Hush on skin tone. Got it. Red Line attack-take 3

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am most horrified that no one else in the train helped this guy. I would have jumped the teens! But I guess I am a crazy woman. I cannot process no one helping this man fight.

One of the accounts said there were 10-15 teens at one end of the car where the victim was being beaten, and only about 5-8 people at the other end of the car. To put it in further perspective, one of the teens was described as 6'2", so these weren't young or small teens. I'd like to think I'd have intervened, but that sounds like a pretty scary situation.

Yes, I love it when some say in reports: "children" and the person is over 6 feet tall, weighs over 200 lbs and has the build of a professional athlete.
Somehow the kids were not that big when I was young.
Yes, definitely a scary situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't we worry about profiling/silliness when it does happen? I've read from time to time about bald middle black men getting harassed because a dreadlocked black teenager hit up a 7-Eleven an hour ago.

I'd also like to think the MPD and others keep a database of people who're likely to go "OMG Black people in the area!"

Actually, they don't. In fact, I talked to a couple of MPD officers who said that they experience the opposite problem, in that they encounter too many fine folks in
Washington who are reluctant to report suspicious behavior because they don't want to be considered as profiling, or worse. As a result, some persons who may seem up to no good in fact are, and the police might have prevented something had someone called them. The officers said if something seems off, it often is and that people should not be afraid to trust their gut. And when in doubt, call the police and let them sort things out.

Like they sorted out Tamir Rice? No, thank you.

Yes, I'm sorry to say but the relentless flow of phone, dashboard, and security videos showing police abuse has been quite eye-opening. I will always try to contact the police when I see something that looks suspicious but I now pause and think twice about it because I know now there is no guarantee that an individual police officer will treat someone fairly. The police can help with this by doing a better job of preventing individual cops from behaving unprofessionally.

I wonder if you had access to videos of what police had to deal with in these communities if it would open your eyes as well. IMO, cops an be over the top, and should be held responsible when they are, but the big issue is the rampant lawlessness in certain communities.

Lawlessness is in our communities, as well as in the corrupted police departments. No one can be assured of safety anywhere in DC, unless you have your own armed security.

It's become a jungle of wild animals in the streets, the parks, the stores, and now even on the Metro. DC is where I grew up, and I'm done living there. No place is perfect, but I have zero confidence in the DC Police Department to do their best to protect law abiding citizens. I'm not even sure if the upright citizens there want to have their neighborhoods improved, if it means some tough laws need to be enforced. They're too busy making excuses for the criminals.

I'm sorry, but being poor is NO excuse for reckless violent behavior and crippling/killing others. Rich people get violent to, although they may do it differently. It's still reckless violent behavior that forever changes the lives of their innocent victims. And every. single. criminal. must. get. consequences. OR it will only get worse. If you don't already know that, pop out of your little bubble a bit and look around.

I can say this because I've seen poverty like you'll never see in America. And yet they obeyed their local laws and didn't go around stealing and raging in the streets because they had nothing to eat that day. Most of you have no clue about real poverty. I'm talking about little children who get their freezing feet warmed up by stepping into a pile of fresh cow manure in the fields. That's poverty. You people have no clue if you believe DC area residents have a good reason/excuse to victimize innocent people.

Many, many of our kids, both rich and poor, are neglected by their parents and by our society. Throwing them this or that will never fix the problem. The only thing that can help in the long run, is stable, competent and loving care, especially in early childhood during those "foundation" years. Our children must FEEL truly loved and respected if they are to thrive, and become contributing adults. Of course we all love our kids, but they know damn well, pretty early on if the hard work of parenting is our priority... or not. Constant outsourcing of the child care isn't working so well. Questionable competence, rarely any stability to speak of, and love? Who in the world has time/interest to love your kid half as much as you do? Maybe grandma, if she's local.

The making of good people starts at home in the crib. If that fails, it most definitely takes a village of observant and caring individuals who aren't too busy or too afraid to step up to the plate when they see signs of trouble. And when that "village" not longer exists (for whatever reason,) we have lost our sense of "culture," and we become a nation of strangers, each for himself... like vultures looking for their next meal to devour, or victim on the metro, getting his brains beaten to a pulp, while bystanders look away in horror as they fear for their own safety.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:See something, text something: 696873 (MyMTPD). If you see something suspicious on Metro, contact the police.

