"The suffocating crowded T of old won’t be returning anytime soon after the coronavirus lockdown ends; Mandatory masks, crowding alerts, and higher-frequency service are among the measures specialists predict when commuters return to transit riding" by Adam Vaccaro Globe Staff, April 25, 2020
Remember that gas tax increase?
Lawmakers aren’t so sure now, and the plan to urgently fund transportation improvements has been waylaid by the coronavirus.
These are some of the measures transit systems across the world are taking in regions that are stirring awake into the unsteady and still-undefined period between the end of strict lockdowns and the eventual fade-out of the coronavirus crisis, but with the Boston area looking ahead to a post-surge recovery from the pandemic, the MBTA of old — mob scenes at stations, hyper-crowded commutes — is unlikely to return in that form anytime soon. Masks will probably be considered as essential as a CharlieCard, and vehicles may be more empty than packed. Many white-collar workers might even be told to continue working from home if they can.
“We cannot continue to manage or operate in the way we used to,” said Mohamed Mezghani, secretary general of the International Association of Public Transport, which is based in Belgium. “People are expecting a different way, and we have to adapt to that.”
The T has repeatedly declined to comment on its plans for the recovery, except to say it is “reviewing a variety of potential scenarios as it manages through the pandemic and begins planning for future service."
It doesn’t seem like rush hour as we used to know it is starting soon. Governor Charlie Baker appears likely to extend the pandemic shutdown beyond the current May 4 expiration, and remains focused on public health responses instead of plans to reopen the economy. Mayor Martin J. Walsh of Boston also predicted the shutdowns will continue, and suggested it is impossible to think about reopening until commuting on the T can be done safely.
“It’s going to be very different going back," Walsh said in an online video interview with the Globe Thursday. Even once the shutdown begins to phase out, many riders are likely, by their choice or their employers', to remain in their home offices until there is much greater mass testing, or a highly effective treatment or vaccine. Others will be out of work, or have little interest in hopping aboard buses and trains where crowding together for a common trip is sort of the point.
The MBTA is far from alone among US transit operators in sharing few specifics about the post-lockdown commute. At the nation’s largest public transit system in New York, Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman Patrick Foye said on Wednesday that the agency is “far into a plan” for service once the shutdown ends, and that it will focus on “customers, employees, disinfecting, cleaning, and social distance on trains and buses,” but he provided few details.
Related:
"New York City will shut down its subway system each day from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. to increase cleaning of trains and stations during the coronavirus crisis, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday. Subway trains, which had been disinfected at least once every 72 hours, will be cleaned once every 24 hours starting May 6. Cuomo said buses, vans, and other alternative transportation will be provided at no charge for essential workers to get around while the subway system is closed. Dozens of transit employees have died of the coronavirus and the system has become a haven for homeless people during the crisis."
That clean up some details for you?
In Boston, the MBTA’s response to the coronavirus to date has been to serve passengers who need to commute into work, and protect drivers from catching the disease, while discouraging most travel. It has generally followed national guidelines, such as requiring bus and trolley passengers to board through the back doors and roping off a portion of vehicles to keep them from getting too close to drivers, but transit agencies will probably need to take more significant steps to keep service safe as businesses’ lights flicker on and more riders come back.
High-tech approaches have popped up in Asia, such as cameras that automatically check body temperatures at entry points, or QR code readers on vehicles that commuters would have to scan to create a tracing system in case a rider becomes infected later on.
The global surveillance tyranny is going to slow me down.
Americans, of course, are comparatively sensitive about data protections, and it’s unclear whether there will be much appetite for this kind of smartphone-based tracing system in the United States. US transit is also not exactly known for its cutting-edge technology; the MBTA, for example, has struggled to upgrade to an all-electronic fare collection system.
It's not unclear: We DO NOT WANT IT AT ALL, and had the FRAUD of COVID-19 not been foisted on us it wouldn't even be in the conversation!
Still, Chris Dempsey, director of the nonprofit Transportation for Massachusetts, said the MBTA could use more limited technology to help riders. One option may be using social media or existing transit apps to tell riders how crowded the next bus or train is.
“You could pull up [your] phone and try to get a sense for how busy a service is and what the load on the service is, and switch to the Blue Line if it looks like the commuter rail is as busy as forever,” he suggested.
In other words, leave things like normal!!
Experts rattle off other low-tech options, too.
Transit systems could use signs or barriers of some sort on station platforms and in vehicles to control crowds and limit the number of people boarding vehicles. Milan officials, for example, say they will put markings on train floors to help riders keep social distance, but that will reduce the capacity of each vehicle dramatically.
MOOOOOOO!
Workers could clean vehicles over and over throughout the day, and do so in view of passengers to instill confidence that the work is actually being done, and hand sanitizer could be available at stations and in vehicles.
The MBTA has been disinfecting vehicles once every 24 hours, though buses are also getting a mid-day scrub. The T also pledged in early March to install hand sanitizer dispensers at its busiest stations, but that still hasn’t happened. Spokesman Joe Pesaturo cited supply chain and delivery issues, and said those same problems would make it difficult to make sanitizer available on every vehicle, too.
Leonard Marcus, an expert in emergency response at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said commuters should also be expected to make the right decisions: washing their hands frequently, staying home if they feel sick, and wearing masks if they do take transit.
Some public health experts think masks should be compulsory and enforceable by drivers or transit police: no mask, no ride, but realistically, Marcus said, it may fall more to riders to self-enforce such common-sense precautions.
