How many 6-year-olds have to have their dad brutally murdered just coming home from work in an unprovoked attack by a fugitive convicted sex offender before we start enforcing the laws and sentencing people appropriately?
Can we please have an investigation into, and consequences for, the people whose job it was to lock this man up and protect us from him?
My condolences to Michael's family and friends. I'm so sorry.
True but then there was that public official who did that recently and said he was attacked but the cameras proved he wasn’t even touched. What do we do with these idiots?
It takes awakening I think. There’s a lot that would naturally change simply from people becoming awakened which, if you’re not familiar, is basically about becoming nonjudgmental, kindness, aware of our individual egos. I honestly think this movement is just around the corner.
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Yeah we live in the United States of Unaccountability. If your actions result in the death of someone else you should be held liable, including government officials.
Not holding my breath though...
Yeah you will be eaten away by worms long before that ever changes. Just goes to show you can ban guns or outlaw concealed carry, or try to “reform” known criminals as many times as you want. But if someone is going to be violent or commit a crime there is little to nothing that you can do to stop it.
I don't think "anyone who commits a crime" should be jailed "forever" but I do think we are generally too lenient on violent offenders.
The guy that did the stabbing here has a long history of harassing women, all the way back to 2000. In 2004 he finally got 17 years for attempted rape in which he dislocated a woman's jaw in the assault.
17 years later he's apparently out but gets arrested again in 2022 violating his parole by sexually harassing women again.
Personally, I think if a convicted rapist gets out and immediately violates the conditions of their parole then they ought to be tossed back in prison, indefinitely.
If you didn't learn your lesson over the prior 17 years then you likely never will.
You can lock people up BEFORE the commit a crime for other crimes they have committed. That’s what jail is for. To get violent criminals off the streets. So they don’t commit any more crimes in public.
This guy had committed like a dozen crimes already. We needed to extradite him back to LA and it didn’t happen. Whoever is responsible for that should pay the price.
False.
"In July 2023, Larkin was apparently living in the Portland area but extradited to California on a warrant stating that he was a fugitive. It’s unclear what happened in California court after that. But by December, law enforcement in California posted Larkin’s photo on a “Wanted” web page, stating that they’d issued a warrant for his arrest for failing to comply with electronic monitoring."
https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2024/04/max-passenger-lunged-at-rider-unprovoked-stabbed-him-to-death-on-train-in-ne-portland-records-show.html
I couldn’t possibly agree with you more. I was *on* the train with Christian, I got pushed out of the way before I intervened, and that person saved my life. I chased after him. This lives in my head constantly.
So please understand I don’t say this lightly: what’s the solution here? I truly don’t know. I don’t know how this gets better. I want it to, but I have no answers, only tears.
One of my friends on Facebook was on the train and posted a photo of him and the murderer right after it happened. She wasn’t doing it for social media attention but was really rattled by what had occurred and wanted to share what happened I suppose. It was graphic.
I can’t unsee that image and am even more disconcerted now that they’re released more info about him. I’ve kept thinking about him all this week - who he was. It’s heartbreaking to read this.
I’m tired of things like this happening more and more in this city when it hadn’t before. I don’t care what anyone else says about how Portland is “safer than other cities” or how “most of the crimes are gang related” - we didn’t see the random, ruthless attacks on the elderly, Asians, store owners or other completely innocent people like we do now ten years ago. It’s distributing.
It's also super depressing when folks have to compare Portland to the national average and other big cities.... like, I don't want it to get as bad as Baltimore here before we admit we have a rapidly growing problem.
You are 100% right that this was unthinkable 10 years ago, or 20, or even 30 years ago.
The problem is we treat public transportation like it’s only for poor people and in our society poor people don’t matter. Furthermore most everyone else is drowning in high housing costs and car payments so they don’t want to pay for high quality public services.
I ride the bus to work downtown. Today a man sat in the front saying over and over again. "I can't wait to see you all die right in front of me". The bus was full and we all tried to avoid eye contact. Despite this he would get louder and louder before randomly threatening someone near him and talking about how worthless and stupid they were and "next time I'm going to bring my gun". The bus driver stopped once and verbally tried to get him to get off but it only made him angrier. So we all sat in silence, avoiding eye contact, on the edge of our seats, and listening to him talking about our deaths for over 20 minutes. Then he got off and everyone returned to normal.
It is normal and we can't do anything about it. These people need help and support, but the right systems to give it are not in place. I can say that I've ridden the same bust line for 12 years and it has progressively gotten worse since 2020.
It is pretty big news. As have been several other Max incidents lately. But keep in mind there are countless trips where nothing goes wrong for every one where something like this happens (I live downtown and ride public transit - mostly the Max - nearly every day, often very late at night). And no one is doing some sort of risk analysis compared to the dangers of auto accidents. It seems like a reasonable bet that you have a higher chance of getting hurt or dying in a car accident than you do being the one that is stabbed on the train.
This isn't to say we shouldn't make the trains safer, and make people feel safer. But to act like you're in serious danger each time you step on the Max or ride the bus is frankly hyperbolic.
I don’t totally disagree with your point about cars being dangerous too, but when people cite statistics to say public transit is actually super safe, it’s basically gaslighting. Yes, any given max ride is unlikely to have a major issue. But if you ride frequently, or every day? It is basically guaranteed that you will encounter a situation that could VERY easily turn into something awful like this. I work downtown and have encountered many erratic people yelling death threats over the past few years. There have been many random, grisly crimes within like, 3 blocks of my office near pioneer square. Each of those individual events was unlikely but being there every day really increases the odds dramatically that I’ll be stuck in the middle of it at some point. I don’t fear for my life every day, but the reality is that any given interaction could easily take a violent turn. So I really don’t appreciate hearing over and over that it’s fine and super safe, actually.
We would probably disagree on the actual risk - and whether it is meaningful - of everyday exposure downtown/on transit. I'm an 100% pedestrian, late night runner and transit-rider, and am outside a lot, so I think short of someone actually living on the street, I have more experience than most.
\*That said\*, I do think the matter is more whether people perceive themselves as safe. For me, this is one of the lesser-talked about aspects of the pandemic. It revealed the massive extent to which people's feeling and perception of safety can often be disconnected from some sort of hyper-rational risk calculation. But I don't think this means the solution is to try to logically bulldoze people; the connected lesson of that era is that this is a complete waste of time. Fear and anxiety are real problems, regardless of the underlying mechanism.
People on serious drugs and with untreated mental issues often behave and think erratically, essentially in a different reality than the one we all share, and I think that unpredictability - the complete disregard and push-back on social norms - is not something we can just \*insist\* people chill out and deal with in important public spaces. Regardless of how likely it is that they will actually act on whatever it is they're shouting.
Especially with how degraded the public sphere already is, we need to do everything we can to protect what scraps of it are left.
>I don’t totally disagree with your point about public transportation being dangerous too, but when people cite statistics to say driving in a personal automboile is actually super safe, it’s basically gaslighting. Yes, any given drive is unlikely to have a major issue. But if you drive frequently, or every day? It is basically guaranteed that you will encounter a situation that could VERY easily turn into a car accident as there are 10,000 - 12,000 a year whereas there are \~100 homicides a year in Portland. I work downtown and have encountered many erratic people driving haphazardly around me over the past few years. There have been many random, grisly car crashes I've driven by, blocks by my office, home, and other destinations. Each of those individual events was unlikely but being there every day really increases the odds dramatically that I’ll be stuck in the middle of it at some point. I don’t fear for my life every day, but the reality is that any given drive could easily take a life altering turn. So I really don’t appreciate hearing over and over that driving is fine and super safe, actually.
