For two years now, the use of public transportation has become one of the main fears among Americans because attacks on passengers have increased dramatically.
Attacks on transportation, shootings, threats, and acts of discrimination and racism are present daily in the country's public transportation, which has worried experts, since people are afraid of having to use these means that are so necessary for mobilization.
Esther Lee, of Korean-American origin, a victim of the attack on the New York subway system, recounted her experience of being involved in a hate attack at a press conference organized by Ethnic Media Services in which experts met to discuss the new legislation on safety for public transport.
“A man in a hoodie and a hoodie raised his fist in my face, I ignored him but even after that the man kept insisting? I stood against the wall and started filming it," he recounted.
Lee, pointed out that the subject even spat at her, however she only managed to change cars because no one on the train tried to help her. The victim said that she reported the incident to the police and told them that the attacker called her a "carrier of the pandemic", making that experience not only an attack but also a hate crime. Unfortunately, weeks later, the authorities classified the incident as harassment and not a hate crime.
"The New York police, like any agency in the country, fail to adequately investigate complaints," Lee said, noting that there is not good handling of cases involving the Asian-American and Pacific Islander community (AAPI, for its acronym in English?
Due to the multiplicity of attacks that have occurred in public transportation in the United States in the last two years, David Min, a senator from the state of California, proposed SB 434, which seeks to improve security in said vehicular environment.
And it is that, the measure would require the 10 main transport systems to collect data from passengers who experience situations of harassment or attacks, in order to begin to develop solutions to these security problems.
“We need to know where it is happening, what type of populations are the main targets, what types of cases we are seeing. And once we have the data, we can use it to develop solutions," he said.
Likewise, Min pointed out that communities of color, women, children, the elderly, people with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ+ community are the groups most vulnerable to attacks on public transport.
In this sense, Peter Kerre, founder of Safe Walks NYC, also pointed out that most of the victims are alone at the time of the attacks, making them the perfect target for the attackers, which is why the project he leads has volunteers who can Accompany people in transport or on the street if they feel unsafe.
He also pointed out that unemployment, homelessness and economic crises have been some of the factors that have aggravated the security problem in public transport.
Janice Li, president of the Board of Directors of Bay Area Rapid Transit -BART, for its acronym in English, stressed that although the San Francisco Area train system has received reports of violent incidents, these have reduced to 7.4 crimes for every million trips, but also users by 40 percent.
Despite the reduction in users, the BART train system has police officers who travel on each of the trains, in addition to campaigns that seek to reduce harassment and gender violence and give visibility to domestic violence in the AAPI community. However, Li pointed out the importance of not neglecting the factors involved in the violence that occurs on public transportation across the country and helping to reduce its effects.
"Public transportation companies are not going to end the problem of homelessness, but we can be part of the solution and do more," he concluded.
This publication was supported in whole or part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.
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