“People in Boston are not shy,” he said. “While someone might be willing to put up with loud music on a train or bus, I think what we’ll find is that if somebody walks on a train or bus without a mask, people will give them a piece of their mind, and I think rightly so.”
And bully them like at the supermarket on Staten Island?
Is that the kind of fearful, hateful, East German society we want?
For now, ridership has plummeted to such low levels that crowding is not generally a problem, though there are some buses that still feel unnervingly full as the T has cut back on the numbers of vehicles it normally runs.
Stay off the T at all costs!
While those lower service levels might be appropriate for now, once people begin returning to work, transit systems will need to instead consider offering more frequent service than even under normal circumstances, said Jason Farley, a nurse epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University.
“With reduced ridership, reduced schedules may make sense from a business perspective,” Farley said, “but as we move toward increased ridership, that’s when [transit agencies] should be moving toward flipping it on its head, to increase space between people.”
It may be difficult to quickly boost service at rush hour without new drivers, vehicles, or track infrastructure, but transit systems could run many more cars during off-peak periods, which would be all the more beneficial if companies stagger shift times. That would come at great expense to agencies that have already lost vast amounts of fare revenue to the virus, though the federal government has sent them additional aid to help cushion the blow.
Actually, about $827 million in federal stimulus funding directed to the T from the federal CARES Act will help close budget gaps this fiscal year and next, but advisory board members said during a Zoom meeting Tuesday that further spending cuts may be necessary because “they’re in a bad way.”
Where is your billion-dollar bailout, citizen?
Robert Puentes, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Eno Center for Transportation, noted that many big-city agencies, including the MBTA, had already labored to fulfill long-term goals of increasing service to make transit more attractive. “Doing it now would actually be to keep people distanced from one another,” he said. “That might be something that gets accelerated, just for this different public policy issue.”
That reminds me, I better step on the pedal.
James Rooney, president of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, said the gradual return of MBTA ridership going forward may be best understood as a broader measure of how people feel about being in public.
“People’s comfort riding on the T and gathering in a crowded situation will tell us a lot about how people are feeling about returning to work and returning to something akin to normal,” he said.
I don't want "something akin to normal," I want normal with none of this evil, agenda-pushing nonsense!
Rooney said companies should work both internally and with other employers to stagger shift times and shorten rush hour as much as possible. Many riders who work in office settings may not be returning to the T soon; nearly every plan published by a think tank or university about restarting the economy, as well as the first two phases of the Trump administration’s reopening guidelines to states, stress that those who can work from home will probably need to do so for a while.
“The very most practical, safest way possible is to allow people to telework as much as possible, for as long as possible,” said Farley, at Johns Hopkins, adding that elevators at office buildings pose similar crowding concerns.
Ridership will also be a measure, going forward, of the state of the economy, as numbers on trains and buses will be sadly depleted by the thousands and thousands of people who are now out of work.
Fear may also act as a brake on some of the risks. Even before the mass closure of schools and offices, ridership was quickly shrinking as it became clear that the coronavirus was spreading in Massachusetts. Now, after taking great pains for weeks on end to avoid other people, using transit again may be a hard sell for many riders.
Some advocates hope city and state leaders will make street improvements that will encourage more people to bike or walk to work, both of which allow for greater social distancing than public transit. In Italy, Milan officials recently announced plans to dedicate more street space for walking and biking, in part because of concerns that fearful transit riders will otherwise start driving and create traffic problems, but a car may seem like the safest option to some commuters, especially those who live farther from work. Heidi Fowle of Quincy has continued to commute by two buses and the Red Line to her job at a Weymouth nursing home during the pandemic, but going forward, she hopes to buy an inexpensive car before more people return to work, and drive instead.
“If this wasn’t going on, there’s no way in the world I’d be trying to buy any kind of vehicle at all,” she said, but, “the idea of being on a regular crowded, or even semi-crowded, kind of route for my entire commute... I just couldn’t handle it.”
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We will be getting into the car later; however, you need to pay for the fare fir$t:
"MBTA’s new fare system will cost $930 million, a big increase from previous estimates" by Adam Vaccaro Globe Staff, April 27, 2020
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority on Monday once again approved a massive upgrade to an all-electronic fare system, a long-delayed project that will now cost much more than previously envisioned.
Just as revenue is $lowing up!
The MBTA’s oversight board approved major changes to an existing contract with a joint venture led by industry leader Cubic Corp. MBTA officials say the new system will give them the flexibility to charge different fares based on time of day or other factors and integrate ferry and commuter rail fare transfers with the bus and subway systems, while allowing faster boarding of buses and trolleys.
Isn't that price-gouging?
The board first approved the project more than two years ago, but it was hampered by technological issues, policy debates, and lengthy negotiations over how to address both problems. Last year, officials said the project would take years longer than planned and cost much more than the original estimates. On Monday, they unveiled just how much: about $210 million, bringing the price tag to more than $930 million.
(Sound of brakes screeching)
Yet MBTA officials say the new contract has many advantages. In part, that’s because the original timetable, which would have had the new system fully in place by next year, was unrealistic. Instead, the changes will be rolled out in stages by 2025.
YET!
A FOUR YEAR DELAY is called an ADVANTAGE!
The ballooning of costs?
NO PROBLEM!
The Bo$ton Globe is COMPLETELY SHAMELESS and nothing but a PIECE OF SHIT (like the T).
The renegotiated deal will also benefit riders, they said, including by providing more places where they can load money onto CharlieCards. That’s an important consideration, because the project will eliminate cash payments on board vehicles.
