I really don’t understand how DC commuters continue to resist the allure of mass transit. There’s the serene quiet found as you stand at the base of one of Metro’s frozen escalators and gaze in wonder at the glimpse of daylight far in the distance.
The tactile sense of community that exists on the Red and Orange lines during rush hours. And now, the system has announced the highest Metro crime rate in history, which takes some doing.
Crime rates are down in Washington, DC and Fairfax County, VA yet Metro, which operates in both, has seen its crime rate skyrocket 12 percent in 2010. Serious crime incidents last year totaled 2,279, a 58 percent increase over the previous high of 1,440 in 2006.
The largest jump came in aggravated assault and robberies where smartphones, and other personal electronics, are snatched by a thief who then runs out the train’s door.
According to Metro Police Chief Michael Taborn more than a quarter of the snatch & grab robberies and other crimes resulted in the arrest of a juvenile, “Unfortunately, our young people are running in groups, and they are taking advantage of people,”
Explains Tommy Wells, a DC city councilman, “Right now, there is not much consequence" for bad behavior.
How did such a situation come to pass? It’s the French Fry’s Revenge.
Ten years ago Metro police began a program of stepped–up enforcement of the prohibition against eating and drinking in the system. During the single month the program was active, officers arrested one adult, issued citations to 21 others and arrested 13 juveniles.
One of the violators caught in the somewhat porous net was 12–year–old Ansche Hedgepeth who, as the media gleefully termed it, was arrested, handcuffed, searched and humiliated for eating a french fry. She must have either been the youngest or the only female, because the other dozen less photogenic little darlings remain anonymous to this day.
Naturally it wasn’t Hedgepeth who was criticized, although she bought her fries knowing it was illegal to eat them on the train. On the contrary, law–breaking made her a famous heroine.
Hedgepeth became the Rosa Parks of digestion.
Meanwhile Metro police were vilified by the likes of Arlington’s Chris Zimmerman (D–NIMBY) who thundered the arrest “was arbitrary and capricious.”
Zimmerman, who got his money’s worth out of the dictionary that week, could not have been more wrong. The Metro officer involved was doing exactly what another group of incompetent politicians on the DC council required when dealing with juveniles. Under DC law the officer could not simply give Hedgepeth a citation and release her. And under Metro rules he could not issue a warning. So to enforce the law he was legally required to arrest.
Once that happened the officer was bound by his department’s General Orders that specify handcuffing the girl; searching and inventorying her belongings; removing her shoelaces (because someone in the dim recesses of time used shoelaces to hang themselves); transporting her to the station and then calling her parents.
This makes dealing with juveniles a giant PITA for police officers and a time–absorbing sponge. So he does everything he’s supposed to and for his troubles, the officer is roasted in the media and his chief is forced to field snide questions for the rest of the week.
This is not conducive to a successful career in law enforcement.
Shortly thereafter Metro caved in and changed juvenile enforcement policies. Instead of choosing between doing nothing and bagging & tagging, Metro cops now have a three–step fandango. First violation gets a warning and letter to the parents; second violation results in Metro contacting the school; and after the third violation the officer has the OPTION of arrest.
Liberals believe blah, blah will prevent chew, chew on the part of teenagers. And this is assuming a department incapable of buying radios that work throughout the system is going to devise a database that allows officers to instantly check how many strikes a particular gourmand has against them.
Unfortunately it appears the option the majority of the department took was to opt out of dealing with juveniles altogether, because it’s not worth the risk of attracting the attention of publicity–hungry politicians. And who can blame them?
Predictably — as the Broken Windows theory of policing posits — over the years Metro has become a consequences–free zone for teenagers and Metro food consumption rivals that of the Old Country Buffet.
It’s a shame, too, because the enforcement–only policy was effective. Ansche Hedgepeth hasn’t eaten a fry on the train since.
