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What's going on here? Why is there a rash of unprovoked attacks made by groups against innocent riders on Metro? Is this a trend? Any thoughts on what's behind this?
No, although what caught my eye was the romantic name the media has given to gang assaults. "Wolfpack" sounds so...lycan. Almost as if this were something the "cool" kids were doing. It says a lot about the point of view of reporters that they would glamourize such behavior. They should call it what it is: not a pack of animals with sophisticated social systems who attack from need, but a gang of feral humans with sophisticated social systems who attack from greed.
If you look up the stats on crime on the Metro and calculate the per capita crime rate based on the millions of riders every year, the crime rate is crazy low. Like, way safer than driving a car, way safer than taking your kid to a pool, way safer than dozens of everyday things people do without a second thought. You're almost always safer on the Metro than you are walking on any given street outside the Metro. I'm sure if you polled people in the DC area they would tell you the Metro is way more dangerous than cars but that's because most people are irrational when it comes to their own safety. That's why so many people are scared of flying in planes but not at all scared of riding in cars even though planes are so much safer than cars (by the way, I include myself in that. I irrationally fear flying even though I intellectually know it's a stupid fear to have).
Even if you assume that Metro is wildly fudging the stats and that the true crime stats are 100% higher than they really are, the risk is still really really low. Of course we should do things to stop these crimes on the Metro because they do happen, if rarely, but it's not really this huge panic that the media makes it out to be. There are dozens of way bigger problems in the DC area.
Also, media stories like these are nothing new. I've been reading about assaults on the Metro for years. It's rare but it does happen.
By the way if anyone is interested in the numbers, Metro reported 383 robberies in 2015 (that includes more than just the Metro trains and stations, but also buses and parking lots, etc, but whatever): http://www.wmata.com/about_metro/tra...rt.pdf?nocache
Metro gets about 200 million riders per year. Let's assume that the true number of robberies is extremely higher than the reported figure, so let's say 1,200 robberies. 1,200 divided by 200 million is 0.000006% chance per person. Pretty sure you have a much higher than 0.000006% chance of dying or getting seriously hurt just by getting out of bed in the morning (could fall in the shower, get hit by a falling tree limb, your heart spontaneously combusts, etc.). If you are really scared of crime on the Metro, you need to become a shut-in agoraphobe or move to a bunker somewhere.
Again, not saying we shouldn't stop the crime that does happen or put in place new measures to stop Metro robberies, but let's not get our panties in a bunch over this.
Last edited by stateofnature; 01-29-2016 at 02:03 PM..
These have been getting more attention recently. Metro has long had issues with teens fighting at L'Enfant and a few other stations, but I don't quite recall attacks as this (especially during on peak hours). Hard to say if this is a new phenomena or just a few events that have been getting more attention than they would in the past with the spread of social media.
Some have been speculating that this is linked to Mayor Bowser's recent policy to give DC teens free Metro passes. The theory goes that now you have a lot more unsupervised teens roaming the metro whenever they want.
Street robberies were up in the past year or so, so this could also be part of a general pattern of an uptike in crime in the District. Nobody seems to know why street robberies are up, beyond the fact people are now carrying around expensive mini-computers in their pockets.
It's Bowser's policy of giving teens metro passes. It needs to end.
With that being said...the best advice is to avoid teenagers on the metro system at all cost.
The good thing is metro is ramping up the enforcement, maybe if enough of these rapid teens end up in prison for a long time it will end. These violent criminals belong behind bars for a long time, and they have long been behind the issue of violent crime in DC.
I have to ride one stop on the Green Line and it is one stop too far. I think we should punish every criminal with having to read a book -- theyd likely never commit a crime again.
The absolute only reason I ride Metro is too read (I can bike quicker than Metro) and I have never understood why the green line always has more obnoxious individuals per capita.
I have to ride one stop on the Green Line and it is one stop too far. I think we should punish every criminal with having to read a book -- theyd likely never commit a crime again.
The absolute only reason I ride Metro is too read (I can bike quicker than Metro) and I have never understood why the green line always has more obnoxious individuals per capita.
Yeah it's just so incredibly difficult to comprehend why the Green Line is unpleasant
These have been getting more attention recently. Metro has long had issues with teens fighting at L'Enfant and a few other stations, but I don't quite recall attacks as this (especially during on peak hours). Hard to say if this is a new phenomena or just a few events that have been getting more attention than they would in the past with the spread of social media.
Some have been speculating that this is linked to Mayor Bowser's recent policy to give DC teens free Metro passes. The theory goes that now you have a lot more unsupervised teens roaming the metro whenever they want.
Street robberies were up in the past year or so, so this could also be part of a general pattern of an uptike in crime in the District. Nobody seems to know why street robberies are up, beyond the fact people are now carrying around expensive mini-computers in their pockets.
Giving DC's ghetto trash teens free Metro passes shows a complete lack of common sense. Everyone knows teenagers are the most unruly age group and notorious trouble makers. WHY would you give them free transportation?
Its idiotic. And I don't even know what the point of it was. Why do teenagers need free Metro? They don't.
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