A late-night melee that began at Metro’s Gallery Place Station and continued to L’Enfant Plaza sent five people to the hospital and left even seasoned Metro riders wondering whether riding the rails is safe anymore. Unfortunately, Metro’s own crime statistics indicate otherwise.
From 2005 to 2009, crime on Metrorail tripled, even surpassing the number of incidents reported in the transit system’s dimly lit and under-patrolled parking lots. In 2005, 334 crimes were reported on Metrorail. That figure steadily increased year after year. In 2006, it was 350; in 2007, 453; in 2008, 606. Last year, it was up to 975. The latest figures available show 410 crimes were reported on Metrorail in just the first four months of 2010, almost double the number recorded during the same period last year. And that doesn’t include the 16-year-old boy beaten unconscious on a Red Line train in June over his Air Jordan shoes.
Last Friday’s moving brawl involved at least 70 out-of-control youths who pummeled, kicked and beat people, knocking many to the ground. Although Transit Police arrested Angelo Nicholas, 18, and two 16-year-olds and charged them with disorderly conduct and assault, they were obviously not the only ones involved in the fight. The large number of participants, and the inability of the police to confine the altercation to one station, is extremely worrisome.
This could not have come at a worse time for Metro, which is desperately trying to keep its passenger base despite multiple fatal accidents, a recent devastating safety report by the National Transportation Safety Board, turmoil in its executive ranks, rampant absenteeism on its board, yet another fare increase, and chronic funding worries. Nothing will scare away riders faster, however, than fear of being attacked by a roving mob of violent teens in a train car or on a station platform.
Metrorail’s growing crime problem has been well known to transit officials for the past five years. Their inaction is yet another example of how badly mismanaged the Metro system really is and has been for too long.
Passengers already take their chances risking life and limb every time they board a train, thanks to Metro’s faulty circuits, uncrashworthy rail cars, inattentive or impaired drivers and malfunctioning train doors. Add criminals to this unacceptably long list of hazards and Metro riders — whose continued patronage of the system is critical to its survival — could hardly be blamed for deciding that the risks outweigh the benefits.