“Our once-aspirational dreams are now memorialized into an agreement that fills over 3,000 pages,” said the MBTA’s chief transformation officer, Ron Renault, who is overseeing the project. “It’s a significant investment in upgrading our worn fare-collection equipment.”
I'm getting fucking car $ick!
Developing and installing the system will cost nearly $600 million, while more than $330 million will cover the costs of operating and maintaining it for a decade, officials said.
Where will that money be coming from?
Several major contract changes are causing the cost increase, including a more concrete guarantee about the number of fare machines to be installed at stations (486) and on streets (767); a promise to explore technology that’s meant to make fare gates more accessible for riders with disabilities; and several software customizations, such as a system that will prevent people from being overcharged if they fail to tap a CharlieCard as they exit the commuter rail.
(Blog editor's chin drops to chest as our pockets are picked)
The approval came over the objections of transit advocates who have long been skeptical of the need for new fare equipment. Some have been concerned about ensuring that a system without on-board cash payments is fair to low-income and minority riders and have pushed for the T to offer free bus rides or questioned why the deal would be approved during a global pandemic.
Because we would never accept it otherwise.
Stacy Thompson, director of the Livable Streets Alliance advocacy group, said the MBTA should determine what its future fare policy will be before developing the technology to implement it.
What the fare policy will be "is still the big open question. Technology should not supersede policy, and we should have sorted out the policy questions first,” she said.
Some advocates who commented during Monday’s board meeting, held via teleconference, questioned if the agency should take on such a huge project at a time of major financial uncertainty. The pandemic has caused fare revenue to plummet, and the T has new costs to address the virus, such as buying personal protective equipment for employees.
While the MBTA has reduced service in recent weeks, it may soon have to run more trains and buses to allow passengers to spread out as they return to work and ridership picks up, potentially increasing costs. General Manager Steve Poftak said Monday that the MBTA is creating a working group to chart its plan for when the region’s economy reopens.
As we are going off the rails!
Poftak also said the MBTA will be drafting a new budget proposal for the fiscal year that starts July 1 because the pandemic has created a huge change in circumstances since the budget was approved. The MBTA has received more than $800 million through the federal CARES Act, but Poftak cautioned on Thursday that even that sum is “unlikely to fund us at the level we would like.”
That doesn't even cover the cost of the corrupt piece of $hit this article is about!
Joseph Aiello, chairman of the MBTA board, said forecasting a budget for next year will be “like throwing darts” and directed Poftak’s team to develop a plan that would allow the transit system to be flexible.
Ridership “will be a function of decisions made by others about the general economy, and then sort of about what we can do in terms of best practices to attract riders back," he said.
I know where I would like to throw some darts, readers.
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Board!
"Making public transit safe a next hurdle in easing lockdowns" by Mike Corder and Angela Charlton Associated Press, April 29, 2020
THE HAGUE — In cities around the world, public transportation systems are key to getting workers back on the job and restarting devastated economies. Yet methods of getting around, ranging from trains and buses to ferries and bicycles, will have to be reimagined for the coronavirus era.
In Europe in particular, mass transit is shaping up as a new focus of governments working to get their countries back on track while responding to the pandemic.
In the capitals of hard-hit Italy, Spain, France, and Britain, standing cheek-to-jowl with fellow commuters was as much a part of the morning routine in precoronavirus times as a steaming shot of espresso or a crispy croissant.
That’s going to have to change.
Solutions include putting red stickers on the floor to tell bus travelers in Milan how far apart to stand. The Dutch are putting on longer, roomier trains, and many cities including Berlin are opening up more lanes to cyclists. In Britain, bus passengers are entering through middle or rear doors to reduce risks for drivers.
Announcing a gradual easing of France’s strict lockdown, Prime Minister Édouard Philippe called public transport a “key measure for the economic recovery” yet acknowledged concerns among passengers. “I understand the apprehension of a good number of our compatriots before taking a metro, a train, a bus, a tram, which are sometimes very densely packed,” he said.
When and how to ease restrictions, keep people safe, and prevent a second wave of infections is a matter of intense debate around the world.
“There will never be a perfect amount of protection,” said Josh Santarpia, a microbiology expert at the University of Nebraska Medical Center who is studying the coronavirus. “It’s a personal risk assessment. Everybody has to decide, person by person, what risk they’re willing to tolerate.”
I'm willing to tolerate quite a bit, it comes with freedom, but what I will not tolerate bis tyranny!
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"MBTA expects low ridership for months but will nevertheless resume full service; That will facilitate social distancing, officials say" by Adam Vaccaro Globe Staff, May 4, 2020
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority expects ridership to remain low for much of the next 12 months amid the pandemic, but it will rely on federal assistance to return to normal service in the coming weeks.
MBTA officials are considering several budgeting scenarios for the next fiscal year, which begins in July. Each is based on the expectation that ridership will lag well behind pre-virus forecasts for months, if not years. They’re basing the budget on a conservative outlook that expects fare revenue to stay at about 10 percent of those earlier projections through 2020, and slowly rise to about 60 percent by mid-2021.
The transit system has been running mostly weekend schedules since mid-March, but with large crowds now a major health threat as the virus circulates, officials said they plan to return to full service and create more space for riders.
“You kind of have to simultaneously budget for full service and reduced fare [revenue]," Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack said Monday at a teleconference meeting of the agency’s board, "and that’s really what social distancing means for the MBTA. We need as much service as we can provide, given the staff and vehicle fleets we have, because we’re going to carry fewer people so we can keep them spread out in our buses and in our vehicles . . . that is really the great budget challenge.”
