Until TriMet gets serious about fare collections and security at it's MAX stations and on it's trains - expect lots more of this sort of incident to happen. Do we need to have someone killed on a MAX train before TriMet gets serious about enforcing the law on it's trains and at their stations?

Ah, that fine stretch of transit rail. That's the middle portion of my workday commute, and this story surprises me not in the least. The "thugs to regular folks" ratio tilts rather strongly to the former from the latter the later you get in the day.

Thugs for sure. I get on MAX at the Beaverton Central TC. On Monday mornings, there are usually dozens of broken clear plastic locking cases that stores keep video games in to keep people from stealing them. There is a Best Buy just a few blocks away at Cedar Hills Crossing. My guess is thats where they are coming from.

"Deputies said the three teens are described as two black and one Hispanic male."
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Maybe Renee Mitchell will write up something about the race angle of this crime, especially if the hospitalized youth is not black or hispanic?

Then again, maybe not.

Nah, Mitchell would probably just say that by ignoring them, the victim was "oppressing" those poor boys, and they are not to blame for acting in this aggressive manor...

Jack, don't let them bring race into this discussion. It has no place here.

Meg is right guys. Race only has a place when it's white on black crime.

Whatever the racial aspect of this case might be, I'm not interested in it. Please let's not go there any further.

I have encountered thugs of every race on MAX. I don't think race has anything to do with this. Thuggery transcends race. Tri-Met is really screwing up our neighborhoods by giving the thugs an easy way to "commute" to and from their "workplace". Stop building more tracks and start hiring more security guards.

I'm pretty sure that doing away with public transportation would end crime.

No, you're right, Mr. Snark, it's o.k. to let the transit system become a haven for scuzzy crooks. That will really get people out of their cars.

Portland wants to become a big city, have the same number of cops (and just as lazy) as in Hooterville, and still be "livable." It doesn't work that way.

I didn't mean that to be a "snarky" comment at all, but to point out that it is unrealistic to expect one form of transportation to have some sort of divine freedom from what can be found pretty much anywhere.

"Anywhere"? Really? Few commercial ventures of any kind would allow themselves to become as thug-infested as Tri-Met, especially MAX. You're safer in a strip club.

Or by "anywhere" do you mean transit systems anywhere? I'd like to see crime stats per rider in a peer cities before I bought such an assertion. Are people fracturing each other's skulls with hammers in the Wsahington, D.C. transit system? I don't think so.

Smacking someone's head in with a hammer or tire iron, now that takes a special breed of vicious criminal. Wow, that is right up there in Russian skinhead gang territory...

http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/orcrime.htm

I have no idea about strip club crime, but I don't think that 170,643 violent crimes in one year all happened on the MAX. As far as letting themselves become crime infested, we probably should find some good police who are also willing to do their job.

But crime does happen anywhere. Anywhere there are people. What is immune crime? Cabs? Cars? A church?

The more you cram people into a dense area, the more likely you are to be the victim of a crime. VOTE NO ON 49! STOP THE DENSIFICATION INSANITY IN OREGON!!