A TriMet Rider: October 16, 2011

Sunday, October 16, 2011

@ nw 23rd & thurman bus shelter

TRUTHOUT

Global 99 Percent Rally Worldwide in Solidarity With Occupy Wall Street | Truthout

The Other Occupation: How Wall Street Occupies Washington | Truthout

After yet ANOTHER MAX-related stabbing this year, TriMet says they're going to increase security...(again)

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2011/10/after_third_max-related_stabbi.html

Does this: "Obviously we take every incident seriously," said TriMet spokeswoman Mary Fetsch. "We want to send the message that TriMet is a safe system. We want to send the message that we have the additional personnel to prevent (these incidents) this from happening." Make anyone else laugh? TriMet couldn't care less! They couldn't take it seriously to save their life. TriMet's buses might be safe, but MAX hardly is.

And how about these excerpts from the Oregon Live article i linked to above?

"Since 2007, when there were 620 crimes reported, the transit police force has doubled from 29 to 58. This week, TriMet safety and security executive Harry Saporta will meet with Transit Police Commander Mike Crebs to determine how best to increase the force's presence once again, Fetsch said. "

29...to 58...for the whole 53 miles of the MAX system? How is that cracking down on security and keeping the transit riders safe? And now there will be a MEETING to figure out what to do. Aka, management gurus get to sit around and talk about how to fix the problem if they even do that when the true solution would be to expand the transit police force so they could consistently have a presence on trains and on platforms.

"'Fortunately these are not frequent occurrences on the system..."We don't have a lot of aggravated assaults and that sort of thing. Most of the incidents that happen on the system are minor.'"

Not frequent occurrences and very minor, eh, Mary? Since when? Because I seem to remember many incidents throughout only this past year where things similar to this have happened. (see below)

Here are a few incidents where TriMet was saying they would increase security on the MAX system after this incident, this incident, this one, this one, this one, this one, and this one and what do you know? It never happened.

Now we have ANOTHER incident where somebody got hurt and TriMet again says they'll step security up? I'm getting sick of hearing those lies and I think everybody else is, too. TriMet never does what they say.

And since when is this only the third incident of the year 2011? I recall that most of those incidents linked to above happening THIS year and if my math is correct, that is a little more than just three.

We don't need bus cleaners!

We've want a Field Outreach & Community Relations Representative so we can pay them a whole lot of money to do nothing! Those buses can clean themselves....

The REAL WES Ridership Statistics

http://rantingsofatrimetbusdriver.blogspot.com/2011/10/rider-statistics-spin-free.html

In Japan, nuke betrayal becoming too obvious to ignore

http://bojack.org/2011/10/in_japan_nuke_betrayal_becomin.html

Musical Bureaucrats

Mr Macfarlane is putting his personal stamp on the lumbering bureaucracy

Jack Bogdanski

Portland streetcar insanity just won't stop (Jack Bog's Blog)

Guest blogging for WPC: the way we buy things is about to change

http://portlandafoot.org/2011/10/guest-blogging-for-wpc-the-way-we-buy-things-is-about-to-change/

Glad there are no drivers like this around TriMet anymore

War Without End :: View topic - Holocaust victim sues TriMet

HOLLY DANKS

An 81-year-old Holocaust survivor is suing TriMet and a former bus driver
for more than $5 million, saying that when the driver yelled at her and
pushed her off his bus it reawakened the memories of Auschwitz.

Rosa Wigmore, who survived the notorious Nazi concentration camp, wants
$3.06 million from Timothy J. Shuey and $2.02 million from the transit
agency. Shuey quit TriMet shortly after the June 27 incident.

The lawsuit says Shuey discriminated against Wigmore by referring to her in
vulgar terms as an immigrant and telling her to "go home from where you came
from" after she complained that he missed her stop.

He then grabbed Wigmore from behind and knocked her to the floor. When Shuey
forced her out the bus' door, she fell to the sidewalk.

Mary Fetsch, TriMet spokeswoman, said Friday that agency officials had not
seen the lawsuit and had no comment. Shuey, 48, could not be located for
comment.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Multnomah County Circuit Court, alleges
personal injury, a violation of civil rights and elder abuse.