Get the f**k away from me.
The T has not said when it will boost service levels. Pollack serves on a panel focused on reopening the Massachusetts economy, with a report due May 18, and MBTA officials on Monday said the “objective” of the budget is to run full service.
The budget will need several approvals over the next month before it is final.
Just before the virus emerged in Massachusetts, the MBTA was planning a budget that would have topped $2.3 billion and included $712 million from fares. Now, it is projecting just $188 million in fares, along with declining income from advertising, parking, and a revenue source tied to the state sales tax. Overall, the projected budget gap is more than $700 million.
The MBTA does have access to one major reserve of funds: more than $820 million from the federal government under the CARES Act that is meant to help transit agencies cover their losses from the pandemic. More than $210 million will cover this year’s shortfall, but the rest can be put toward next year’s expenses.
The federal funding should avert fare hikes or layoffs, but covering the rest of the gap will require other compromises. For example, the MBTA is also likely to steer money from the Legislature that it normally diverts into a separate, long-term capital fund into the budget for daily operations. That won’t affect capital spending next year, but it may further down the line.
The MBTA may also need to slow the pace of hiring for new programs, including a high-profile initiative to improve safety. Those programs could be revisited and bolstered as revenue rebounds, said David Panagore, the T’s budget chief. He stressed that the budget discussed Mnday is meant as a blueprint to guide planning and decision-making and will probably need to be revisited often, given the uncertain future of the virus and its effects.
The $topping and $tarting is getting to me.
Panagore said riders may be slow to return for several reasons: the possibility that public health officials will impose restrictions, widespread reluctance to brave the close quarters of public transit, a large portion of the workforce continuing to work from home, and low gas prices and diminished traffic volume making it easier for people to drive.
While the federal funds will help for now, future years may be more difficult, cautioned Brian Shortsleeve, a former MBTA general manager who now sits on its governing board. Shortsleeve recommended that the T begin girding for the possibility of a “gigantic hole" in the budget and a much lower revenue base.
“How much MBTA can we buy with that amount?” he asked.
From what I've read, not even an electric toll $y$tem.
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Take your seat:
"How many people can safely fit on the MBTA during a pandemic?; Business groups call for mostly empty vehicles to keep with proper physical distancing" by Adam Vaccaro Globe Staff, May 15, 2020
What does 6 feet of distance actually look like on an MBTA vehicle? Think 10 people per bus, or 21 riders on a Red Line car.
Those are the findings in a new report by the business group A Better City, which is calling for state transit officials to target low passenger counts on trains and buses in order to limit crowding as the region prepares to slowly return to work.
The report was released Friday, three days before Governor Charlie Baker is expected to detail how Massachusetts businesses will be allowed to return to work, including commuting on the MBTA. Public transit agencies around the world have been wrestling with how to keep vehicles that are designed to cram in riders from serving as infection hot spots as their regions lurch awake from shutdowns and stay-home orders.
While it will be crucial for some workers to continue telecommuting, that alone might not ensure enough space for riders, said Rick Dimino, A Better City’s chief executive. “There will be some people who need to use the T,” Dimino said, “and physical distancing needs to be part of the program.”
Time to get off!
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Related:
MBTA says it will try to keep crowding down but won’t strictly enforce limits
They will also not be “refusing rides to people who are not wearing face masks,” so that should clear up any uncertainty.
Also see:
"A sex offender allegedly assaulted a woman on a Red Line train on Tuesday, Transit Police said. Officers were called to the Charles/MGH station at about 7:45 a.m. to meet a woman who said she had been attacked while riding an inbound Red Line train, police said. Officials said Christopher Nettles, 46, of Dorchester, indecently assaulted the woman on the train. The woman provided a description of Nettles and officers temporarily halted train service. They found Nettles still on board the original train at the next stop. Nettles was arrested and charged with indecent assault and battery after the victim identified him as her alleged attacker, police said. During the booking process, officers learned Nettles had a warrant out for his arrest from Roxbury Municipal Court for failure to register as a sex offender, police said."
Turns out, he works for the T:
"Former Transit Police officer charged with raping two women while on duty" by John R. Ellement Globe Staff, May 21, 2020
A former Transit Police officer allegedly raped two women he encountered while on duty near the New England Aquarium MBTA stop in 2012 after giving them a “joyride” in his marked cruiser, according to Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins’s office.
Shawn McCarthy, 46, was virtually arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court Thursday where he pleaded not guilty to three counts of rape, according to court records. He was released on personal recognizance and ordered to keep away from the two women and other witnesses, according to the records.
McCarthy, a Wilmington resident, was indicted by a Suffolk County grand jury on Monday, officials said.
McCarthy’s defense attorney, Terrence W. Kennedy, said his client was “shocked” when told by Transit Police that he had been indicted, especially on charges revolving around an incident that allegedly happened eight years ago.
“He looks forward to his day in court where he can show that these allegations are false,’’ Kennedy said in a telephone interview Thursday. “The story that’s been told is a very strange story, and I am looking forward to delving into this more deeply.”
Kennedy declined further comment.
Transit Police Chief Kenneth Green, in a statement, applauded the two women for their courage.
Yeah, and you gotta believe the women unless McCarthy is a Democrat.