“We would encourage riders to err on the side of caution and let transit police investigate anything that doesn’t seem quite right. Simply put, if you see something, say something or text something.” When texting a tip, riders should provide as much information as possible, including the location, the nature of the incident or activity, and a description of persons of interest. The message will be send directly to the Metro Transit Police communication center, and riders will receive a confirmation that their text has been sent.

[Jeff, if you are going to delete this post, can you at least explain why? I'd like to avoid violating any of your posting rules, but I cannot avoid them if you won't say what they are.]

Thanks for this post! I'm not sure why on earth anyone would want to delete it?
Question - are you referring to an app? (Do I need an app, or is the number going to work with a regular text?

[Anonymous]

I offered solutions in the deleted thread. In a nutshell:

Criminal mischief should result in immediate enlistment in the military. No go home and pack. Hold them and arrange for immediate enlistment. No second chances. First offense and you're gone. Unless you scare these kids they will not change. Their parents will not (or have tried and failed) to raise them to be productive members of society. Jailing them results in hardened criminals so it makes a bad situation worse.

-AA woman here who realizes that there is no redeeming some kids without immediate swift and harsh action.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I offered solutions in the deleted thread. In a nutshell:

Criminal mischief should result in immediate enlistment in the military. No go home and pack. Hold them and arrange for immediate enlistment. No second chances. First offense and you're gone. Unless you scare these kids they will not change. Their parents will not (or have tried and failed) to raise them to be productive members of society. Jailing them results in hardened criminals so it makes a bad situation worse.

-AA woman here who realizes that there is no redeeming some kids without immediate swift and harsh action.

I think you're on to something. Immediate consequences. It's the only remedy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am most horrified that no one else in the train helped this guy. I would have jumped the teens! But I guess I am a crazy woman. I cannot process no one helping this man fight.

One of the accounts said there were 10-15 teens at one end of the car where the victim was being beaten, and only about 5-8 people at the other end of the car. To put it in further perspective, one of the teens was described as 6'2", so these weren't young or small teens. I'd like to think I'd have intervened, but that sounds like a pretty scary situation.

Yes, I love it when some say in reports: "children" and the person is over 6 feet tall, weighs over 200 lbs and has the build of a professional athlete.
Somehow the kids were not that big when I was young.
Yes, definitely a scary situation.

Perhaps they mean in terms of mental ability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have the suspects been apprehended? Based on the unclear WaPo article, it sounds like they got away. How?

How can people help identify criminals and help the police apprehend them without a description?!

How would the race of the suspects help you identify them? "Oh, look, there's a [race][age][gender] person -- maybe they did it!"? DC is full of [race][age][gender] people, almost all of whom didn't do it.

Oh, come on. The people who witnessed the brutal attack were able to give some sort of description. How about an artist's sketch in the paper of these attackers? Other papers do it so that local citizens can help identify and catch them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am most horrified that no one else in the train helped this guy. I would have jumped the teens! But I guess I am a crazy woman. I cannot process no one helping this man fight.

One of the accounts said there were 10-15 teens at one end of the car where the victim was being beaten, and only about 5-8 people at the other end of the car. To put it in further perspective, one of the teens was described as 6'2", so these weren't young or small teens. I'd like to think I'd have intervened, but that sounds like a pretty scary situation.

Yes, I love it when some say in reports: "children" and the person is over 6 feet tall, weighs over 200 lbs and has the build of a professional athlete.
Somehow the kids were not that big when I was young.
Yes, definitely a scary situation.

Being bigger than expected for your age doesn't preclude someone from being a child or a teen, for that matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I offered solutions in the deleted thread. In a nutshell:

Criminal mischief should result in immediate enlistment in the military. No go home and pack. Hold them and arrange for immediate enlistment. No second chances. First offense and you're gone. Unless you scare these kids they will not change. Their parents will not (or have tried and failed) to raise them to be productive members of society. Jailing them results in hardened criminals so it makes a bad situation worse.

-AA woman here who realizes that there is no redeeming some kids without immediate swift and harsh action.

I think you're on to something. Immediate consequences. It's the only remedy.