"As a direct result of defendants' misconduct, Ms. Wigmore suffered and
endured extreme physical and mental pain and suffering," including a heart
attack, broken ribs and soft-tissue damage, the lawsuit alleges.

"I am still very, very bad," Wigmore said Friday of her health. The
Beaverton woman referred further questions to her attorney.

Co-counsel on the lawsuit is Elden M. Rosenthal, a prominent Portland civil
rights lawyer who 15 years ago won a $12.5 million lawsuit against a
national white supremacist group in the killing of an Ethiopian college
student.

"This is a terrible thing for her," Rosenthal said, declining to comment on
specifics of the lawsuit.

The lawsuit says the bus incident caused "a reopening of the psychic
injuries" Wigmore suffered in Auschwitz.

From 1940 to 1945, more than 1 million people -- most of them Jewish -- died
in the largest of the Nazi concentration camps.

Wigmore, who is Jewish and came from Yugoslavia, carries a concentration
camp tattoo on her arm. She immigrated to the United States after World War
II and became a U.S. citizen in 1968.

Patricia Warford, a Newberg psychologist who specializes in trauma and
stress, said Friday that Wigmore would have been at Auschwitz during a very
impressionable time in her life, in her late teens or early 20s.

"Rough treatment, being pushed and grabbed, the humiliation piece of it were
all part of Auschwitz," Warford said. "It certainly is possible to have a
psychological response to a trigger event, such as being grabbed on a bus.
Whether that happened is up to the jury or court to decide."

Police reports offer this account of the June 27 incident:

Wigmore boarded the eastbound No. 54/56 bus on Southwest Farmington Road
near 99th Avenue and asked Shuey for directions. Unable to understand her
accent, Shuey told her to sit down.

Wigmore, who has ridden the bus routes around her Beaverton home for years,
left her seat on Southwest Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway near 77th Avenue in
the Raleigh Hills area to tell Shuey he missed her stop. That's when Shuey
began yelling and grabbed her.

According to the lawsuit, Shuey deprived Wigmore of her First Amendment
right to speak without retaliation, her Fourth Amendment right to be free
from unreasonable seizure and her 14th Amendment right to be free from
discrimination based on national origin.

TriMet is to blame, the suit says, for "failing to hire and screen
applicants for the position of bus driver who are psychologically fit to
deal with the public."

The transit agency also failed to train drivers to deal with passengers of
diverse backgrounds, the suit alleges.

Fetsch said Shuey did not have a history of complaints involving anger. She
said customer service, along with safe driving, are TriMet's top concerns.

At the time of the incident, Shuey told police that Wigmore wouldn't leave
him alone and that he "lost it."

In November, Shuey pleaded guilty to one count of misdemeanor harassment,
and a Washington County Circuit judge sentenced him to two years' probation
and required him to attend anger-management classes.

TriMet customer service reports

http://portland.citysearch.com/review/11536372

Keepin' it weird

http://bojack.org/2011/10/keepin_it_weird_4.html

Occupy protest - is it real and viable?

http://oldtownperspective.blogspot.com/2011/10/occupy-protest-is-it-real-and-viable.html

TriMet Union reports

http://rantingsofatrimetbusdriver.blogspot.com/2011/10/union-reports.html

Things can never be completely safe no matter how safe you think they are

A Perspective from Portland, Oregon: WTF? Passenger train hits another passenger train at Oakland station

Representing the Native Presence in the “Occupy Wall Street” Narrative

Representing the Native Presence in the “Occupy Wall Street” Narrative | Unsettling America

OCCUPY PORTLAND LIVE VIDEO FEED

http://occupypdx.org/livestreammedia/

PREYING ON THE PUBLIC

http://rantingsofatrimetbusdriver.blogspot.com/2011/10/trimet-preys-on-its-public.html
THIS WAY, IF TRIMET HAS TO PROVE THAT THEIR FARE INSPECTORS ARE ACTUALLY WORKING, THEY CAN USE THOSE NUMBERS TO PROVE IT

Oregon Bus Inspections Turn Up Problems

http://www.ktvz.com/news/29467577/detail.html
I wonder how many of TriMet's buses would fail safety inspections like these? I bet most all of the 14-1800s would fail. Especially those old gillig buses (1400s, 1600s)....