April 24, 2017

"BART takeover robbery: 40 to 60 teens swarm train, rob weekend riders."

There's surveillance video of this incident, but according to the BART spokesperson, because the people who are seen committing obvious crimes appear to be minors, the video cannot be put up on line.
The juveniles “committed multiple strong-arm robberies of bags and cell phones,” said a police summary prepared after the incident. “At least two victims suffered head/facial injuries requiring medical attention.”...

The attack was quick, police reported, and the teenagers were able to retreat from the station and vanish into the surrounding East Oakland neighborhood before BART officers could respond.
I can't believe they won't/can't make the video available so these criminals can be caught. Is that really the law in California?

72 comments:

Gahrie said...

There's surveillance video of this incident, but according to the BART spokesperson, because the people who are seen committing obvious crimes appear to be minors, the video cannot be put up on line.

Bullshit. It's because it's a mob of Black kids.

J. Farmer said...

I can't believe you can't believe it. Perhaps it's because Madison only has a black population of 5%, and you're spared from what the reality of living in towns with large black populations means.

AllenS said...

The cameras are probably fake. No videos.

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bay Area Guy said...

I've taken Bart for nearly 27 years straight now.

This happened at 9:30 pm on Saturday Night at Oakland Coliseum station. Except for an A's baseball game, it would not be very crowded at that time.

I guess this won't be in the sequel to "Fruitvale Station"

If this starts to happen during very crowded commute times, you will know there is a major problem.

The kids were young black kids. The victims were likely (mostly) non-black folks.

The steady drumbeat of "Black Lives Matters" probably justified it, in their minds.

Oakland public high schools have a 50% graduation rate. Which means, of course, if you don't graduate high school, no amount of well-intended affirmative action in college will help you. Also, job prospects for high school drop-outs aren't very good. Hey, at least you'll have less debt than the college kids.

The thing about Oakland, is that sprinkled amongst this left-wing paradise, there are a lot of honorable, honest, parents, coaching basketball teams, coaching football, trying to provide a good life for their kids. I wish the voices of THOSE parents would be heard, but they won't.

Gotta love Democrats.

Gahrie said...

East Oakland is the Harlem of the West Coast.

bleh said...

Yes, but the law only protects gentle giants who are turning their lives around.

cubanbob said...

Where is Bernhard Goetz when you need him?

Paul said...

Try that in Texas you little shits.... It won't be like California I assure you.

gspencer said...

"I can't believe they won't/can't make the video available"

The police are listening to their PC overlords. They're practicing discrimination, affirmative action style.

The video won't be released because it confirms what we all know. The thieves are all black who targeted the whites on the train.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"It's the perfect crime for Oakland/Berkeley, because so few people own guns in a commune."

Yep. Something like this would be unthinkable in my part of the world. Even in Olympia there's enough residual crackerdom (and military folks) that no one would be likely to try this. They'd target something safely liberal.

buwaya said...

It is politically inconvenient.
BART southbound at 9:30pm Saturday night is weekend workers from SF, Berkeley, plus Berkeley students all going home.

buwaya said...

These would not be crowded cars. So a mob like that would easily outnumber riders in car after car.
Interesting tactic. Also organization much beyond expectations. I wonder if they repeat it.

Michael K said...

Yes, there was another BART crime in Oakland a few years ago.

In that instance, a policeman shot an uncooperative black male, so I expect they are no more interested in solving this crime than the Berkeley police are interested in stopping riots on the UC campus.

Sanctuary city strikes again.

gypsy rose said...

This type of crap is exactly why we have RICO laws. As for not releasing the surveillance - anyone want to hazard a guess as to the race of the little shits? Hint: look at the demographics of East Oakland. Dollars to donuts its a teen gang affiliated with crips or bloods. These thuglets are probably generational: daddies, uncles, even granddads. I've seen three generations of gangstas get arrested together.

Unknown said...

Where is Bernard Goetz when we need him?

Unknown said...

cubanbob @6:29: My bad, I had posted without reading the thread. In a hurry to get my snark up on the board. You get priority here but it is funny how great minds think alike.

Drago said...

This is what lefty "democracy" looks like.

Michael K said...

"The kids were young black kids. "

Why do you think the videos won;t be released ?

The LA Times calls them "youngsters." I remember when youngsters had parents and stuff.

Tim said...

If Obama had a son...

Bill R said...

If the criminals really are black, the headline should not read "teens swarm train, rob riders" but rather "train boarded, robberies occur".

MaxedOutMama said...

