• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Oakland BART takeover robbery: 50 to 60 teens swarm train, rob weekend riders

Status
Not open for further replies.
Decoys... you cheap fucks... makes my blood boil
Shit - they still haven't installed real cameras throughout yet?

This really came to a head last year with that murder on a train that *should've* been caught on camera.

That was a weird story too because there was ultimately a surveillance image released of the killer, but it had most details blurred out and nobody could disclose the origin of it.
 

Permanently A

Junior Member
Wow that's fucking scary. How did 50-60 kids all manage to agree to this though? I can see 10-15 at most, 50-60 means someone somehow is gonna find out. Also 50-60 means each kid's cut will be almost nothing. Don't see how this works out.
 
Yikes. Glad I didn't take the BART this weekend. Something this necessary to so many people ought to be better protected, maintained, etc.
 

Violet_0

Banned
seems awfully risky to pull something like this in the US

they probably coordinated this over the internet and left traces all over. And some idiot is going to brag about it on social media
 
I think it's odd that people are wondering how things are gonna get split. My guess is it went a little like, "yo, if we can get enough peeps together we can take over a train and hijack all them rich fucks. keep what you snatch. no splits unless you wanna." Gives kids incentive to snatch as many bags as possible as quickly as possible. Fuck splitting anything when it involves that many people.
 

Rootbeer

Banned
Shit - they still haven't installed real cameras throughout yet?
They won't put in real camera instead relying on decoys but they can pay janitors $270K/yr (4x more than base pay due to excessive overtime)

Priorities, I guess. I certainly don't blame the guy for making as much as the system allows him to, but the management is piss poor to allow for it in the first place.
 

Dalek

Member
Someone didn't read the article.

Ah-I didn't see the last paragraph-

BART killing exposes security gap — many train cameras are decoys

Although all BART cars have what look like cameras mounted to their ceilings, the vast majority of the devices are decoys incapable of capturing footage, BART officials conceded Wednesday. And some of the actual cameras are broken, two police sources said.

The use of such dummy cameras is not common knowledge. Even one member of BART’s Board of Directors said he was unaware of the decoys, and conceded that they amounted to a security gap in the Bay Area’s backbone train system. A spokeswoman for the agency said working cameras will be on every car in BART’s new fleet, the bulk of which will arrive between 2017 and 2021.

At present, what appear to many riders to be sets of four cameras on the ceilings of each BART car are primarily fakes, an effort by agency officials to deter criminals — particularly vandals — without spending money on a more extensive surveillance system for soon-to-be junked cars.

Although BART has many working cameras on platforms and in station lobbies, the fact that cameras inside trains are decoys comes with a cost, as some crimes and key incidents aren’t preserved on film.
 

Rootbeer

Banned
Yeah, the decoy camera thing broke quite a few months ago... it makes me wonder if it contributed to this attack since it's not uncommon information. I do hope they have made efforts to put in more real cameras... but I'm not optimistic.
 
It sounds like something that would happen in New York 40 years ago.

When things start going bad like this, citizens get frustrated and start taking action into their own hands. As crime got insane in the 80s in New York, people started carrying guns on the subway. There's a famous 1984 case where a vigilante shot 4 muggers on the subway, which kickstarted a national debate on crime, vigilantes, concealed carry, etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_New_York_City_Subway_shooting
 
robbing bart passengers is just pathetic

in terms of number of participants, that's a huge number. they might have set some kind of record for the bay area
 
When things start going bad like this, citizens get frustrated and start taking action into their own hands. As crime got insane in the 80s in New York, people started carrying guns on the subway. There's a famous 1984 case where a vigilante shot 4 muggers on the subway, which kickstarted a national debate on crime, vigilantes, concealed carry, etc. You could even argue this event eventually triggered Guiliani getting elected mayor, who started the broken windows and compstat programs in NYC which are heavily credited with the reversal of urban crime in the 90s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_New_York_City_Subway_shooting

This is one of the earliest news stories I remember because an issue of Mad Magazine had a Bernie Goetz cut-out mask. I didn't get it at first, then I lol'ed.
 

