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Liberals shocked! San Francisco fixed its subway by stopping crime

Today, we have an exciting new report from Obously Land: San Francisco’s public transportation system has increased revenues, significantly improved customer safety, is cleaner and more orderly than ever before, and they’ve done it all with a single-handed mastery. They actually took action against crime. And it worked.

This news won’t surprise most normal people, but liberals may be in for a shock. Apparently, when you install new doors that make it impossible for ticket dodgers (the euphemism we use to describe criminals who refuse to pay to use the subway) to jump through the door, you magically improve everything about the subway. Really.

Even the mainstream media are aware of this situation; This excuses endless law-breaking and says we must address root causes like poverty and homelessness (which is actually like saying we should do nothing and let criminals run amok). However Check out this headline in The AtlanticHe admits:

“BART completed installation of new fare gates at station entrances and exits in August: Six-foot-tall saloon-style gates made of metal-framed plexiglass replaced waist-high barriers that were easy to bend or jump over in the 1970s. The new gates forced more passengers to pay fares; revenue is expected to increase by $10 million a year. They also led to a major drop in vandalism. Workers spent nearly as much time as disobedient in the six months following the gates’ installation. “Crimes on BART were down 41 percent last year, with 1,000 fewer hours spent cleaning up after passengers than in the previous six months.”

How about this? It turns out that if you make some effort to deter, exclude, and actually punish criminals, you’ll be much ahead in the long run.

Note that this very clear finding is strongly opposed by so-called criminal justice reformers. Previously, the Center for Policing Equity said: Addressing crime won’t make the subway system saferand they pointed to studies that allegedly showed this. Social justice-influenced academics have been proven wrong, and in the real world, when you address bad behavior, you actually get positive results.

Look, we know what’s going on here. This is excellent broken windows policing. If you allow a small number of criminals to get away with even minor crimes, you will be faced with more serious crimes. You are forced to hand over public spaces to mentally ill and dangerous people.

So by slightly increasing sanctions you can actually make a big difference. Watch out San Francisco failed to solve the problem of homelessness or the problem of mental illness. The so-called root causes of crime are not addressed. He built gates or walls that criminals could not jump over.

Maybe there’s a lesson in this.

Robby Soave is co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising” and senior editor of Reason Magazine. This column is an edited transcription of his daily comments.

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