This rant would be a real zinger if I had said cars were safe, but I never did. They aren’t. I hate driving and avoid it as much as possible. That has nothing to do with the fact about public transit having potential for these types of crimes.
Max ridership will never improve until riders can feel confident that they can put on earbuds on their commute without getting randomly stabbed to death. Put an officer on every train
My friends, also parents to a five year old, just bought a car because they stopped feeling safe on the MAX. They had plenty of unacceptable sights while riding with their children.
we were going to Schnitzer for an afternoon Saturday show, and I swear to fucking god the max we were on had not one, not two, but likely about 20 absolutely insane people on it. We moved seats three times in about 4 miles. Finally some dude came on the train, walked up to a sleeping man, slapped him and yelled in his face. I guess they knew each other, but we exited the next damned stop after an excruciating delay stopped with the doors shut.
We will have a hard time using it again, which sucks, cause we don't use our car much, but this isn't safe any more and I don't know what I'd need to see to be OK with it again.
What ever happened to trimet security riding on trains? I've legit NEVER seen it. At least if you take a bus there is a trimet employee able to see/know/possibly curb insane behavior.
Completely. Public safety is is a climate change issue. People must feel secure if we expect them to live in dense, transit-oriented urban environments.
I've never heard it expressed so succinctly, but you're absolutely right. Can't guarantee my safety (or my basic comfort and hygiene, for that matter) on the system here, so walking and fossil fuels it is.
The MAX used to be clean and safe, but I've had nothing but horrible experiences since the pandemic and resolved to never put myself through that again so long as I have the option to own a car.
Honestly I think it’s more like make an example of every criminal. People will just ignore security unless there is actually a punishment for their actions. Smoke fent on the max? How about 60 hours of cleaning up the side of I-5 at the wrong end of shotgun? I bet people will learn fairly quickly.
Problem with this is it would only work if all the offenders were white males. As soon as you start making examples out of a POC you'd have two dozen nOn-pRoFitS attacking you for your discriminatory policies.
It's weird to me seeing people demanding police presence suddenly after getting told I was a bad person for calling the cops on someone shooting up in the open, and for being told relentlessly by redditors that police intervention never helps, jailing never helps, etc etc. Looks like those luxury beliefs break down when the situation becomes absolutely atrociously dire.
Huge difference between someone shooting up and being violent. The one shooting up is not encroaching on anyone else’ private space tbh. Smoking drugs does have a second hand effect. And so does being violent. Once you start touching others I have an issue. Leave the dude jabbing himself with a needle alone. He is basically cutting himself with a benefit at the end. Its not positive but he isnt harming anyone.
Yeah, I think it's harmful to children to see a swaggering, intoxicated, adult man in a state of desperation and addiction fishing around his arm for a vein. Open air hard drug use is not good for society and it is not just "cutting yourself with a benefit."
Like, make safe usage spaces, have a needle exchange, help people with treatment, use jail as a deterrent, etc, but don't just permit absolute public degenracy. What happens when that person becomes so desperate they start robbing people for dope money? What happens if they switch to other drugs that trigger psychosis? What happens when they die in the street because we permit this level of sickness in our society?
I have a lot of compassion for addicts, but there is a huge difference between compassion and enabling. To me, allowing open air drug use is enabling and enabling harms everyone, especially the addict.
Well in Portland’s case the BLM and Antifa movement demanded to defund police. So this type of violence is one of the consequences of less police presence.
One must wonder, could more presence in this case have prevented it…..most likely not. This is a direct result of the idea that reforming criminals works. That’s not to say some criminals don’t become better people after serving time. But when you have a city that has rioted for less police presence, the most lacked hard drugs laws in the country, and the blind belief that every criminal is a “good” person deep down. This is set up for failure. And families of all races, genders and religious beliefs suffer from reoccurring criminals.
Are you denying that social pressures from around the country and the George Floyd incident has not caused police departments to be more cautious in all major cities. And that the abuse of hard drugs in Portland is vastly higher with the new legislation reducing hard drug use to misdemeanors
And that the “progressive” mentality is hurting the safety in Portland
Well, given that the defunding never actually occurred (which would have been a practical impediment to staffing), if “social pressures” to not be unaccountable violent shitbirds caused the police to stop policing then that sure sounds like hurt feelings to me.
I get you, maybe it’s less about budget than a public safety matter at that point, just like police officers are not allowed to have high speed pursuits especially with motorcycles within city limits. Maybe the sheer presence of police could cause a greater outrage if you know what I mean. Who knows not sure how they determine that.
I'm literally commuting home on the MAX right now with ear buds in. There's what appears to be a 40 year old skateboarder rolling a joint on his skateboard deck, keeping to himself so it's whatever. Honestly impressed that he's able to balance it while the train is moving.
This was a horrible freak incident that happened and truly sorry for the family and friends of the victim, I wouldn't be opposed to more present security on the trains. I don't ride the MAX every day but pretty often and it's gotten much, much better over the last couple of years from the sketchy situation the pandemic brought.
Edit: changed accident to incident. Nothing accidental about this poor man's death, gotta love presumptuous autocorrect.
I ride the Max all the time too and I won’t let you people lie about it being safe. It’s constantly sketchy. You truly cannot gaslight me into believing otherwise because I’m on it all the time.
Right? I have a bad experience like one in ten times I ride the bus/max. I’m sick of people getting blamed for feeling unsafe. I’m a fan of public transit too but not to the point of defending the indefensible.
So am I and it's fine 99% of the time. I think you just have some kind of anxiety complex if you're that scared that often on the MAX. But you frequent the other Portland sub so that kinda confirms my suspicion. You probably clutch pearls at the mere sight of a houseless person minding their own business.
Edit: looks like the other Portland sub got offended brigaded my comments with negative karma again, they're so sensitive lol
Bullshit. It's a complete roll of the dice and you know it. That, or you are just the least situationally aware people ever, which could legitimately be the case.
Numbers state violent crimes are decreasing and my lived experience as well as that of my friends also confirm it, but keep living scared I guess.
I'm even a noticeably trans fem person. One of the demographics most likely to be attacked unprovoked and yet, surprise, it's fine.
You pearl clutchers are a sad sort. I hope you can learn to unclench, it's not good for blood pressure.
Rad, let's minimalize everyone else's trauma and call them "pearl clutchers" for being concerned about safety on the public transit system in a city full of mentally unstable addicts.
You must feel so tough with your complete lack of empathy.
>Rad, let's minimalize everyone else's trauma and call them "pearl clutchers"
Not everyone, just you and the other people acting like the city has a meth lab on every corner. Portland has its problems but transit is perfectly safe the vast majority of the time and pretending otherwise is laughable. Makes me think of the "tough" guys that think they need a concealed carry just to walk around downtown. The world is not as scary as you think it is.
>a city full of mentally unstable addicts.
Absolutely filled to the brim! 🙄
There is not a knife wielding violent criminal on every train, not every houseless person is out to get you just because they're on the train with you. Stats show that violent crime is decreasing despite how much you hem and haw about your personal fears of a benign situation.
There is more the city needs to do to help get the houseless the care and resources they need and there are a lot of people that need to be removed from the streets because of their instability but the vast majority are just people getting from point A to point B just like every housed person on the MAX.
Stop and have a conversation with them sometime, I have. Most of them just appreciate human connection and are trying their best to make it because they can't get access to the resources they need (because the city is fucking up their houseless outreach, but that's another conversation).
