nor does he seem to have any probable cause were he so empowered. This is simply a pinhead who wishes he was qualified for an actual LEO post intimidating someone for no legal reason.
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According to the Star Tribune article on this incident, the officer was conducting a periodic/random check of the train to confirm everyone had paid the fare. Sweeps are rare but I’ve been involved with them a few times: an officer boards the train and confirms every passenger has a ticket or an activated Go-To/Metro pass. Everyone is checked, so this was not racial profiling and he wasn’t targeted. To speed up the light rail boarding process, there is no fare collection barrier. Instead, the Metro Transit police conduct these periodic checks to discourage freeloaders.
Since this man couldn’t produce evidence that he bought a ticket for the train, he owes Minnesotans $180 and should be charged with a misdemeanor. See: https://www.metrotransit.org/the-proof-is-in-the-payment
I support sanctuary cities but I also support good, effective Twin Cities transit, which is now politically contentious. Just this March, Minnesota’s GOP majority state legislature delegation sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Chao asking her to renege on federal funding already approved for a light rail expansion. This is a project that has been working through approvals for over a decade and is set to start construction ASAP (see: Southwest Corridor light rail project).
We need good revenue and high ridership numbers to support the now-political cause of effective transit. For that to happen, we need police performing these checks and fining people that don’t pay. Undocumented immigrants can and should use cash to pay at any light rail ticket box if they don’t have a credit card. Then you just show your ticket to the officer during the check, no questions asked. How is this officer supposed to charge this man with a misdemeanor and a $180 fine if he’s undocumented? What’s the procedure? I’d honestly like to know. Undocumented immigrants should be discouraged from attempting to get a free ride on the light rail, just like everyone else.
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You’re easy!
It could be that if they can’t or won’t explain what official capacity they are acting in, that they effectively nullify their supposed “authority”.
Unless people are willing to impose consequences for oppression, sociopaths keep doing it. It’s not fair, but that’s the deal.
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[quote=“lumpmoose, post:42, topic:101431”]
Since this man couldn’t produce evidence that he bought a ticket for the train, he owes Minnesotans $180 and should be charged with a misdemeanor. [/quote]
The passengers are obliged to give something back for the ride, but not to provide any evidence of this. The citizens are the ones in charge, so the transportation staff answer to them rather than vice-versa.
Do you have Papers, Please? It’s been on my wishlist forever.
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Um, yes they are. That’s the whole point of a proof of payment system: You just walk on, but should be ready to show your ticket or pass when asked. (That way people can board at all the doors without checking tickets or transfers.)
Around here, people get a warning the first time, but in order to do that they need to see some id to check for prior stops. The “cunning” plan of many habitual freeloaders is to claim that they don’t have any id. (Lying badly from the times that I’ve overheard.) I don’t know what that buys them; possibly they get cut loose if things are busy and the inspectors don’t want to babysit them until a car can come pick them up.
A real undocumented can buy a ticket, flash it to the inspectors, and nobody cares.
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It’s a great game. I have it on my iPad.
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White transit cop questioning what looks like a white homegrown freeloader who claims that he has no id.
Evidence of racism not present.
Evidence of asshole not present.
It’s his job to ask for proof of payment. (And he’s heard the “no id” excuse thousands of times.)
Evidence of authoritarian not present.
[quote=“RickMycroft, post:48, topic:101431”]White transit cop questioning what looks like a white homegrown freeloader who claims that he has no id.
Evidence of racism not present.
Evidence of asshole not present.
It’s his job to ask for proof of payment. (And he’s heard the “no id” excuse thousands of times.)
Evidence of authoritarian not present.[/quote]
You missed/ignored the white transit cop asking, "Are you here illegally?"
Evidence of racist authoritarian asshole present.
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You missed the sarcasm tag inherent in him asking an obvious local moocher who has given the worn-out (and ludicrous) “no id” claim.
Oh right, it’s only a joke/sarcasm/locker-room talk.
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Regardless to all of that extra info, the transit employee was still asking questions he had no legal authority to ask, and thereby exceeding his reach.
I ride public transit regularly, and while random fare checks are common, I’ve never seen anyone overstep their bounds to ask whether someone was legally allowed to be in the country like that.
To say or even imply that the transit employee didn’t ask the question due to personal racial bias is disingenuous, at best.
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It does, actually; if it could cause the person speaking up to become targeted too.
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Body shaming?
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My armchair legal opinion is that the fare inspectors have the right to kick you off for not showing evidence of payment, but do not have the right to force people to prove anything. Innocent until proven guilty. Like how it’s legal to refuse a bag search on your way out of best buy. They can decide you are banned from the store (or perhaps the transit line) but can’t force you to do their job for the enforcers and produce evidence which may be used against oneself.
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targeted how? If you paid $2 or whatever to be on the train then the guy has no power over you.
He works for the public. The public is his superior and has no reason to fear him.
I admit that I’m confused by the people acting all Sovereign Citizen over the idea of being asked to show their ticket/pass to an inspector in a proof-of-payment transit system.
Let me ask this:
Do you have to show your ticket or pay when boarding a vehicle?
Perhaps use a token or swipe a pass at a turn-style to get on?
Then you don’t have a proof-of-payment system, and you should read the Wikipedia article I linked above.
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Here’s what you’re not seeing in the video:
- When the bus stopped, everyone walked on without having to show a ticket to anyone. (There are ticket machines at the bus stop if you don’t have one or a pass.)
- At one random stop, a team of inspectors got on and worked their way down the bus, asking people to show their proof of payment, a requirement of the system. For everyone else, they showed their ticket/pass, the inspector nodded, said “thank you” and moved on.
- When he got to the cheater, who couldn’t show a ticket, the cheater could be hit with a $180 fine for not paying. Most systems cut some slack and give first-time offenders a warning, so he asked for id. The cheater gave the usual dog-ate-my-homework excuse that he didn’t have id, trying to game the system. (It would have been nice to hear the kid’s answer to see if it was particularly smart-mouthed.)
- Cop makes the mistake of not saying “Wow, really, no id, like I’ve never heard that before”.
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Here’s what we are seeing in the video, and what you’re willfully ignoring:
- The transit officer asking, "Are you here illegally?”
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