“First and foremost my thoughts are with the survivors of this despicable assault. I’m in awe of their bravery to come forward,” Green said. "I know McCarthy’s alleged criminal acts will place a stain not only on the Transit Police but all of law enforcement and that is very unfortunate. The overwhelming majority of officers take their oath to serve the public with the utmost integrity and pride.”
Did I Reade that right?
The women, who were in their 20s, were drinking near the downtown Boston neighborhood in July 2012 when McCarthy encountered them. Ignoring a warning from a fellow Transit Police officer, McCarthy allegedly “offered the women a joyride in his marked police cruiser and drove them around the area with blue lights flashing." McCarthy then allegedly demanded sex in return for letting the women ride in the marked cruiser.
He's fired in any event.
"After stopping in a vacant lot so the women could relieve themselves, McCarthy said he hadn’t risked his job for nothing and he would not take them back downtown until he got something out of it,'' prosecutors said in a statement. “The women stated that they feared getting in trouble and had no choice but to submit as McCarthy subjected them to sexual acts.”
According to prosecutors, he raped one woman twice, and the other, once.
McCarthy drove the women to another location, dropped them off and “warned them not to tell anyone about the episode,” prosecutors wrote.
He was in full uniform and wearing his department-issued pistol, authorities said.
One of the victims told a male relative about the alleged sexual assaults shortly after the incident, but law enforcement wasn’t notified about it until last year when one of the victims disclosed the alleged attack while pursuing a career in law enforcement for herself, Rollins said.
“It takes great courage for survivors in a case like this to come forward,” Rollins said in a statement. “When a member of any law enforcement agency commits such a horrendous act, it erodes the community’s confidence in law enforcement as a whole. When law enforcement asks for the community’s help in solving crime, we and the police must be trusted.”
It can't erode something with no confidence, and that's where we are.
Rollins, who thanked Transit Police Superintendent Richard Sullivan for pursuing an investigation that led to charges against one of his officers, also said she plans to hold McCarthy accountable “as part of our efforts to rebuild the community’s trust in this noble profession.”
Rollins’s office had been presenting evidence on the case to a Suffolk County grand jury in March, but that effort was put on hold when the courts were closed during the coronavirus pandemic. At Rollins’s request, the same grand jury was reassembled this week, leading to McCarthy’s indictment Monday.
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More from her office before we move on:
"DA Rollins and Commissioner Gross issue unusual warning to gun violence suspects" by John R. Ellement Globe Staff, May 4, 2020
In the wake of a triple shooting in Roxbury that left one man dead, Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins and Boston Police Commissioner William Gross issued an unusual warning: Fire a weapon and you will lose your freedom — and risk losing your life to the coronavirus while behind bars.
They say that as they are emptying jails of convicts due to the planned-emic.
Rollins, who has pushed for the release of some nonviolent pretrial detainees and convicted inmates because of the health threat they face from the coronavirus. “We have seen an uptick in gun violence. We are in a global pandemic. People need to be sheltering in place, essentially, and they aren’t complying,” Rollins said. “People need to hear this: If you have an illegal firearm, if you are brandishing a firearm, you will be held accountable, you will be arrested and you will be sent to jail.”
That'll stop 'em!
Why let 'em out then?
Of course, if you are police you are absolved or at worst fired. No murder charge or jail time.
Rollins, whose office unsuccessfully fought to keep accused murderer William J. Utley in jail while he awaited trial, said “coronavirus outbreaks are happening and people are dying” as a result of being infected while incarcerated.
“You are going to be sent to a place where, unfortunately, you have a higher risk of potentially contracting COVID-19,” the disease caused by the coronavirus, Rollins said, and nobody wants you harmed there, but you will not be able to remain outside in the community. We will hold you accountable and send you away.”
Gross, who also appeared at the murder scene, referred to the release of Utley and the release of another man he described as a gang member with a history of gun violence. Both were released by judges at the instruction of the Supreme Judicial Court, which has concluded COVID-19 creates an unconstitutional health crisis behind bars.
Related:
Coronavirus can mean a death sentence to prisoners
Former judge Gertner says they got used to treating people as categories, not human beings, and the death sentence has now been transmitted to law-abiding citizens!
Gross said the judges are deciding to release pretrial detainees who pose a threat to peace in Boston’s neighborhoods, and that those rulings, even in the face of COVID-19, should stop.
“When you do things like that, it sets a mentality out on these streets that people can do what they want,” Gross said. “So remember that at a voting time. Hold people accountable. Everybody has to be accountable. This is unacceptable.”
Baker isn't serious about a third term, is he?
He didn't mean his boss Walsh, did he?
“People who have been locked up for violent offenses and carrying a firearm should not be released” on personal recognizance, he said. “I could care less if they get sick in jail or not. They’re a danger to the community and [the courts] are sending the wrong mentality.”
Gross said the public is not paying the appropriate level of attention to the gun violence, noting the April 18 wounding of a 10-year-old girl who lived on Nazing Street in Roxbury, and the April 15 fatal shooting of 17-year-old Alissa King.
A suspect is in custody for King’s murder.
According to police, seven people were shot in Boston this weekend in five separate incidents. Police also recovered five illegal firearms.
I am so glad I am nowhere near that stinking city.
Rollins and Gross both vowed to track down and fully prosecute those responsible for Sunday’s homicide, which happened in the Warren Gardens complex. No arrests were reported Monday. Gross reminded the public that anonymous tips can be called in.
Mayor Martin J. Walsh said he has asked Gross to determine whether released inmates are playing a role in the increase in gun violence in the city. Walsh said Gross was still researching the question.