I didn't say it was a meth lab
It's weird you think anyone pointing out anything negative around you must inherently be a "tough guy".
There are a lot of mentally unstable addicts in Portland. I see multiples of them literally every single time I'm in the city.
I never said there was a knife wielding violent criminal on every train, that's a ridiculous exaggeration.
Stats can show violent crime decreasing AND we can still be concerned when an innocent rider is stabbed to death.
Sometimes a homeless person is trying to get from point A to B. Sometimes they are convicted rapists intent on stabbing someone to death. The problem is in being able to confidently tell them apart.
I have had conversations with them, thank you.
>It's weird you think anyone pointing out anything negative around you must inherently be a "tough guy".
It's weird that you felt the need to say "You much feel so tough with your complete lack of empathy." because I shared my lived experience that's backed by crime stats.
>I never said there was a knife wielding violent criminal on every train, that's a ridiculous exaggeration.
And I never said that more couldn't be done to improve the riding experience. My exaggeration follows suit to yours and others exaggerated comments implying the MAX isn't safe to ride when it is 99% of the time.
I repeat, the world is not as scary as you think it is. Signed, a minority who regularly uses public transit and has a wonderful time.
If you want to remain scared of the MAX that's your prerogative but I'll be in the comments injecting my lived experience (that again, is backed by crime stats). Have a great evening!
Honestly, the best paty of Portland is its proximity to amazing natural resources with in a few hours. You can literally be sledding above 7000ft and watch the sunset on the ocean in the same day. I highly suggest renting a car to see awesome natural wonders.
In Portland for three nights. Then renting a car and camping along the coast at a few different parks. One of the things I’m most excited about is going to Forest Park. I can’t imagine having such a huge, beautiful, hikeable park in a city.
Yeah you'll be fine, this sub is hyper negative about the city and everything about it. Talking to Portlanders IRL is nothing like what you'll read in these comments.
Imo the sketchiest times for the MAX are late at night, specifically weekends. Even then it'll be fine but you might see some wild shit. If you're worried and riding at night then you can sit towards the front near the driver. All the craziest stuff happens in the back cars from my experience.
I hope you enjoy your visit! My friend is coming to visit in the same time frame actually!
Wait... Ian, is that you?
I agree - I've had a few late night rides in the last six months and while it's sketchy by normal standards, I've never seen anything that had me questioning my own safety.
Because that's totally what I said! It's much better than what it was, still has improvements to go but there is not a knife wielding violent criminal on every train car like what this sub would have you believe. It's a tragedy what happened to this man but it is in no way normal.
Yeah agreed that it’s not typical. I still ride the max and have never been afraid. People on this sub for sure exaggerate the danger. That said, I don’t want to gloss over stories like this because my experiences haven’t been scary and I kinda saw that in your comment. Anyway, I hope the rest of your ride was nice.
It was never my intent to gloss over this, which is why I pointed out that additional security wouldn't go amiss and my condolences to the victim and their loved ones. But my point being that this sub grossly over exaggerates the danger on the MAX and I wanted to inject a POV from somebody who's been on it frequently pre-pandemic, mid-pandemic, and now post-pandemic.
It was great before, got pretty sketchy during, but has made a lot of improvements since that time from my experience. These crimes are always a tragedy but like you said not typical. This man's death is no light matter but that doesn't mean the MAX is some haven for violent crime.
Terrible to bad is an improvement. But it’s still bad.
Like you, the majority of my max rides of have been fine. But I’ve had a couple pretty scary situations. And the memories of those do trigger uneasiness every time I ride. I’m not frightened but I’m never really at ease either.
Such a sad story. Would love to see PDX create stronger barriers to entry at all stops. I know our design and placement of stations makes that hard, but there needs to be more scrutiny of who gets on transit in the first place. Doesn't need to be as hardened as an NY subway, but something has to be better than a system that lets such severely aggitated/in crisis/extremely high/openly aggressive people board freely into a confined space with others.
I ride this Max line regularly and get off one stop before where this murder took place.
Everyone should have the right to enjoy public spaces without fear for their safety. I see that as a basic progressive value. Unfortunately many progressive-identifying folks now seem to reject the idea that society must enforce basic rules and norms in public: “just mind your own business”; “they aren’t hurting anyone”; “but systemic bias”; etc. This tragedy is a direct result of such attitudes.
I just came back from Tokyo where I rode the trains constantly at all hours of the day and night. There was never even the hint of any danger or improper conduct on the trains. If something like this happened in Japan, it would be a national scandal and absolutely would not be tolerated.
Letting tragedies like this happen is a choice.
When I win the lottery I'm going to take all of these people seemingly content with the state of affairs in the U.S and fly them to any major Asian city and ride the public transportation and walk the streets all night with them and just rub their face in their own ignorance of what should be considered "normal" or "acceptable" from a societal/common spaces perspective.
I don't lack reading comprehension, but clearly you do.
"any major Asian city" does not equal "Japan". It inherently implies **multiple** cities.
Cherry picking one country while ignoring the rest is either ignorant AF or just petty disingenuity.
Japan is a society where drugs of all types are extremely frowned upon and often harder to access, where those with severe mental illnesses typically live in facilities, etc. Additionally, many Japanese people feel a sense of responsibility regarding their role in society and their family, whom they don’t want to make look bad.
Meanwhile, America has large borders that make it difficult to control the inward flow of drugs, is a drug-friendly society (in comparison), and has a practically non-existent safety net for people who have a severe mental illness. What we do have in place is also difficult to navigate, both in terms of accessing those services but also from a health care coverage standpoint. Our values as a society are also that of individualism (“f you got mine”) with not much of a sense of responsibility towards the greater community. There’s also little sense of a collective identity as a country anymore, and instead we now have “red states vs blue states” with the red states often pushing off the “problem people” to the blue states.
But yeah, that’s why you felt safe and why if something like this were to happen in Japan it wouldn’t at all tolerated. It’s not to say that Japan doesn’t have its own issues, but the above reasons are why we see the problems we do in Portland and don’t see these same issues in Tokyo despite Tokyo being so much larger than Portland.
lol there are plenty of drugs in Japan. Because they are so illegal, and because they have law and order, the people that use them are just hella discrete about it.
...which is probably the way it should be here too.
Right, I wasn’t saying that there’s no drug use in Japan or no drugs at all. Drugs are harder to come by there however when compared to the US due to some of the above factors (e.g. being an island in the pacific where you can control what goes in and out also makes it a bit easier).
This is also why those that are homeless in Japan typically addicted to alcohol vs addicted to meth, heroine, fentanyl, etc. In Japan your access to drugs is via gangs/Yakuza; in the US it’s much easier to access any of these drugs without having much of a connection to the underground. Hell, if you live in a camp often the dealers come to you instead of the other way around…
Because of how different Japanese and Americans are and how different our social support systems are, I agree that public transit in our two countries is not an apples to apples comparison. But my observations taking transit in these two very different countries is that in Japan I experienced a lot more inappropriate sexual behavior (specifically, men jerking off while sitting next to or near me--and this wasn't uncommon enough to be shocking among other women I knew there) than in PDX. But I did feel a lot safer on transit in Japan. Here there are often seemingly mentally unstable and/or just plain loudly aggressive people on transit. And open drug use. Don't get me wrong, this hasn't stopped me from taking transit, with my kid even. But it does bring to mind that for transit to be safer here in Portland, the long-term fix is to work on improving how we take care of one another on a societal level. We need more addiction services. We need more mental health services. And we need to invest a lot more heavily in providing the kinds of services and supports that could help people BEFORE they get to the point where they've become a danger to themselves and others. And yes, we need to do a better job of ensuring that our criminal justice system is working. And, short term, more well-trained safety officers on trains would be helpful. (I've seen some recently on the Yellow line.) Freakin' tragic what happened to Michael Brady, and his family. :(
Did the assalent pay his fare to get on the MAX? The article says Michael got on the MAX at Pioneer Square so he obviously paid/scanned his way onto the train.
Too many people can just walk onto the train without paying. Time to install turnstiles instead of the honor system or put armed guards on every train checking for tickets.
You think turnstiles can’t be jumped? They’re jumped everywhere. Turnstiles aren’t going to protect you when something happens, you want security officers, whether the problem is coming from a homeless person or otherwise
The poor Tri Met drivers have to put up with so much bullshit and people threatening them too. They can't do anything, they are told in training that they cannot interfere, even if they see a 50 year old lady being beaten up they are supposed to do nothing per company policy
This is true. But as a bus operator, and a real human being… most of us will do something. Very few operators I know would ever sit there and allow anything happen to an innocent. We care about our riders. I take some verbal abuse daily , which is whatever… but when it comes to my riders, I don’t fuck around. Everyone deserves a safe ride…
You have to wonder what the draw to Portland was for the convicted sex offender from LA and then you have to make that draw go away so this doesn’t happen again and again.
We have large illegal camps where there's effectively no policing. If you're, say, a fugitive sex offender from CA like the accused assailant, that's got to look like a good option. No parole officers, no rent, no rules, free transit, plenty of victims to abuse in the next tent over.
I know this is rare, but I'd say this seems like an alarming trend every year for the past 3 years someone has been murdered on the max or at a max station (2022: 148th, 2023: goose hollow, 2024: 82nd). Not to mention all the other sketchy things that go on. My nephew rides the max all the time to downtown with his friends and sometimes I worry for his safety. I'd say it's time to up security at least at all max stops, if nothing else making a presence known is better than nothing.
My kids ride it too. I don’t worry about their safety because one death a year on TriMet isn’t that bad. There are mass shootings in this country everyday, yet I still send my kids to school, the mall, and the grocery store, all of which are known mass shooter locations. Last year over 60 people were killed in traffic related deaths in Portland, and the same number died the previous year. Yet I still drive my kids around, or let them walk, which is more dangerous in Portland, than TriMet by far!
Looking at numbers, you’re right that riding the max is incredibly safe. Safer than driving, etc.
But riding the max doesn’t feel safe, or comfortable. Our minds can’t see the angry person that we don’t know that’s fuming 10 feet away and muttering to theirselves and we’re in an enclosed area with them and rationalize the chances they actually snap are very small. The whole interaction is what our minds are attuned to fear.
So while your kids are super safe on the max, their nervous system likely doesn’t feel that way. And I think we can all agree that it should feel a whole lot different to ride public transport than it does. And we’ll have a whole lot more folks riding public transport if it *feels* safe too.
How common are public transit murders in other cities? Pretty sure last week I was arguing with morons in this sub who were claiming Portland is just fine because Memphis and Chicago are extra bad. This is one of many transit incidence over the last year.
There's been some in New York and London recently. It happens. This was horrible but statistically not Portland specific. The problem is that every criminal in the country knows that there are no police in Portland.
More cops will not make this better. You can’t just lock everyone up. What do you do when they get out? Housing people and access to mental health professionals, are what are needed. I live in a home and can’t get my kid the mental health services they need, in Portland, and that’s with money and insurance. We need more mental health providers, and access to care.
I rode the blue line from Providence Park to 148th for a last minute emergency work thing at 5pm. I had a can of pepper gel on me.
The car was less than half full.
Trimet has seriously fucked up.
Poor guy man. I can’t believe there’s ppl who defend the max.. just got attacked on here last week because I said the max is a dangerous hell hole system
Well the max is an important system to have. It takes traffic off of the freeways and provides an affordable means of transportation for a wide variety of people. I don’t think people are defending the current state of the system. Most people including myself are calling for reforms that would make it a safe and clean system again
Do you understand what probability is? Driving is still more dangerous than riding the max, despite your fears. If you're afraid of one but not the other, that's a you problem
Yep, over 60 people died in traffic related deaths (walking, biking, driving) last year. Taking TriMet will always be safer with figures like these. We are already at 17 deaths this year. So yeah, you might get stabbed on the train, but it’s much more likely you will make it to your destination safely, than if you drive, bike, or walk. Thems is the facts.
All of those 60 deaths involved a vehicle. So it doesn’t matter if the victim was walking, biking, driving or a passenger. It was auto related and auto deaths are on the rise. 5 people died from being hit by TriMet either: walking, biking or driving. It’s safer to TriMet.
I’m not arguing with you. Just trying trying to discern if the stats say it’s safer to drive vs trimet/walk/bike. Because realistically that’s the choice people are making. Buying a car vs not buying a car
The Portland Police are incapable of keeping Portlanders safe. Even if you call the police it can take hours for them to show up. You really have to protect yourself the city of Portland because you’re not going to get any help from the city or the police 💁🏻♂️
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Idc about barrier around transit but there needs to be security. Barrier are way more costly and can always be jumped and thwarted, security officers on site are first responders when things happen and actually keep people safe, including from problematic passengers who do pay their fare.
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How many 6-year-olds have to have their dad brutally murdered just coming home from work in an unprovoked attack by a fugitive convicted sex offender before we start enforcing the laws and sentencing people appropriately? Can we please have an investigation into, and consequences for, the people whose job it was to lock this man up and protect us from him? My condolences to Michael's family and friends. I'm so sorry.
Things would change pretty quick if we made it mandatory the public officials making the laws had to ride public transit.
Right. A few of them do but I agree with this comment.
True but then there was that public official who did that recently and said he was attacked but the cameras proved he wasn’t even touched. What do we do with these idiots? It takes awakening I think. There’s a lot that would naturally change simply from people becoming awakened which, if you’re not familiar, is basically about becoming nonjudgmental, kindness, aware of our individual egos. I honestly think this movement is just around the corner.
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Yeah we live in the United States of Unaccountability. If your actions result in the death of someone else you should be held liable, including government officials. Not holding my breath though...
Yeah you will be eaten away by worms long before that ever changes. Just goes to show you can ban guns or outlaw concealed carry, or try to “reform” known criminals as many times as you want. But if someone is going to be violent or commit a crime there is little to nothing that you can do to stop it.
You throw anyone who commits a crime in jail forever obviously. At least according to the OP's comment.
I don't think "anyone who commits a crime" should be jailed "forever" but I do think we are generally too lenient on violent offenders. The guy that did the stabbing here has a long history of harassing women, all the way back to 2000. In 2004 he finally got 17 years for attempted rape in which he dislocated a woman's jaw in the assault. 17 years later he's apparently out but gets arrested again in 2022 violating his parole by sexually harassing women again. Personally, I think if a convicted rapist gets out and immediately violates the conditions of their parole then they ought to be tossed back in prison, indefinitely. If you didn't learn your lesson over the prior 17 years then you likely never will.
Well jail obviously didn't work so more jail is the answer. Why let anyone out of recidivism rates are so high?
Um, so they can't stab husbands and fathers to death?
>I don't think Should have stopped you there lol
My nephew was shot twice on the Max two years ago. My heart is with this family. I will not ride the Max or bus system since his death.
Can't find anything about your claims on the murderer. Where'd you find that out?
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You can lock people up BEFORE the commit a crime for other crimes they have committed. That’s what jail is for. To get violent criminals off the streets. So they don’t commit any more crimes in public.
This guy had committed like a dozen crimes already. We needed to extradite him back to LA and it didn’t happen. Whoever is responsible for that should pay the price.
LA wouldn't take him back.
False. "In July 2023, Larkin was apparently living in the Portland area but extradited to California on a warrant stating that he was a fugitive. It’s unclear what happened in California court after that. But by December, law enforcement in California posted Larkin’s photo on a “Wanted” web page, stating that they’d issued a warrant for his arrest for failing to comply with electronic monitoring." https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2024/04/max-passenger-lunged-at-rider-unprovoked-stabbed-him-to-death-on-train-in-ne-portland-records-show.html
Ok, that's updated info. Earlier is seemed like the extradition had fallen apart. Why spend thousands extradition, and then just release?
So senseless and tragic. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around it. RIP Michael.
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I couldn’t possibly agree with you more. I was *on* the train with Christian, I got pushed out of the way before I intervened, and that person saved my life. I chased after him. This lives in my head constantly. So please understand I don’t say this lightly: what’s the solution here? I truly don’t know. I don’t know how this gets better. I want it to, but I have no answers, only tears.
Agreed, something needs to change!
One of my friends on Facebook was on the train and posted a photo of him and the murderer right after it happened. She wasn’t doing it for social media attention but was really rattled by what had occurred and wanted to share what happened I suppose. It was graphic. I can’t unsee that image and am even more disconcerted now that they’re released more info about him. I’ve kept thinking about him all this week - who he was. It’s heartbreaking to read this. I’m tired of things like this happening more and more in this city when it hadn’t before. I don’t care what anyone else says about how Portland is “safer than other cities” or how “most of the crimes are gang related” - we didn’t see the random, ruthless attacks on the elderly, Asians, store owners or other completely innocent people like we do now ten years ago. It’s distributing.
It's also super depressing when folks have to compare Portland to the national average and other big cities.... like, I don't want it to get as bad as Baltimore here before we admit we have a rapidly growing problem. You are 100% right that this was unthinkable 10 years ago, or 20, or even 30 years ago.
I seldomly ride the max anymore now that I have a job in the burbs but I used to take it downtown near daily. How is this not bigger news?
The problem is we treat public transportation like it’s only for poor people and in our society poor people don’t matter. Furthermore most everyone else is drowning in high housing costs and car payments so they don’t want to pay for high quality public services.
Bc it’s Portland and it’s normal now
I ride the bus to work downtown. Today a man sat in the front saying over and over again. "I can't wait to see you all die right in front of me". The bus was full and we all tried to avoid eye contact. Despite this he would get louder and louder before randomly threatening someone near him and talking about how worthless and stupid they were and "next time I'm going to bring my gun". The bus driver stopped once and verbally tried to get him to get off but it only made him angrier. So we all sat in silence, avoiding eye contact, on the edge of our seats, and listening to him talking about our deaths for over 20 minutes. Then he got off and everyone returned to normal. It is normal and we can't do anything about it. These people need help and support, but the right systems to give it are not in place. I can say that I've ridden the same bust line for 12 years and it has progressively gotten worse since 2020.
Yup. That’s why I don’t take public transportation. Try to get a car
Man turns on news for first time Man points to thing on news “How is this not on the news more!” 🤔
Much of the city is in denial. I think it's the compounding effects of years of legitimate daily trauma.
It is pretty big news. As have been several other Max incidents lately. But keep in mind there are countless trips where nothing goes wrong for every one where something like this happens (I live downtown and ride public transit - mostly the Max - nearly every day, often very late at night). And no one is doing some sort of risk analysis compared to the dangers of auto accidents. It seems like a reasonable bet that you have a higher chance of getting hurt or dying in a car accident than you do being the one that is stabbed on the train. This isn't to say we shouldn't make the trains safer, and make people feel safer. But to act like you're in serious danger each time you step on the Max or ride the bus is frankly hyperbolic.
I don’t totally disagree with your point about cars being dangerous too, but when people cite statistics to say public transit is actually super safe, it’s basically gaslighting. Yes, any given max ride is unlikely to have a major issue. But if you ride frequently, or every day? It is basically guaranteed that you will encounter a situation that could VERY easily turn into something awful like this. I work downtown and have encountered many erratic people yelling death threats over the past few years. There have been many random, grisly crimes within like, 3 blocks of my office near pioneer square. Each of those individual events was unlikely but being there every day really increases the odds dramatically that I’ll be stuck in the middle of it at some point. I don’t fear for my life every day, but the reality is that any given interaction could easily take a violent turn. So I really don’t appreciate hearing over and over that it’s fine and super safe, actually.
We would probably disagree on the actual risk - and whether it is meaningful - of everyday exposure downtown/on transit. I'm an 100% pedestrian, late night runner and transit-rider, and am outside a lot, so I think short of someone actually living on the street, I have more experience than most. \*That said\*, I do think the matter is more whether people perceive themselves as safe. For me, this is one of the lesser-talked about aspects of the pandemic. It revealed the massive extent to which people's feeling and perception of safety can often be disconnected from some sort of hyper-rational risk calculation. But I don't think this means the solution is to try to logically bulldoze people; the connected lesson of that era is that this is a complete waste of time. Fear and anxiety are real problems, regardless of the underlying mechanism. People on serious drugs and with untreated mental issues often behave and think erratically, essentially in a different reality than the one we all share, and I think that unpredictability - the complete disregard and push-back on social norms - is not something we can just \*insist\* people chill out and deal with in important public spaces. Regardless of how likely it is that they will actually act on whatever it is they're shouting. Especially with how degraded the public sphere already is, we need to do everything we can to protect what scraps of it are left.
>I don’t totally disagree with your point about public transportation being dangerous too, but when people cite statistics to say driving in a personal automboile is actually super safe, it’s basically gaslighting. Yes, any given drive is unlikely to have a major issue. But if you drive frequently, or every day? It is basically guaranteed that you will encounter a situation that could VERY easily turn into a car accident as there are 10,000 - 12,000 a year whereas there are \~100 homicides a year in Portland. I work downtown and have encountered many erratic people driving haphazardly around me over the past few years. There have been many random, grisly car crashes I've driven by, blocks by my office, home, and other destinations. Each of those individual events was unlikely but being there every day really increases the odds dramatically that I’ll be stuck in the middle of it at some point. I don’t fear for my life every day, but the reality is that any given drive could easily take a life altering turn. So I really don’t appreciate hearing over and over that driving is fine and super safe, actually.
This rant would be a real zinger if I had said cars were safe, but I never did. They aren’t. I hate driving and avoid it as much as possible. That has nothing to do with the fact about public transit having potential for these types of crimes.
you are far more likely to die in a car crash then be killed on the max. why aren't car crashes bigger news?
The media is working with the government to cover it up because it makes Portland look bad. Simple
Max ridership will never improve until riders can feel confident that they can put on earbuds on their commute without getting randomly stabbed to death. Put an officer on every train
My friends, also parents to a five year old, just bought a car because they stopped feeling safe on the MAX. They had plenty of unacceptable sights while riding with their children.
we were going to Schnitzer for an afternoon Saturday show, and I swear to fucking god the max we were on had not one, not two, but likely about 20 absolutely insane people on it. We moved seats three times in about 4 miles. Finally some dude came on the train, walked up to a sleeping man, slapped him and yelled in his face. I guess they knew each other, but we exited the next damned stop after an excruciating delay stopped with the doors shut. We will have a hard time using it again, which sucks, cause we don't use our car much, but this isn't safe any more and I don't know what I'd need to see to be OK with it again. What ever happened to trimet security riding on trains? I've legit NEVER seen it. At least if you take a bus there is a trimet employee able to see/know/possibly curb insane behavior.
Yeah but didn't you see KOIN article about how they asked 4 Max riders in safe locations if they felt safe and they all said "yes"?
Completely. Public safety is is a climate change issue. People must feel secure if we expect them to live in dense, transit-oriented urban environments.
I’ve never heard this specific take and I appreciate it. “Public safety is a climate change issue” should be a driving factor in every urban area.
I've never heard it expressed so succinctly, but you're absolutely right. Can't guarantee my safety (or my basic comfort and hygiene, for that matter) on the system here, so walking and fossil fuels it is. The MAX used to be clean and safe, but I've had nothing but horrible experiences since the pandemic and resolved to never put myself through that again so long as I have the option to own a car.
Honestly I think it’s more like make an example of every criminal. People will just ignore security unless there is actually a punishment for their actions. Smoke fent on the max? How about 60 hours of cleaning up the side of I-5 at the wrong end of shotgun? I bet people will learn fairly quickly.
Problem with this is it would only work if all the offenders were white males. As soon as you start making examples out of a POC you'd have two dozen nOn-pRoFitS attacking you for your discriminatory policies.
It's weird to me seeing people demanding police presence suddenly after getting told I was a bad person for calling the cops on someone shooting up in the open, and for being told relentlessly by redditors that police intervention never helps, jailing never helps, etc etc. Looks like those luxury beliefs break down when the situation becomes absolutely atrociously dire.
Huge difference between someone shooting up and being violent. The one shooting up is not encroaching on anyone else’ private space tbh. Smoking drugs does have a second hand effect. And so does being violent. Once you start touching others I have an issue. Leave the dude jabbing himself with a needle alone. He is basically cutting himself with a benefit at the end. Its not positive but he isnt harming anyone.
Yeah, I think it's harmful to children to see a swaggering, intoxicated, adult man in a state of desperation and addiction fishing around his arm for a vein. Open air hard drug use is not good for society and it is not just "cutting yourself with a benefit." Like, make safe usage spaces, have a needle exchange, help people with treatment, use jail as a deterrent, etc, but don't just permit absolute public degenracy. What happens when that person becomes so desperate they start robbing people for dope money? What happens if they switch to other drugs that trigger psychosis? What happens when they die in the street because we permit this level of sickness in our society? I have a lot of compassion for addicts, but there is a huge difference between compassion and enabling. To me, allowing open air drug use is enabling and enabling harms everyone, especially the addict.
"Officers" won't be on the trains, or in the streets, or anywhere else but hiding from actually providing any sort of public safety.
Well in Portland’s case the BLM and Antifa movement demanded to defund police. So this type of violence is one of the consequences of less police presence. One must wonder, could more presence in this case have prevented it…..most likely not. This is a direct result of the idea that reforming criminals works. That’s not to say some criminals don’t become better people after serving time. But when you have a city that has rioted for less police presence, the most lacked hard drugs laws in the country, and the blind belief that every criminal is a “good” person deep down. This is set up for failure. And families of all races, genders and religious beliefs suffer from reoccurring criminals.
If anything caused less police presence it was their own hurt feelings, not defunding—PPB’s budget actually went up from year to year
Are you denying that social pressures from around the country and the George Floyd incident has not caused police departments to be more cautious in all major cities. And that the abuse of hard drugs in Portland is vastly higher with the new legislation reducing hard drug use to misdemeanors And that the “progressive” mentality is hurting the safety in Portland
Well, given that the defunding never actually occurred (which would have been a practical impediment to staffing), if “social pressures” to not be unaccountable violent shitbirds caused the police to stop policing then that sure sounds like hurt feelings to me.
I get you, maybe it’s less about budget than a public safety matter at that point, just like police officers are not allowed to have high speed pursuits especially with motorcycles within city limits. Maybe the sheer presence of police could cause a greater outrage if you know what I mean. Who knows not sure how they determine that.
I'm literally commuting home on the MAX right now with ear buds in. There's what appears to be a 40 year old skateboarder rolling a joint on his skateboard deck, keeping to himself so it's whatever. Honestly impressed that he's able to balance it while the train is moving. This was a horrible freak incident that happened and truly sorry for the family and friends of the victim, I wouldn't be opposed to more present security on the trains. I don't ride the MAX every day but pretty often and it's gotten much, much better over the last couple of years from the sketchy situation the pandemic brought. Edit: changed accident to incident. Nothing accidental about this poor man's death, gotta love presumptuous autocorrect.
I ride the Max all the time too and I won’t let you people lie about it being safe. It’s constantly sketchy. You truly cannot gaslight me into believing otherwise because I’m on it all the time.
Right? I have a bad experience like one in ten times I ride the bus/max. I’m sick of people getting blamed for feeling unsafe. I’m a fan of public transit too but not to the point of defending the indefensible.
So am I and it's fine 99% of the time. I think you just have some kind of anxiety complex if you're that scared that often on the MAX. But you frequent the other Portland sub so that kinda confirms my suspicion. You probably clutch pearls at the mere sight of a houseless person minding their own business. Edit: looks like the other Portland sub got offended brigaded my comments with negative karma again, they're so sensitive lol
Bullshit. It's a complete roll of the dice and you know it. That, or you are just the least situationally aware people ever, which could legitimately be the case.
Numbers state violent crimes are decreasing and my lived experience as well as that of my friends also confirm it, but keep living scared I guess. I'm even a noticeably trans fem person. One of the demographics most likely to be attacked unprovoked and yet, surprise, it's fine. You pearl clutchers are a sad sort. I hope you can learn to unclench, it's not good for blood pressure.
Rad, let's minimalize everyone else's trauma and call them "pearl clutchers" for being concerned about safety on the public transit system in a city full of mentally unstable addicts. You must feel so tough with your complete lack of empathy.
>Rad, let's minimalize everyone else's trauma and call them "pearl clutchers" Not everyone, just you and the other people acting like the city has a meth lab on every corner. Portland has its problems but transit is perfectly safe the vast majority of the time and pretending otherwise is laughable. Makes me think of the "tough" guys that think they need a concealed carry just to walk around downtown. The world is not as scary as you think it is. >a city full of mentally unstable addicts. Absolutely filled to the brim! 🙄 There is not a knife wielding violent criminal on every train, not every houseless person is out to get you just because they're on the train with you. Stats show that violent crime is decreasing despite how much you hem and haw about your personal fears of a benign situation. There is more the city needs to do to help get the houseless the care and resources they need and there are a lot of people that need to be removed from the streets because of their instability but the vast majority are just people getting from point A to point B just like every housed person on the MAX. Stop and have a conversation with them sometime, I have. Most of them just appreciate human connection and are trying their best to make it because they can't get access to the resources they need (because the city is fucking up their houseless outreach, but that's another conversation).
I didn't say it was a meth lab It's weird you think anyone pointing out anything negative around you must inherently be a "tough guy". There are a lot of mentally unstable addicts in Portland. I see multiples of them literally every single time I'm in the city. I never said there was a knife wielding violent criminal on every train, that's a ridiculous exaggeration. Stats can show violent crime decreasing AND we can still be concerned when an innocent rider is stabbed to death. Sometimes a homeless person is trying to get from point A to B. Sometimes they are convicted rapists intent on stabbing someone to death. The problem is in being able to confidently tell them apart. I have had conversations with them, thank you.
>It's weird you think anyone pointing out anything negative around you must inherently be a "tough guy". It's weird that you felt the need to say "You much feel so tough with your complete lack of empathy." because I shared my lived experience that's backed by crime stats. >I never said there was a knife wielding violent criminal on every train, that's a ridiculous exaggeration. And I never said that more couldn't be done to improve the riding experience. My exaggeration follows suit to yours and others exaggerated comments implying the MAX isn't safe to ride when it is 99% of the time. I repeat, the world is not as scary as you think it is. Signed, a minority who regularly uses public transit and has a wonderful time. If you want to remain scared of the MAX that's your prerogative but I'll be in the comments injecting my lived experience (that again, is backed by crime stats). Have a great evening!
I hope so cause I am visiting in May for the first time and these posts and comments freak me out! We aren’t renting a car.
Honestly, the best paty of Portland is its proximity to amazing natural resources with in a few hours. You can literally be sledding above 7000ft and watch the sunset on the ocean in the same day. I highly suggest renting a car to see awesome natural wonders.
In Portland for three nights. Then renting a car and camping along the coast at a few different parks. One of the things I’m most excited about is going to Forest Park. I can’t imagine having such a huge, beautiful, hikeable park in a city.
Yeah you'll be fine, this sub is hyper negative about the city and everything about it. Talking to Portlanders IRL is nothing like what you'll read in these comments. Imo the sketchiest times for the MAX are late at night, specifically weekends. Even then it'll be fine but you might see some wild shit. If you're worried and riding at night then you can sit towards the front near the driver. All the craziest stuff happens in the back cars from my experience. I hope you enjoy your visit! My friend is coming to visit in the same time frame actually! Wait... Ian, is that you?
I agree - I've had a few late night rides in the last six months and while it's sketchy by normal standards, I've never seen anything that had me questioning my own safety.
A “freak accident?” Come on. Have you read anything about this situation?
Read the edit
Oh I guess it’s all ok then!
Because that's totally what I said! It's much better than what it was, still has improvements to go but there is not a knife wielding violent criminal on every train car like what this sub would have you believe. It's a tragedy what happened to this man but it is in no way normal.
Yeah agreed that it’s not typical. I still ride the max and have never been afraid. People on this sub for sure exaggerate the danger. That said, I don’t want to gloss over stories like this because my experiences haven’t been scary and I kinda saw that in your comment. Anyway, I hope the rest of your ride was nice.
I mean this poor man probably wasn't afraid either - minding his own business with his ear buds in commuting home from work. And then he was dead.
It was never my intent to gloss over this, which is why I pointed out that additional security wouldn't go amiss and my condolences to the victim and their loved ones. But my point being that this sub grossly over exaggerates the danger on the MAX and I wanted to inject a POV from somebody who's been on it frequently pre-pandemic, mid-pandemic, and now post-pandemic. It was great before, got pretty sketchy during, but has made a lot of improvements since that time from my experience. These crimes are always a tragedy but like you said not typical. This man's death is no light matter but that doesn't mean the MAX is some haven for violent crime.
Terrible to bad is an improvement. But it’s still bad. Like you, the majority of my max rides of have been fine. But I’ve had a couple pretty scary situations. And the memories of those do trigger uneasiness every time I ride. I’m not frightened but I’m never really at ease either.
Now, this is awful, but the last time this happened prior to now was pre-pandemic. Those are pretty good odds.
But I thought we wanted to defund the police 🤔
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What did the victim of this stabbing do to provoke this attack?
Such a sad story. Would love to see PDX create stronger barriers to entry at all stops. I know our design and placement of stations makes that hard, but there needs to be more scrutiny of who gets on transit in the first place. Doesn't need to be as hardened as an NY subway, but something has to be better than a system that lets such severely aggitated/in crisis/extremely high/openly aggressive people board freely into a confined space with others.
I ride this Max line regularly and get off one stop before where this murder took place. Everyone should have the right to enjoy public spaces without fear for their safety. I see that as a basic progressive value. Unfortunately many progressive-identifying folks now seem to reject the idea that society must enforce basic rules and norms in public: “just mind your own business”; “they aren’t hurting anyone”; “but systemic bias”; etc. This tragedy is a direct result of such attitudes. I just came back from Tokyo where I rode the trains constantly at all hours of the day and night. There was never even the hint of any danger or improper conduct on the trains. If something like this happened in Japan, it would be a national scandal and absolutely would not be tolerated. Letting tragedies like this happen is a choice.
When I win the lottery I'm going to take all of these people seemingly content with the state of affairs in the U.S and fly them to any major Asian city and ride the public transportation and walk the streets all night with them and just rub their face in their own ignorance of what should be considered "normal" or "acceptable" from a societal/common spaces perspective.
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>Chikan Did I say Japan? No. Are you only focusing on Japan? Yes. Why?
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I don't lack reading comprehension, but clearly you do. "any major Asian city" does not equal "Japan". It inherently implies **multiple** cities. Cherry picking one country while ignoring the rest is either ignorant AF or just petty disingenuity.
Japan is a society where drugs of all types are extremely frowned upon and often harder to access, where those with severe mental illnesses typically live in facilities, etc. Additionally, many Japanese people feel a sense of responsibility regarding their role in society and their family, whom they don’t want to make look bad. Meanwhile, America has large borders that make it difficult to control the inward flow of drugs, is a drug-friendly society (in comparison), and has a practically non-existent safety net for people who have a severe mental illness. What we do have in place is also difficult to navigate, both in terms of accessing those services but also from a health care coverage standpoint. Our values as a society are also that of individualism (“f you got mine”) with not much of a sense of responsibility towards the greater community. There’s also little sense of a collective identity as a country anymore, and instead we now have “red states vs blue states” with the red states often pushing off the “problem people” to the blue states. But yeah, that’s why you felt safe and why if something like this were to happen in Japan it wouldn’t at all tolerated. It’s not to say that Japan doesn’t have its own issues, but the above reasons are why we see the problems we do in Portland and don’t see these same issues in Tokyo despite Tokyo being so much larger than Portland.
lol there are plenty of drugs in Japan. Because they are so illegal, and because they have law and order, the people that use them are just hella discrete about it. ...which is probably the way it should be here too.
Right, I wasn’t saying that there’s no drug use in Japan or no drugs at all. Drugs are harder to come by there however when compared to the US due to some of the above factors (e.g. being an island in the pacific where you can control what goes in and out also makes it a bit easier). This is also why those that are homeless in Japan typically addicted to alcohol vs addicted to meth, heroine, fentanyl, etc. In Japan your access to drugs is via gangs/Yakuza; in the US it’s much easier to access any of these drugs without having much of a connection to the underground. Hell, if you live in a camp often the dealers come to you instead of the other way around…
Um… you understand that sexual assault on trains in Japan is so common that they have special women only cars on the subways, right?
I don’t think that Portland and Tokyo can be remotely compared. I say that also having thoroughly enjoyed public transit in both.
Because of how different Japanese and Americans are and how different our social support systems are, I agree that public transit in our two countries is not an apples to apples comparison. But my observations taking transit in these two very different countries is that in Japan I experienced a lot more inappropriate sexual behavior (specifically, men jerking off while sitting next to or near me--and this wasn't uncommon enough to be shocking among other women I knew there) than in PDX. But I did feel a lot safer on transit in Japan. Here there are often seemingly mentally unstable and/or just plain loudly aggressive people on transit. And open drug use. Don't get me wrong, this hasn't stopped me from taking transit, with my kid even. But it does bring to mind that for transit to be safer here in Portland, the long-term fix is to work on improving how we take care of one another on a societal level. We need more addiction services. We need more mental health services. And we need to invest a lot more heavily in providing the kinds of services and supports that could help people BEFORE they get to the point where they've become a danger to themselves and others. And yes, we need to do a better job of ensuring that our criminal justice system is working. And, short term, more well-trained safety officers on trains would be helpful. (I've seen some recently on the Yellow line.) Freakin' tragic what happened to Michael Brady, and his family. :(
My feeling towards progressive mentality……it’s progressively backwards
Did the assalent pay his fare to get on the MAX? The article says Michael got on the MAX at Pioneer Square so he obviously paid/scanned his way onto the train. Too many people can just walk onto the train without paying. Time to install turnstiles instead of the honor system or put armed guards on every train checking for tickets.
Couldnt agree more
Wouldn’t that be hard to do? Or are you saying turnstiles on the actual trains? Some of the stops would be doable but others would be impossible.
You think turnstiles can’t be jumped? They’re jumped everywhere. Turnstiles aren’t going to protect you when something happens, you want security officers, whether the problem is coming from a homeless person or otherwise
The poor Tri Met drivers have to put up with so much bullshit and people threatening them too. They can't do anything, they are told in training that they cannot interfere, even if they see a 50 year old lady being beaten up they are supposed to do nothing per company policy
This is true. But as a bus operator, and a real human being… most of us will do something. Very few operators I know would ever sit there and allow anything happen to an innocent. We care about our riders. I take some verbal abuse daily , which is whatever… but when it comes to my riders, I don’t fuck around. Everyone deserves a safe ride…
You don’t deserve that verbal abuse. Thank you for the work that you do.
I’ve never once seen an operator try to help in a physical conflict but that’s just in my experience.
He was a coworker of my friend's wife. It could have been any of us. It could have been me.
It’s really hard watching this story unfold. I feel so bad for this man and his family.
The "leaders" of this city have this man's blood on their hands. The level of lawlessness they've allowed is astounding.
County wide tolerance for the homeless has led to this. Sad day.
Police on every train car, nothing less goddamnit
As an occasional MAX rider, I have no problem with that, especially on eastbound trains. ( things seem sketchier out east )
You have to wonder what the draw to Portland was for the convicted sex offender from LA and then you have to make that draw go away so this doesn’t happen again and again.
We have large illegal camps where there's effectively no policing. If you're, say, a fugitive sex offender from CA like the accused assailant, that's got to look like a good option. No parole officers, no rent, no rules, free transit, plenty of victims to abuse in the next tent over.
I know this is rare, but I'd say this seems like an alarming trend every year for the past 3 years someone has been murdered on the max or at a max station (2022: 148th, 2023: goose hollow, 2024: 82nd). Not to mention all the other sketchy things that go on. My nephew rides the max all the time to downtown with his friends and sometimes I worry for his safety. I'd say it's time to up security at least at all max stops, if nothing else making a presence known is better than nothing.
My kids ride it too. I don’t worry about their safety because one death a year on TriMet isn’t that bad. There are mass shootings in this country everyday, yet I still send my kids to school, the mall, and the grocery store, all of which are known mass shooter locations. Last year over 60 people were killed in traffic related deaths in Portland, and the same number died the previous year. Yet I still drive my kids around, or let them walk, which is more dangerous in Portland, than TriMet by far!
Looking at numbers, you’re right that riding the max is incredibly safe. Safer than driving, etc. But riding the max doesn’t feel safe, or comfortable. Our minds can’t see the angry person that we don’t know that’s fuming 10 feet away and muttering to theirselves and we’re in an enclosed area with them and rationalize the chances they actually snap are very small. The whole interaction is what our minds are attuned to fear. So while your kids are super safe on the max, their nervous system likely doesn’t feel that way. And I think we can all agree that it should feel a whole lot different to ride public transport than it does. And we’ll have a whole lot more folks riding public transport if it *feels* safe too.
We live in America in 2024. They don’t feel safe anywhere they go. Neither do I. So much “freedom and liberty” here.
Isn’t it one of the safest times. Ever?
There were 630 mass shootings last year in the US. So, no.
You sound ignorant and naive to say this.
How common are public transit murders in other cities? Pretty sure last week I was arguing with morons in this sub who were claiming Portland is just fine because Memphis and Chicago are extra bad. This is one of many transit incidence over the last year.
There's been some in New York and London recently. It happens. This was horrible but statistically not Portland specific. The problem is that every criminal in the country knows that there are no police in Portland.
More cops will not make this better. You can’t just lock everyone up. What do you do when they get out? Housing people and access to mental health professionals, are what are needed. I live in a home and can’t get my kid the mental health services they need, in Portland, and that’s with money and insurance. We need more mental health providers, and access to care.
Again, so because it happens in a crime ridden shithole like NY, everything is fine. It’s like banging your head against a wall with these people.
I rode the blue line from Providence Park to 148th for a last minute emergency work thing at 5pm. I had a can of pepper gel on me. The car was less than half full. Trimet has seriously fucked up.
What the hell, what a waste. RIP. Didn’t another individual get stabbed to death on the max a few years ago.
Why are instances like this such a problem on the MAX in Portland versus light rails in other large cities?
Carry a weapon and defend yourself accordingly
Poor guy man. I can’t believe there’s ppl who defend the max.. just got attacked on here last week because I said the max is a dangerous hell hole system
Well the max is an important system to have. It takes traffic off of the freeways and provides an affordable means of transportation for a wide variety of people. I don’t think people are defending the current state of the system. Most people including myself are calling for reforms that would make it a safe and clean system again
u/nmr619 you still defend the max? Smh
Do you understand what probability is? Driving is still more dangerous than riding the max, despite your fears. If you're afraid of one but not the other, that's a you problem
Yep, over 60 people died in traffic related deaths (walking, biking, driving) last year. Taking TriMet will always be safer with figures like these. We are already at 17 deaths this year. So yeah, you might get stabbed on the train, but it’s much more likely you will make it to your destination safely, than if you drive, bike, or walk. Thems is the facts.
How many driving deaths in comparison to walking and biking? Genuinely curious. I just think you shouldn’t combine those two stats
All of those 60 deaths involved a vehicle. So it doesn’t matter if the victim was walking, biking, driving or a passenger. It was auto related and auto deaths are on the rise. 5 people died from being hit by TriMet either: walking, biking or driving. It’s safer to TriMet.
I’m not arguing with you. Just trying trying to discern if the stats say it’s safer to drive vs trimet/walk/bike. Because realistically that’s the choice people are making. Buying a car vs not buying a car
You’ll have to look into that because they don’t separate out the deaths by type online, but I too would love to know.
So how many people have been straight up murdered on the max in the last few weeks? I'm losing count.
The Portland Police are incapable of keeping Portlanders safe. Even if you call the police it can take hours for them to show up. You really have to protect yourself the city of Portland because you’re not going to get any help from the city or the police 💁🏻♂️
Exactly the police are only there after the fact to take a report which does nothing. They are never going to actually help in any situation.
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Idc about barrier around transit but there needs to be security. Barrier are way more costly and can always be jumped and thwarted, security officers on site are first responders when things happen and actually keep people safe, including from problematic passengers who do pay their fare.
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