Let me ask the obvious: what is the race of the attackers and the victims?

I don’t think a few random incidents will discourage commuters from using Metro. When I lived in LA, I noticed there were frequent incidents of violence on their public transportation systems, and residents had no choice but to continue using it. With rising fuel prices, St. Louisans will unfortunately be faced with the same dilemma.

Uniformed officers should be hired to ride Metro and circulate around the boarding platforms, and to make their presence known in general. I think they’re more effective than plainclothes officers in deterring crime vs. merely apprehending the criminal after an incident.

Maybe Joe Edwards thinks this is an abberation until it starts affecting his business or his family is attacked by these waste of space, then perhaps his views will change. I personally will never ride the Metrolink again. I have friends who ride it to and from work and are just happy to reach their destination without any problems. There needs to be more security on the trains as well.I have watched the reports by the Metro officials on the news saying this is an isolated incident and playing it down. I guarentee they would not allow their families to ride the Metro at night.

Hey WebsterMark, what does the race have to do with it? Violence is violence. What’s not ‘Obvious’ is what we gain from knowing the race.

Anyway, yes, I think it’s good that police are stepping up security. There is no way you can make it completely safe, but there has to be some presence at the stations, on the trains. St. Louis is still learning the dance of mass transit, I am sure if a family was attacked outside a Cardinal game, we wouldn’t re-think the whole idea of a MLB team in our city. Thank you.

WebsterMark,

Answer that question any way you want – it shouldn’t change the way you deal with the situation.

Back on topic:
I’m not sure three incidents constitutes a crime wave. I would have to see the crime statistics for the Metro compared to that of the city at large – is it better or worse? From my personal experience on the train, I’ve never dealt with anything more offensive than body odor. Still, when you’re the victim of an assault, statistics and probability are meaningless – it feels like a crime wave to you!

As for addressing the crime up-tick, I think the police are doing the right thing by stepping up security. Perhaps getting high resolution cameras and posting cash rewards (decent sized ones that really encourage snitches) might also help.

I have used Metro Link to get to the ball game a few times. I will never use it again. Kids without tickets getting on and off when there was standing room only. My car gets 35 MPG and I can park for $5.00 in a parking garage across from TGI Fridays. My wife feels a lot safer. For the life of me, I can’t fugure out why they chose to go through some of the neighborhoods they did. I know the tracks were there but it is just such an unsafe route. They need police on all of the staging areas around the clock as well as on every car. I think the best bet is to check cars coming into the parking lots instead of waiting for them to get to the actual platforms. It doesn’t take much of a rocket scientist to tell who’s there to ride and who’d there to make trouble.

There never has been a better arguement for carrying a concealed pistol. The police and civil authorities are useless as they always are with their expected lip service responses…..bla bla bla bla bla bla.

Just another reason to stay away from the late great city that has become nothing more than a giant ghetto.

You guys are dreaming if you don’t think race has anything to do with it.
1) this attack should have been front page news the morning after it happened. My family and I were on vacation and I wanted to leave the car at a metrolink and ride home rather than have someone pick us up. Four of us with luggage. That was two nights before this attack happened. It could have been my family fighting.
2)if this were a group of white roving youths in South St. Louis attacking a black family, the Post would have stopped the presses to get the story out the next morning….

Several times over the past few months, while riding the metrolink at late hours (after 11pm) - I see security officers are far away from the platform, maybe to get a smoke? There are also plenty of stations that have no security. I would think a consistent presence among all the stations would decrease the likelihood of attacks.

The race of whoever is immaterial, the only thing that matters is that a group of people find it fun to attack innocent people. Thankfully for the people that were attacked none of the thugs decided to bring a weapon that night.

Kurt, you ask an interesting question, because I wonder how often this happens at a Metro station. Weren’t we just blogging last week about how much more careful people are with their kids even though there is no statistical difference in kidnapping over the generations? Is this story doing the same kind of thing? Just something to think about.

Here’s something that the liberals won’t like: Let law-abiding citizens who have passed background checks and had proper training in the use of firearms carry a personal weapon with them on public transportation. Just pulling out a 9mm and flashing it at that thug crowd would make them think twice more than anything else…