“The commissioner has every right to be frustrated. A lot of work has been done to bring the violence down,” Walsh said at a news conference held to discuss the coronavirus. Walsh said he believes some people released early from jail or prison are partly responsible for increased violence in Boston.
“I am going to make the assumption that some of it is connected,” Walsh said. “Certainly, we are concerned.”
Did you guys all sign on to this when Gates and crew said we are doing a drill, you in?
According to Boston police, the Kensington Park homicide was the 13th this year, compared with 12 last year at the time. Through April 28, police recorded 39 nonfatal shootings, compared with 34 nonfatal shootings during the same time period last year.
According to state courts officials, 824 pretrial detainees and sentenced inmates have been released from state and county prisons and jails since April 5 — including 63 in Suffolk County.....
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Related:
District Attorney Rollins calls public defenders too white and privileged, setting off a storm of protest
Rachael Rollins retreats from attack on ‘overwhelmingly privileged’ public defenders after strong backlash
Rachael Rollins finds herself at center of unlikely firestorm
That was when she started waving children in your face!
"‘There are a lot of tensions and people are acting out.’ Four murdered in Boston in six days" by John R. Ellement Globe Staff, May 22, 2020
Four people have been killed in the past six days in Boston, a spike in violence as the city wrestles with the social impact of the coronavirus pandemic, including rising unemployment, evictions, missed mortgage payments, and the release of prisoners.
With a sunny Memorial Day weekend ahead and the state beginning a phased reopening, officials are worried more trouble might lie ahead.
Better grab all the guns you can then, huh?
Another agenda being pushed under the cover of COVID-19.
“What we are seeing is that, unfortunately with COVID-19 and the significant uptick in unemployment and food and housing insecurity and the uncertainty and fear regarding what is happening in this global pandemic, and the added ingredient of the warm weather — we are seeing that there are lot of tensions and people are acting out,” said Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins.
Rollins, whose office arraigned one homicide suspect Friday and is trying to solve three other murders, added, “It’s a recipe for disaster.”
Rollins, Police Commissioner William Gross, and Mayor Martin J. Walsh also have expressed concern that the COVID-19-related release of some pretrial detainees and the parole of some convicted prisoners could generate something of a crime wave in Boston and Suffolk County as a whole.
Ya' think?
Gross raised the concern Thursday night while at the Mildred Hailey Apartments, where two men were shot, one fatally. Walsh also cited it during an interview on WGBH-FM radio Friday afternoon, but Rollins — who has taken a tough stance against violent crime suspects — said none of the recent violence can be directly connected to a COVID-19-related release, although research into the background of suspects is incomplete.
“Right now, I don’t see any of the individuals that we are charging … have been COVID-19 releases,’’ said Rollins, who also said she would publicly declare if such a person was charged with a new crime. “We are watching.”
Would she "declare" such a thing?
She has taken a strong stance in favor of protecting pretrial detainees and sentenced inmates who faced the disease while in custody and has pressed for release when public safety won’t be compromised. Her office has opposed 56 percent of the 704 release requests filed by defense attorneys, she said.
Rollins and Gross were both at the sprawling Hailey complex — a Jamaica Plain landmark formerly known as the Bromley Heath housing development — Thursday night after gunfire broke out as two groups were gathered in the courtyard.
It's what they call a photo-op.
Two men were shot, one fatally, and responding officers were met with hostility by dozens of people as they searched for victims. Police recovered four handguns and arrested four people, including one man for allegedly trying to trip a police officer in a foot chase of an armed suspect.
You know what?
This lockdown and totalitarian society is going to be a lot harder to implement, and is going to take forever!
While saying she did not know if there was a link between the gatherings of people and the shooting, Rollins noted that Thursday night was the second anniversary of a double homicide in the development. Killed during the 2018 incident were Christopher Joyce, 23, who was set to graduate from Salem State University, and Clayborn Blair, 58, a father of three. Both were innocent victims of gang violence, authorities have said.
Gross addressed the way the community responded to his officers.
“The hostilities were so bad that we had to deploy our emergency deployment teams from throughout the city to come and render assistance to the responding officers, who were just trying to help the victims of a crime,'' he said Thursday night.
That is better than what happened in Minneapolis, where people stood around and videoed a murder.
Mayor Martin J. Walsh released a statement Friday evening addressing the recent spate of violence.
“One act of violence in our city is too much. The safety of all residents in our community is my first priority, and I thank the Boston Police Department for their work to keep our streets safe," Walsh said. "I urge anyone with information about these acts of violence to come forward, and we will continue our violence prevention work throughout this public health crisis.”
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Also see: Man, 43, identified as victim of fatal shooting in Franklin Field where 4 other men were wounded
Better get in your car and go then:
"The good news about a statewide economic shutdown? Almost no one gets a ticket anymore, but some drivers see the relaxed enforcement as a license to drive poorly" by Andrea Estes and Matt Rocheleau Globe Staff, April 30, 2020
It’s hard to find a bright side to an international health crisis that has derailed the entire economy, but here’s one: Very few people are getting speeding or parking tickets anymore.
Police departments across Massachusetts wrote 95 percent fewer tickets for moving violations such as speeding and driving without a license in the first three weeks of April compared with the same period in 2019.
Costing localities and the state revenue!
The biggest departments showed especially huge drops, according to records at the Registry of Motor Vehicles. Meanwhile, parking illegally in Boston seems less risky than it used to: The number of tickets issued for parking violations in the city fell by nearly 75 percent in the first two weeks of April.
