Pirate's Cove

I wonder if anyone has explained to the UK Guardian and the SF Examiner that this is high caliber friendly fire

Police cited 55 people for eating on San Francisco trains. Only nine were white

Police officers for the San Francisco Bay Area commuter train system disproportionately target black riders with citations for eating and drinking, according to new data that has renewed concerns about racial profiling.

The Bay Area Rapid Transit (Bart) data was released following a viral video showing police handcuffing a 31-year-old black man who was cited for eating a breakfast sandwich on his way to work. The new records show that more than 81% of people who have been stopped for eating and drinking on Bart since 2014 were people of color, and that the vast majority of them were black.

Stops for eating and drinking on trains or platforms are infrequent within Bart, the train system that runs between San Francisco, Oakland and surrounding suburbs. Of 55 people cited for this offense over the last five years, 33 were black passengers, representing 60% of the citations. Nine of the stops were white passengers, seven were listed as Hispanic, five were categorized as “other” and one was unknown, according to the data, which was obtained by the San Francisco Examiner.

Only 10% of Bart’s total riders are black, meaning they are six times more likely than others to be stopped for eating and drinking. Ridership data, collected last year, showed that 35% of overall riders are white, 32% are Asian/Pacific Islander and 17% are Latino.

The Bart spokeswoman Alicia Trost said in an email that the data shows citations are “very rare” and are “handed out at stations across the system”. “When an officer witnesses someone eating, they remind the rider that eating is not allowed and if the rider puts the food away no citation is necessary. It is a rare occurrence to need to issue a citation after reminding the rider not to eat,” she said.

So, see, San Francisco is raaaaacist. You know, the completely controlled by the Democratic Party San Francisco.

The answer, though, is very simple: don’t eat on a Bart train. If you give it a shot, put it away when you’re called on it. That’s why people are getting citations: they’re getting caught and either refusing to put the food away, or, most likely, getting caught a second time after putting it away and thinking the officer is walking away. Without even looking up the regulation on stopping eating on the trains, you know it is about trying to keep the trains clean. Food will get everywhere, people will wipe their hands on everything, and could be getting it on other people.

You are not allowed to smoke, vape, or dip. No alcohol, of course. You aren’t allowed to actually drink anything. So, no morning coffee or, being SF, weirdo smoothies. No listening to anything without headphones. No littering.

Further, starting in 2018 BART put a lot more police officers in the stations and on the trains. Why? First because of the exploding homeless problem. Second, because crime was skyrocketing on the trains, especially aimed at taking people’s phones. So, yeah, cops will see people attempting to eat, drink, vape, etc, more often. Don’t want to get cited? Do not do it. Or, at least comply if you get caught and don’t try and do it again.

Seriously, though, a total of 55 over five years is not much. It means most who got caught complied. There’s no racial profiling, it’s just who got caught and then failed to comply.