Well, I don't know CA law on the matter, but if a law exists that prevents police from publicizing video of suspects in a crime in an effort to locate them because they may be juveniles, then wouldn't that same law prohibit publicizing sketches/descriptions? I doubt that can be legal. Surely the police have the right to search for any criminal suspect, especially those involved in bodily assault/theft?

JackWayne said...

In Texas we're about to get constitutional carry - HB 1911. I expect the number of people carrying will double at a minimum.

urbane legend said...

Owen said...
cubanbob @6:29: My bad, I had posted without reading the thread. In a hurry to get my snark up on the board. You get priority here but it is funny how great minds think alike.

I was thinking how great it is that funny minds think alike. That's a compliment to you both, BTW.

Gk1 said...

Its like the Morlocks feasting on the lazy, ineffectual Eloi who won't even take their own side in an argument. Because of the races involve expect this story to evaporate on the SF Chronicle very quickly.

n.n said...

It's a Democratic district. Their sensibilities are informed by the scales of political leverage. Also, they probably don't want to invite a parade of the weird to invade their communities.

ga6 said...

diversity is our strength, up with section 8

bagoh20 said...

There has to be citizen video from phones, if any survived. Wasn't there even one big motherfucker with an attitude to fight back?

bagoh20 said...

No cops anywhere there?

Jupiter said...

It wasn't the police who said the video could not be released. It was the dizzy twat from BART.

Owen said...

Urbane legend: **shuffles modestly, holds up sign, 'Will blog for Likes.'**

BJM said...

This has been going on in East Bay neighborhoods for some time. It's not all poor or teens of color. Footloose CoCo county teens meet up via social media and come in on Bart for an evening of "wilding"; robbing, trashing stores, car jacking and random beatdowns of people on the streets for fun. Already overwhelmed by gang infiltration, drugs, failing schools and poverty, wilding creates a dangerous situation that the small contiguous cities have been unable to address.

As Bay Area Guy says, the majority of people in Oakland & the East Bay are decent folks getting on with their lives. I worked downtown and lived in the hills for years. It was a terrific, lively place to live. Oakland often gets a worse rap than it deserves from a lazy biased media.

There is large population of well educated middle class, business owners and professionals of all races and ethnicities. There has been a renaissance in the downtown after the devastation Loma Prieta left in its wake. Thanks, unexpectedly to Mayor Jerry Brown, who used a combination of community advocacy and redevelopment to renovate many blighted areas while offering affordable housing (Oakland has a high percentage of minority home ownership). Brown also backed the police and cracked down on gangs and street crime in much the same way as Giuliani did in NYC.

Unfortunately budget cuts by a series of overly PC mayors diverted funding to ineffective social engineering projects resulting in understaffed and demoralized police departments. Thusly, city governments have lost control at night of the downtown and low income neighborhoods, such as those between 880 and 14th below 42nd to Marina, where the Coliseum is located.

As in Detroit, this is a mess entirely of the Democrats making. The left, led by Nancy Pelosi's cronies,(don't get me started on the Treasure Island land grab) finally drove the Navy out of the Bay Area, closing shipyards, a sub base, a carrier group port with two fighter wings and supply depots. With the military went good paying trades, blue collar and entry level jobs and thousands of supporting businesses closed or moved to Washington state with the Navy. Adjacent to the Mare Island shipyard, Vallejo was was once a thriving blue collar and navy retirement city, it's now a crime ridden ghost town.

Oh and in a twist of irony, there weren't any fighter jets to protect the bridges and downtown SF after 9/11. They had to scramble a wing 45 minutes south of the Bay Area.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

How can they possibly say what the persons "appear" to be? Are they all underage? How can they tell?

Earnest Prole said...

BJM: Thanks for the nuance. Oakland is a typical machine-Democratic town. The nice third is unbelievably safe and pleasant -- I've lived there for thirty years and quite literally have never witnessed a crime. Unfortunately, none of you could afford to live there since the taxes alone run $1,500 a month or more.

William said...

Showing the videos would serve a useful purpose beyond identifying the perps. This was shameful behavior, and the perps deserve to be shamed. Kids will go to great lengths to avoid public shaming so it might have a deterrent effect. If any of them looked especially vile or stupid, play that on a loop the way they did the Rodney King video. It would be informative and edifying.

rhhardin said...

Detroit long ago built the people mover, which was instantly known as the mugger mover.

tim maguire said...

Outrageous. The law obviously does not apply--until those "kids" are identified and caught, there is no evidence they are minors.

Paul said...