Ogodei

Member
Wow that's fucking scary. How did 50-60 kids all manage to agree to this though? I can see 10-15 at most, 50-60 means someone somehow is gonna find out. Also 50-60 means each kid's cut will be almost nothing. Don't see how this works out.

Means it's probably just for fun in my mind. Can't speak to the circumstances of the kids, but it was more "go out and fuck shit up because we can."
 

Dalek

Member
Why are American cities so bad at public transit, or is it just bart

In general public transit over america is pretty shitty-but BART is a special case. It's an endless money pit-the service and technology never gets updated. Anytime more funding gets allocated to do so the workers run in to scoop it all up.
 
Means it's probably just for fun in my mind. Can't speak to the circumstances of the kids, but it was more "go out and fuck shit up because we can."

This reminds me of an incident that happened last year in Philly. Mobs of people are pretty scary and can do a lot of damage really quick. Approximately 150 youths were running amok in the streets near Temple University, a few people were robbed or beaten.
 

Gallbaro

Banned
Why are American cities so bad at public transit, or is it just bart

Bart is probably the worst of the worst. It was designed and installed with a proprietary track and loading gauge, so it cannot use off-the-shelf components. For... Reasons...

But the main problem is in Democratic states transit is typically well funded, but they do not negotiate against labor.

In Republican states transit is typically poorly funded, but the do negotiate against labor.
C98JcIGXYAEo1i1.jpg
 

Fuzzery

Member
In general public transit over america is pretty shitty-but BART is a special case. It's an endless money pit-the service and technology never gets updated. Anytime more funding gets allocated to do so the workers run in to scoop it all up.
I mean workers getting paid fairly and strong unions seems to be a good thing generally, but it seems it's getting out of control here
 
I know times are tough for everyone, but anyone who is 100% preoccupied with their own little lives is partially to blame for this (including many who got robbed, I'm sure).
 

Guevara

Member
Usually flash robberies target malls or convenience stores. This is pretty scary stuff.

True. They finally arrested the "Rainbow Girls":

Sixteen people have been accused of joining a theft ring in which packs of suspects would blitz retail stores like Barney’s and Burberry, centering their mayhem in San Francisco’s Union Square but also spreading as far as Honolulu, Seattle, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Dallas, San Francisco prosecutors said Monday.

Many of the defendants were named in a grand jury indictment, handed down last week in San Francisco Superior Court, that listed charges including robbery, grand theft, commercial burglary and conspiracy for crimes allegedly committed over at least the past year. Others were directly charged by the district attorney’s office.

The suspects were well known to Union Square merchants for their method of “overwhelming” store employees, said District Attorney George Gascón, as they made off with about $225,000 worth of goods, often from high-end shops in San Francisco such as Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Ferragamo and Lululemon.

“Large groups of people, sometimes as many as 10 or 12, would enter an establishment with booster bags in their hands and just brazenly grab as much merchandise as they possibly could and run out the door,”

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/16-busted-for-takeover-style-Rainbow-Crew-9645136.php
 
I know times are tough for everyone, but anyone who is 100% preoccupied with their own little lives is partially to blame for this (including many who got robbed, I'm sure).

what the fuck kind of victim blaming bullshit is this...they ride that too/from home/work and other places and they get robbed, and its THEIR fault they're living their own lives...gtfo
 

Gallbaro

Banned
what the fuck kind of victim blaming bullshit is this...they ride that too/from home/work and other places and they get robbed, and its THEIR fault they're living their own lives...gtfo

Well I think he is implying that the increasing cost of living and income inequality is forcing these people to theft. Now these people will likely use the force of the police to try and suppress the revolutions of the proletariat. If those are the optics he was going for.
 

jmdajr

Member
Not even implied victim blaming.

90 posts before victim blaming.

The people who got robbed are partially to blame? What the fuck?

what the fuck kind of victim blaming bullshit is this...they ride that too/from home/work and other places and they get robbed, and its THEIR fault they're living their own lives...gtfo

Dumb victims! They don't even have Spidey sense!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom