Public Disruptions

 

Riding public transportation lately, I’ve come to almost expect troublesome interactions. It is as if the people and the trains are infecting each other with a crazy virus — or maybe it’s just my bad timing.

But there seem to be a lot of people talking to themselves, which is fine, except when that talk turns loud and threatening to fellow riders. Two of the last three times I’ve ridden Bart, the system’s police have restrained men who were acting in ways other riders found threatening.

“Who in here called the police?” one officer proclaimed loudly as he entered the car where I was seated near a guy opening and closing some sort of large metal-encrusted band and waving it around in a way that felt menacing to the rest of us.

The police officer didn’t stop to talk to him but chose another fellow sitting nearby with a bunch of packages and a bicycle.

“Do you have a knife?” he asked.

“No, I don't.”

Apparently satisfied, the cop disappeared. The menacing fellow resumed waving his metal encrusted band until another officer eventually appeared. This one did confront the disrupter, which clearly angered him because he became more boisterous than ever.

He complained loudly about being harassed until the next stop, where he got off.

More recently, as I approached another Bart station, two cops were chasing a guy leaving the train until they caught him and forced him to the ground.

“Don’t hurt me,” he said over and over, before they took him away.

I do not know what mixture of actual crime, mental illness, good (or bad) law enforcement practices, surveillance, danger or confusion were involved with these events, but I do know in the end, one of the disruptions caused me to miss my connection.

Time was tight, so I exited the Bart system and ordered a Lyft instead.

SATURDAY’S HEADLINES:

• People ages 16 to 25 across 10 countries are extremely worried about the climate crisis and are frustrated at governments' inaction, according to a new survey. Three-quarters of young respondents said they believe “the future is frightening,” and 56% felt “humanity is doomed,” with 45% saying their feelings about climate change negatively affected their daily life and functioning. [HuffPost]

• Independent Journalism Is at Risk. Here’s How to Save It. (NYT)

• Pandemic mystery: Scientists focus on COVID’s animal origins — Nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the origin of the virus tormenting the world remains shrouded in mystery. Most scientists believe it emerged in the wild and jumped from bats to humans, either directly or through another animal. (AP)

• COVID Has Broken the Economy (Atlantic)

• Abortion Clinics Can Challenge Texas Law, High Court Rules

  The Supreme Court ruled that abortion clinics can move forward with a challenge to Texas’ ban on most abortions, a decision that puts the state law in jeopardy even though the justices allowed it to remain in effect for now. (WSJ)

• The Secret History of the U.S. Diplomatic Failure in Afghanistan (New Yorker)

• The United Nations says Afghanistan's economy is collapsing 'before our eyes'(NPR)

• Afghan women: Secret diaries of changing lives (BBC)

• Racists, Taliban supporters flock to Twitter’s new audio service after executives ignored warnings (WP)

• The Court Invites an Era of Constitutional Chaos (Atlantic)

• How Nursing Homes’ Worst Offenses Are Hidden From the Public (NYT)

• Tractor-trailer full of migrants crashes in southern Mexico, killing at least 55 (WP)

• Scientists puzzle over Omicron’s origins as variant spreads (Financial Times)

• WikiLeaks' Julian Assange moved a step closer to facing criminal charges in the United States for breaking spying law and conspiring to hack government computers after Washington won an appeal over his extradition in an English court.(Reuters)

• US consumer inflation up 6.8% in past year, most since 1982 (AP)

• Appeals Court Rejects Trump’s Bid to Shield Material From Jan. 6 Inquiry(NYT)

• Trump campaign lawyer authored two memos claiming Pence could halt Biden’s victory (Politico)

• A year after former President Donald Trump and his allies falsely accused a Georgia mother and daughter of election fraud, the threats have not been investigated by local police or state authorities. Offering a first detailed account of their ordeal, the two election workers tell Reuters about lynching threats and racial slurs, along with alarming visits by strangers, including Kanye West’s publicist, to their homes. (Reuters)

• The Jan. 6 committee needs to get louder. Much louder. (WP)

• Jan. 6 committee issues six new subpoenas, including two Trump associates(Politico)

• Starbucks workers in upstate New York voted to form the first union inside the coffee chain's U.S. corporate-owned stores. [HuffPost]

• Has Twitter warped politics? (Politico)

• California’s Ship Backlog Moves Farther Out to Sea (WSJ)

• Tropical forests can recover from deforestation remarkably fast and on their own, new study finds (WP)

• Ukraine and Russia blamed each other after a push to agree a new ceasefire in eastern Ukraine broke down as tensions over a Russian troop buildup near its southern neighbor persisted. (Reuters)

• Ukraine Commanders Say a Russian Invasion Would Overwhelm Them (NYT)

• House Approves Post-Trump Curbs on Presidential Power (NYT)

• Michigan's Jim Harbaugh is AP coach of the year (Yahoo News)

• 2 stars of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ look back at a classic (AP)

• Stephen Curry’s remarkable rise to three-point king (WP)

• Decade’s Most Powerful Piece Of Journalism Fighting Tooth And Nail To Crawl Out From Under Dog Food Ad (The Onion)