"Where is Bernard Goetz when we need him?"

No Owen... it's where is John Wick when you need him?

Michael K said...

" finally drove the Navy out of the Bay Area"

The battleship Iowa is in San Pedro being slowly restored by volunteers because San Francisco did not want it.

A SF council member (or supervisor) presented a motion to do away with the US military

Big Mike said...

Forty to sixty? How do you do concealed carry with a Thompson submachine gun?

Sebastian said...

"I can't believe they won't/can't make the video available." I can't believe you can't believe that. And I can't believe you still use that phrase. You, the cliche buster.

chickelit said...

The attack was quick, police reported, and the teenagers were able to retreat from the station and vanish into the surrounding East Oakland neighborhood before BART officers could respond.

Will the police respond is the real question. I'll bet they don't. The surveillance video evidence will be destroyed first.

Fernandinande said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Amadeus 48 said...

Wait a minute--in a culture where tee shirts, baggy shorts and droopy jeans are the norm, these idiots think that they can tell a minor on a grainy surveillance video...I smell a rat.

Zach said...

There was a mugging on my (BART) train yesterday, just before I got on. They stopped the train for fifteen minutes or so while the girl made her statement to the police. They were quite aggressive, apparently -- choking her to make her give up her phone's password.

Downtown San Francisco is kind of rough these days.

cubanbob said...

urbane legend said...
Owen said...
cubanbob @6:29: My bad, I had posted without reading the thread. In a hurry to get my snark up on the board. You get priority here but it is funny how great minds think alike.

I was thinking how great it is that funny minds think alike. That's a compliment to you both, BTW."

Thanks gents but it was simply a matter of timing. The great thing about this blog is the number of great and funny minds here. A testament to our hostess.

"By the way, you don't look so bad. Here is another".

Danno said...

fyi - This tactic is a "flash mob", and has been used in Chicago, Minneapolis, and many other urban areas to overwhelm victims.

Gospace said...

BJM said...

Oh and in a twist of irony, there weren't any fighter jets to protect the bridges and downtown SF after 9/11. They had to scramble a wing 45 minutes south of the Bay Area.


Air time on afterburners or drive time?

Anonymous said...

In California, law enforcement is prohibited from disclosing "information relating to the content of [a] juvenile case file." (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 827, subd. (a)(4).) This has been broadly defined so as to include information about a "detention" or "contact," even before any "case" has been filed. (T.N.G. v. Superior Court (1971) 4 Cal.3d 767, 780–781; Lorenza P. v. Superior Court (1988) 197 Cal.App.3d 607, 610; Wescott v. County of Yuba (1980) 104 Cal.App.3d 103, 106.)

As far as I can tell from a little quickie research, the ban has never been extended to a situation like this -- where the juvenile has not been contacted or even identified. Still, I can understand the law enforcement agency choosing to err on the safe side (especially with the current California Supreme Court roster).

Alex said...

I wish they tried this in Texas!

Yancey Ward said...

I like that, Ann, the tongue-in-cheek disbelief.

Tarrou said...

"because the people who are seen committing obvious crimes appear to be minorities, the video cannot be put up on line."

Fixed that for ya

Kevin said...

"I can't believe they won't/can't make the video available so these criminals can be caught. Is that really the law in California?"

In sanctuary cities the law is whatever they decide they need it to be.

urbane legend said...

Big Mike said...
Forty to sixty? How do you do concealed carry with a Thompson submachine gun?

Was it cool enough to wear a trench coat? I imagine from the pictures on the net that a Tec9, Uzi, or a Sten, or two, could easily be concealed under a trench coat. Imagine being the key word there; I have no experience with such weapons.

Owen said...

Cubanbob: "...Here is another." I had forgotten that one! Well done.

Anonymous said...

Bill R: If the criminals really are black, the headline should not read "teens swarm train, rob riders" but rather "train boarded, robberies occur".

In the official style book, both the passive voice and "teens/youths" as a subject are still accepted as correct usage in reporting these, er, events. However, due to the co-optation of the latter euphemisms, er, neutral descriptors by sarcastic observant people, er, Nazis all over the Western world, these usage guidelines are now up for review and revision.

Meade said...

Hillary once would've called them "super predators." I don't think they're super but obviously they are predatory.

It's like the Bay Area has become Sweden or something. Or, as President Trump might say, "what's happening last night in [San Francisco]."

Anonymous said...

Few years back in Portland a group of black kids swarmed a convenience store. The store owner released the video, which the media has to show, but be it TV or paper they just could not being themselves to use the word 'black' in the description even with the video rolling on the screen.