It really is the only answer. You can save some with enrichment programs but the vast majority of these kids (who are violent prone) aren't interested in that sort of stuff. No mentor/big brother program will fix it. Arresting them just creates another generation of fatherless children (because many of these teens/young adults have children). I think the military would be an excellent resource to rehabilitate delinquents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am most horrified that no one else in the train helped this guy. I would have jumped the teens! But I guess I am a crazy woman. I cannot process no one helping this man fight.

They would have broken your jaw too! Do you think they wouldn't have? Or worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm pretty disturbed by this story, because I've lived on that side of the red line for 15 years, and I ride that stretch almost every day. That easily could have been me getting attacked. There are often rowdy groups of teens on the train acting like jackasses, and my usual approach is just to ignore them. I don't want to change cars or alert the train driver, because if they haven't done anything illegal yet, there's no point in creating a problem and perhaps it's unfair to assume all rowdy teens are going to commit crimes.

I also don't think there's much point in standing up to them. Over the years, I've watched a few different people try - usually 30-ish tough guys - and it just escalates the situation because the teens often are just looking for a reason to fight. The only time I ever saw someone successfully stand down a group of teens was when a 50-ish AA woman who must've been a high school teacher started yelling at a group of three 13-15 year old boys. And even then I was getting ready to jump up because it looked for a moment like they were thinking about attacking her. The problem is it's not like a schoolyard bully you can stand up to - it's usually a group of 3-5, and even if you successfully stand up to one group, there will be always be another group of teens tomorrow. And then there's also the risk that someone is carrying a weapon. I'm not afraid to stand up to protect someone in real danger, but I've got children, and I don't want to end up dead just to try to prove a point.

I think I now need to change my habits. Whenever I see a group of rowdy teens on metro, I plan to (a) change cars immediately and (b) contact the transit police. Assuming the best in people is just not worth the safety risk.

Aren't you afraid that changing cars will draw their attention to you??

[Anonymous]

Just a few months ago an AA teen stabbed a Caucasian Gay man to death. People on the early afternoon train did nothing to stop it. The teen was a Wilson HS graduate. They claim he smoked synthetic Marijuana. The killer apparently tried to take the guys phone. The guy held the phone but perp got it, threw it aside and stabbed him repeadetly. He also robbed from other people in the car. It was the Gallodet stop as well. Sad that Metro is so unsafe. The busses are no better.

[Anonymous]

The perpetrator of a crime is a perp, 13 or 113.

Can we stop with the "rowdy" behavior, as reported on wtop?
As if, "kids will be kids." No. Just no. Those who did it are criminals. Period. Ok, alleged criminals. That's it. But the cops put 'em right back on the street, huh? For what? Long day on the job?

Watch metro ridership keep going down. So unfortunate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I offered solutions in the deleted thread. In a nutshell:

Criminal mischief should result in immediate enlistment in the military. No go home and pack. Hold them and arrange for immediate enlistment. No second chances. First offense and you're gone. Unless you scare these kids they will not change. Their parents will not (or have tried and failed) to raise them to be productive members of society. Jailing them results in hardened criminals so it makes a bad situation worse.

-AA woman here who realizes that there is no redeeming some kids without immediate swift and harsh action.

Honestly, I think this shows a lot of disrespect for the men and women in uniform. We don't need violent criminals filling the ranks of our armed forces, particularly as so much of the job of an enlisted soldier is to engage with civilians in war zones. That you think the military - a proud tradition with many qualified and educated Americans - should be treated as a de facto penal colony shows how much you think of the armed forces.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I offered solutions in the deleted thread. In a nutshell:

Criminal mischief should result in immediate enlistment in the military. No go home and pack. Hold them and arrange for immediate enlistment. No second chances. First offense and you're gone. Unless you scare these kids they will not change. Their parents will not (or have tried and failed) to raise them to be productive members of society. Jailing them results in hardened criminals so it makes a bad situation worse.

-AA woman here who realizes that there is no redeeming some kids without immediate swift and harsh action.

I think you're on to something. Immediate consequences. It's the only remedy.

It really is the only answer. You can save some with enrichment programs but the vast majority of these kids (who are violent prone) aren't interested in that sort of stuff. No mentor/big brother program will fix it. Arresting them just creates another generation of fatherless children (because many of these teens/young adults have children). I think the military would be an excellent resource to rehabilitate delinquents.
[b]
[/quote

The military idea sounds great!!!! I could see Trump enacting a law for something like this. It would never happen with a Democrat in office.