What would you do about public transportation security?
Our story today talks about violent attacks that have occurred around several MetroLink stations caused by roving bands of teens and young adults.
There have been at least three attacks — including an assault by a group of at least 20 on a family near the Forest Park MetroLink station.
And later in the story…
Metro officials said they believe the attacks at the Forest Park and Delmar stations were related, but St. Louis police said they had not connected them. In the Delmar incident, two or three youths were attacked by a large group on the westbound platform at 11:36 p.m. Security tapes show a large group of youths surrounding the victims as they sat on a bench.
One week later, on Saturday night, an employee of the Pi pizza parlor at 6144 Delmar Boulevard was assaulted and robbed of his cell phone at a parking lot across the street near the Pageant theater, police said. Later, a group of youths attacked a restaurant employee near the outdoor dining area.
Police are stepping up security. What would you do about it? Few enough people can use Metro. Does this affect how much use it will get? Would you be dissuaded from using public transportation because of reports like this?
Kurt is the director of social media for the Post-Dispatch, where he has worked since August 2002. He's been a journalist since 1982, covering municipal government, courts, education and two hurricanes as a reporter before becoming an editor. 
Getta, that’s hardly “gloves off.” And the issue you raise has nothing to do, in fact, with the topic at hand. The article isn’t about “foul-mouthed drunks.”
I’m sorry if you find the reality of the crime situation in St. Louis distasteful.
Shoot the punks, John
Ben,
Are you kidding how do I know weather or not this yahoo next to me isn’t CAC add that to the mix now I have a smelly drunk good-ole boy with an itchy trigger finger!
RACE:
It’s not as much a black and white thing as it is a rich and poor thing.
Eric hiding the race is the problem the blacks in St.Louis need to step up now and take the city back the police cant do it
Back on topic, people. This is not going to deteriorate into a racist discussion.
Getta, you are correct. After Rams/Cardinal/Blues games, metrolink is full of foul-mouthed, smelly, drunk white folks. I have no problem admitting it and would be the first to let them know if they were using foul language around my kids (I’ve told them that at the games themselves).
However, I don’t feel unsafe around these folks because they are not there to do harm in most cases. I only feel nervous that one of them might throw up on me.
A group of black, male, youths have a greater history of causing violence here in St. Louis and other big cities and credance must be given to this. In Appalachia, it’s probably truer that gangs of white kids are the problem and hopefully sometype of profiling is done on that group.
As a white male, I have no problem with calling out my race/gender on our ignorance. It sure seems that white males are the major demographic on being sexual predators, for instance. I have no problem with the black community making that comment. Yet, if the white community throws out comments about black male youths, more than just the gloves come off and we’re labeled racists.
So… the anti-gun stance is that an honest citizen with a concealed carry permit and a legal firearm is a greater public safety threat than 20 hoodlums engaged in a physical assault and battery on innocent families? One of them actually suggests an armed citizen would provoke the poor gang of thugs to react violently (as they beat on your loved ones). What logic! The same folks, no doubt, who try to portray the NRA as too extreme in its defense of our second amendment rights. The sad part is, they are oblivious to the absurdity of their bias against honest citizen gun owners.
I will say that I have found that it doesn’t matter what race youths are, they are all bad news.
Metro link is scary when there are large events because it does get too crowded and I won’t attend Mardi Gras on grand parade day anymore because I nearly got my arm ripped off when I was getting shoved bacwards off of the train away from my husband when leaving. Also, it was scary boarding a Hanley when youths (white in this case) were jumping on the side of the train as the doors closed to pull away.
I will not shop at malls anymore because I find them all scary. Male and Female, black or white, they are only in the mall to creat trouble.
I stopped going to the Galleria over 15 years ago, when I saw a gang with painted face that looked like something out of Batman Forever hanging around. I couldn’t tell if they were black or white, didn’t matter they were bad news and I didn’t want to be around them. Northwest Plaza went bad the day they covered it up… I saw that thing get built and now that it is in decline the Mills is now scary too. (I only felt safe there for about a year.)
Unfortunately, I can’t afford to drive to St. Peters and well… Chesterfield Mall is just not much better. Of course, they both have too many young people in them too.. so its just a matter of time.
Which would you rather deal with? A mob of foul-mouthed smelly white drunks, or a mob of hostile young black men? Ha, what a stupid question!