Brando said...

Guns don't solve everything, but a few dead hoodlums later it might solve this particular problem.

GRW3 said...

See "Death Wish", just the first one (the sequels were just derivative). Charles Bronson's "Liberal Mugged" persona change will be coming to a liberal city near you.

Michael K said...

Long, long ago, the Oakland Tribune newspaper was owned by William Knowland who became a US Senator from California. He was almost certainly the model for the Senator in WEB Griffin's Marine Corps series about WWII.

That was when California was Republican, supported the military and was a wonderful place to live. That whole east Bay area was mostly Navy. My older son lives on Alameda Island.

Anonymous said...

It's the continuation of bending over backwards for blacks and making excuses and trying to hide it. When a white person is alleged to have committed a crime they post the pictures and tell you all about it not so with blacks. I am so sick of lefties constantly making excuses for blacks, Muslims and Hispanics. Does anyone wonder why these groups have not and cannot build a high trust modern civilization? Blacks in Africa in most places still live like they did 5,000 years ago. When a Muslim commits a terror attack the media hides it like we are not going to find out. When a Hispanic rapes a 5 year old or murders an innocent white person they hide it. The demise of this country will be directly due to the media lies and cover ups that got a black con man that never accomplished anything elected to 2 terms because he is black and can speak proper English when he wants to.

Unknown said...

'The new correct term for persons of youth is 'miners.''

'Minors not miners.'

'I don't get it.'

Chris Fountain said...

"Showing the videos would serve a useful purpose beyond identifying the perps. This was shameful behavior, and the perps deserve to be shamed. Kids will go to great lengths to avoid public shaming so it might have a deterrent effect."

Sadly, the culture that spawns these criminals also honors act like this, so no, they have no shame.

Brando said...

"See "Death Wish", just the first one (the sequels were just derivative). Charles Bronson's "Liberal Mugged" persona change will be coming to a liberal city near you."

My favorite part of the movie was the beginning, where Charles Bronson's character is all preachy about being kind to misunderstood urban youths, and you could just see where this was going--by '74 Bronson already had a reputation for playing tough guys. It would be like watching the Rock play a mild mannered accountant getting bullied at the office, and just waiting for him to throw someone through a wall.

chickelit said...

Bruce Springsteen should write an inspired song about the youth. He could shame Trump people.

Edmund said...

@Urbane Legend Was it cool enough to wear a trench coat? I imagine from the pictures on the net that a Tec9, Uzi, or a Sten, or two, could easily be concealed under a trench coat.

A machine pistol like and Uzi can indeed be concealed to some degree under a loose suit coat. I was at site where VP Quayle was to give a speech. Just before he arrived, a number of (presumably) Secret Service went to where his caravan was to unload. All (men and women) were in dark suits, earpieces, and a pin on the lapel. One of them turned his upper body as the cars arrived and his coat tightened against his body and the outline of a Uzi or equivalent was visible.

Now, when Reagan came for the Challenger memorial service at JSC, there were visible snipers on rooftops, bomb dogs making sweeps, and at least two Stinger teams.

Strelnikov said...

They dindu nuffin.

harkin said...

This is the same town where the mayor cheered on the Occupy thugs until they started busting windows and setting fires at businesses (even those that had Occupy-supporting posters in their windows).

Ye reap what ye sow

Michael said...

Trust me, if it had been white teenagers it would have been on the front page of the Chronicle with the word white in the headline. And it should have been because it would be news, a rarity, an extraordinary event. Because white kids don't do this. They just don't.

Years ago the print press began refusing to identify suspects by race but revealed their names which given the culture of naming African American kids oddly it was enough.

Happened too fast for people to film from their phones. But you can jump on youtube and check out teens fighting in mall, etc to get the picture.

James Hanley said...

I should have remembered the old advice to never read the comments.

amr said...

I can't believe no one has addressed that no resistance was reported by the reports from the BART riders/reporters/police and this was an attack by unarmed thugs, assuming the strong arm robbery description was correct. This is a Blue area, I used to live in that general area many, many decades ago, so maybe all the males have since been neutered. Not one report that one of those thugs being taken down and 40-60 thugs didn't enter each car. If the thugs were armed, I could understand it. But what self respecting male would allow this to go unchallenged. Sorry but the government can't protect you and if one person had stood their ground, maybe others would have gotten a backbone. Expect more of these attacks when they go unopposed and everyone knows citizens have almost no self-defense rights in CA.