The plummeting enforcement numbers reflect the sharp drop in drivers during the pandemic, but also what might be called a spirit of forgiveness among many police officers. For example, Boston Transportation officials say they have suspended ticketing for expired registrations, inspection stickers, and handicapped placards because the state has extended deadlines for renewal, and, for the dwindling number of drivers venturing onto Massachusetts roads, the falloff in enforcement has been a bonanza.
Because they love you!
“I haven’t paid a meter since this whole thing started,” said Devin Gordon of Brookline, who hasn’t gotten a parking ticket throughout the pandemic despite repeated violations. “I’m sure that includes a few minutes here and there when I technically should have. I’d be pretty surprised and irate if I got a parking ticket now. It’s not like anyone is fighting for spots.”
Police say drivers shouldn’t get too comfortable breaking the law: Officers are still on duty.
“I can tell you Boston police are out there doing their jobs,” said Boston police spokesman John Boyle. “If a motor vehicle violation is committed and they observe it, they will pull someone over. Public safety is our priority,” and the State Police announced last week that it would be adding more road patrols after drivers complained that they were taking their lives in their hands driving the Mass. Pike.
“The way people were driving on the Masspike today, you’d have thought people were drinking @PURELL rather than using it on their hands," tweeted Paul Dobson, who is moving from South Boston to Holliston and making regular trips on the Mass. Pike.
“People are taking advantage of the extra space,” Dobson said in an interview. “It’s pretty nerve -racking.”
State Police spokesman David Procopio said the department is adding patrols “at random times and dates” to discourage speeders lured by the open roads.
“We believe — based on anecdotal evidence — that the lower traffic volume has emboldened drivers who are inclined to break the speed limit to do so, at times by significantly high speed,” said Procopio.
The troopers are working overtime!
Traffic and parking tickets historically have been a major source of income for cities and towns — parking enforcement in Boston alone brought in $71 million last year, but the coronavirus outbreak, along with Governor Charlie Baker’s shelter-at-home advisory in mid-March, has upended business as usual for police as well, leaving the state with largely empty streets even during rush hour.
Some leaders saw the reduction in tickets as a sign of success. Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone said he was pleased that the number of tickets written by police in April dropped from 191 to 1.
“The decrease in traffic violations in Somerville is a direct result of the high level of compliance with stay-at-home measures to slow the spread of COVID-19,” said Curtatone. “I want to thank our community for that."
Officers are advised to wear gloves and masks when they pull someone over and to ask drivers their name and birthdate so they can look them up on a computer in their cruiser, rather than handling licenses, registrations, and other paperwork.
Brian Kyes, chief of Chelsea police and president of the Massachusetts Major City Chiefs of Police, said his rule of thumb is "unless the operation of the motor vehicle is such that it's jeopardizing public safety, don’t stop the car.”
Even with the open roads — or maybe because of them — there have still been more than 2,600 car accidents reported statewide between March 23 and April 26. That’s dramatically fewer than the 12,000 reported during the same period last year, but the roads can still be dangerous: There have been 21 fatal car crashes since March 23 compared with 29 in the same period last year.
Of course, limited traffic and parking enforcement isn’t the same as no enforcement, and some drivers complained that they received tickets anyway, adding insult to the injury already caused by the pandemic.
“I thought parking was free, so I never paid money into the meter,” said one Boston resident who received a $40 ticket on Boylston Street in mid-April.
Another driver, Senai Sahle of Dorchester, got a $65 ticket in late March after parking on the sidewalk. He said he was trying to keep out of the way of traffic on his congested city street.
“Receiving that ticket has been extremely stressful," he said. "To give us tickets in this economic crisis is downright despicable.”
City officials said Sahle’s car was ticketed as a result of a complaint from a neighbor.
Every block has a busybody!
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Time to put the pedal to the metal:
"Fatal crashes are up in Massachusetts, even as driving is way down; With little traffic on the roads, some are traveling at dangerous speeds" by Adam Vaccaro and Abigail Feldman Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent, May 3, 2020
I was just told they were way, way down!
What is with the zig-zag driving, Globe?
Traffic in Massachusetts is way down during the coronavirus pandemic, but the rate of fatal car crashes has roughly doubled — likely because of the more open roads.
The number of cars on major highways dropped about 50 percent in April, with much larger declines in certain areas. Yet 28 people died in car crashes in April, one more than in April 2019, according to the state Department of Transportation. With little traffic to slow drivers down, some are driving at dangerous speeds, officials said.
“That’s a really disturbing trend," said state highway administrator Jonathan Gulliver. "They’re not seeing the congestion they were used to seeing just a month and a half ago. And as a result, the driving conditions across the board have changed.”
In an online news conference Monday, Gulliver said speed and distraction were cited in many crashes. He stressed that the number of fatal crashes and their cause are preliminary, but that it is the state’s “strong suspicion” that increased speeds tied to lower congestion are playing a significant role. He also said there may have been an effect on drivers’ “psychology,” because the roads emptied out almost overnight.
“When you have the open road and you’re not used to it, you’re going to see what you can do and try to get to your destination as fast as possible,” he said.
Yeah, right, we are all hell-bent speed demons.
Maybe out your way, so stay the f**k there, 'kay?!!!!!!!!!
The state does not yet have data on whether the number of overall traffic crashes increased or decreased over the same period; those numbers will likely come later this month.
WTF then????
Some road safety groups have warned that while lower traffic volumes would lead to fewer overall crashes, collisions would be more violent because of increased speed. Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh has made the same point in recent media briefings.
“With less traffic, what we’re starting to see is increased speed. So the crashes that do happen have been more severe,” Walsh said last week.
The issue is not specific to Massachusetts. Last month, the Governors Highway Safety Association, a national organization representing the states, cited several examples of increased speeding violations and fatal crashes.
“Many states have reported alarming speed increases, with some noting a significant surge in vehicles clocked at 100 mph or more,” the group said in a statement.
How could they even know that?
In Massachusetts, Gulliver said about two-thirds of the deaths were reported along local roads rather than state highways. The fatalities included three pedestrians and one cyclist.
Some advocates have called for communities to open more road space to pedestrians to allow for social distance while walking. Drivers must be aware of non-drivers using the road as well, said Stacey Beuttell, executive director of the pedestrian group WalkBoston.
“Empty streets are not a license to drive faster," Beuttell said in a statement. "Please consider every street a shared street and stay safe.”
The state will begin a campaign on highway messaging boards and elsewhere to urge motorists to slow down and drive safely, Gulliver said.....
How much tax loot is that going to waste, 'er, cost?
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Related:
More than 19,000 teens get licenses without road test
I just can't help but think that adds to the increasing crash totals and why US roadways are more lethal during the pandemic.
Better slow down, kids:
"Together, alone. The car as shelter in the pandemic" by Christine Hauser and Judith Levitt New York Times, May 23, 2020
The role of the automobile has been reinvented in the coronavirus era. Once just a way of getting from one place to another, the car has been turned into a mini-shelter on wheels, safe from contamination, a cocoon that allows its occupants to be inside and outside at the same time.
Roll down that window, will ya'?
It took a global pandemic to give the automobile a new role. When people pack up their families and friends, they can still adhere to social-distancing rules. They remain under a roof, within closed doors, sealed off and separated from the rest of their fellow human beings.
First of all, how do you stay socially distant in the car?
As the insulting, agenda-pushing NYT elitist shows, the mindset of the elite is to keep you "under a roof, within closed doors, sealed off and separated from the rest of your fellow human beings."
We are talking a SICK, PSYCHOPATHIC, and MISANTHROPIC point of view here, folks -- and yet they claim care so much about protecting us all from COVID! They want us in little lockdown prisons wherever we go!
Mobile safe distancing has generated a new way of life: a society on wheels.
Run 'em over then!
The trend has transformed communities and businesses. Drive-in theaters are experiencing renewed interest. People picnic from sedans and pickup trucks. Birthdays, baby showers, and graduations are celebrated by waving through windows.
Gossip is conducted on roadsides. Drivers who would normally speed by each other in isolation are bringing their cars to a standstill, using them for kaffeeklatsches.
“They are like the ultimate PPE; you can really seal yourself into them,” said Peter D. Norton, an associate professor at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va., who studies the history of technology.
There are curbside pickups of groceries, hardware, and toilet paper. Moviegoers starved for a little fresh air can hitch up to an old-fashioned listening device at a newly refurbished drive-in theater. Laundromats are taking in bundles handed off through car windows.
Do the new pandemic rules mean this is a turning point in society’s relationship with the automobile, or just an extension of it?
“I think there are some continuities here,” Norton said, noting that cars have long been thought of as a way to shield ourselves from a hostile world.
“There is the old cliché of the white suburbanite in what they think of as a dangerous neighborhood: They roll up their windows and lock their doors,” he said.
“In most cases, it is a response to a perceived danger,” he said, but there are also troubling implications, he added. One is that “safety is something we expect you to buy in the form of an expensive machine that is not sustainable and not affordable to everyone.”
You know, I actually feel sorry for him.
To live with and in such fear your entire life must be awful.
While much of life has been reimagined online, from conference calls to Zoom video chats with grandparents, vehicles have allowed people to trim several degrees from that virtual separation.
Cars have allowed their owners to widen their worlds. Quarantine zones can be uprooted from the four walls of a home and transplanted within the doors of a car.
Let's say we get the all the American pre$$ in a car then and quarantine their lying, insulting, elitist ass!
Then Thelma and Louise the thing off a cliff.
That means people can have more contact — but not too much more. That slight relaxation of the distancing, while still protective, has been essential to small businesses that rely on cultivating personal relationships with clients.
Events normally held in buildings have now been shifted to the great outdoors.....
You will still have to raise your hand to go to the bathroom, and will probably shit your pants when you get back.
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I will give you ONE GUESS as to whom I would not want to share a car ride with, reader, and I don't mean you!
Better off taking the bus:
"A woman has life-threatening injuries and three other people were hurt after an MBTA bus collided with three vehicles in Dorchester early Monday, said Officer James Moccia, a spokesman for the Boston Police Department. Police responded to a report of a crash near 52 Columbia Road at 3:21 a.m., Moccia said. Upon arrival, officers found that a blue Nissan Infiniti and an MBTA bus had crashed into two parked vehicles, he said. MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said the vehicles collided as they passed through the intersection of Seaver Street and Columbia Road. The Nissan had driven through red flashing lights while on Seaver Street and the bus had driven through yellow flashing lights as it traveled down Columbia Road, Pesaturo said. The bus was not in service at the time of the crash, he said. The adult female operator of the Nissan was taken to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries, Moccia said. The Nissan’s two other occupants, an adult female and a juvenile, and the driver of the bus were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, he said. No one else was on the bus or inside the two parked vehicles, Moccia said. The cause of the crash remains under investigation."
Sorry, folks, but that is the end of the line.
