[PRCo] Re: Bus stabbing in New Orleans

[Ken and Tracie]

Up until the early 1990s, we had a worthless District Attorney here who 
refused to prosecute "mentally ill" patients who would assault and/or batter 
hospital staff or paramedics. He believed a conviction was not possible and 
not worth his time. All a patient had to do after striking or biting a staff 
member was to cop a "mental illness" plea. He/she was off the hook, after 
spending a couple days in the psych ward.

This was an era before security cameras and recorders were everywhere. So 
the staff started taking matters into their own hands and would administer 
"street justice" to these manipulative people. It worked.

Since the D.A. wouldn't back the staff, they figured it was worth the risk 
of a lawsuit.

A couple patients tried to sue and it never went anywhere. Attacks on the 
staff dropped off dramatically.

Sort of like the era when motormen could administer "switch iron diplomacy."

K.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Herb Brannon" <hrbran at cavtel.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Friday, June 05, 2009 9:42 AM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Bus stabbing in New Orleans


> Ed probably remembers when I had nearly 50 stitches around my right eye 
> back
> in May 1975.
> I was driving the 73-Highland Pk bus with a full standing load of 
> passengers
> coming into the stop on the far side of Highland and Penn. Out of nowhere 
> a
> guy hit me with something on the right side of my head. My sun glasses 
> broke
> and all the pieces of glass went into and around my right eye. The @$$ who
> hit me took the transfers out of the cutter. I was trying to stop the 
> still
> moving bus and the last thing I remember is pushing the door control 
> handle
> into the full forward position which caused the interlocks to come on. I 
> was
> in a sort of "twilight zone" for a few minutes. I remember a Pgh police
> officer came on board and a young lady who later turned out to be a
> University-Presby nurse was helping me. Blood was everywhere on the dash,
> steering wheel me, the farebox, even the windshield. Despite the fact that
> in that era the method of transport to a hospital were the Pgh Police 
> paddy
> wagons (no EMS in those days) I came through o.k. They took me to Eye & 
> Ear
> Hospital, which, as the name implies, specializes in eyes and ears. They
> knew what they were doing and after being off work from May to September
> everything worked out.
>
> Yes, I know what these lunatic people can do. You have to be aware and 
> alert
> to be a public transit operator anywhere in the world. Now, in the current
> era, the addition of "transit police" dedicated to protecting the transit
> authority employees and property, and with the inclusion of public transit
> workers in all the Homeland Security laws, the incidents of assault have
> been curbed greatly but not stopped.
>
> I know strollers/baby carriages are a real problem these days. Homeland
> Security regulations and RTA (and most every transit agency) policy 
> require
> the aisle be fully clear at all times in all buses, cars, and trains
> operating in the United States. Some women think they are "special" and 
> have
> a right to do what they want. I ask them once to fold it. If they do, 
> fine.
> If they don't I say nothing else to them and quietly put in a call to have
> transit police intercept the train. It works every time. Transit police
> don't fool around. These days you either comply or get removed and maybe
> arrested. This aspect of Homeland Security works quite nicely for me.
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 4:09 PM, Schneider Fred 
> <fwschneider at comcast.net>wrote:
>
>> When I checked the link, it doesn't work.   Rather than have guys
>> paste it together, here is the story.   Seventeen year old mother
>> stabbed New Orleans RTA bus driver when driver asked her to fold up
>> the baby stroller:
>> Authorities say a woman who was repeatedly asked to fold up her
>> baby's stroller on a New Orleans city bus refused, then poured milk
>> on the driver before stabbing her in the chest.
>>
>> New Orleans police and transit officials tell The Times-Picayune
>> newspaper that the veteran Regional Transit Authority driver suffered
>> a 4-inch deep wound but she survived.
>>
>> Authorities say 17-year-old Darrion Scott boarded the bus with her 2
>> 1/2-year-old baby and was asked to fold up the stroller. Authorities
>> say Scott tore the top off the baby's bottle of milk and poured it on
>> the driver before stabbing her.
>>
>> She has been charged with aggravated battery.
>>
>> The driver, Hanella Johnson, was released from the hospital
>> Wednesday. She has been an RTA driver for 18 years.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Jun 4, 2009, at 3:39 PM, Schneider Fred wrote:
>>
>> > Herb Brannon:
>> >
>> > I'll bet you're happy you are sequestered in a motorman's cab when
>> > you read this.
>> >
>> > http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-national/20090604/
>> > US.Louisiana.Bus.Stabbing/
>> >
>> > Fred Schneider
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> -- 
> Herb Brannon
> On America's North Coast
> Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.
> *Calvin 
> Coolidge*<http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/c/calvincool108015.html>
> **
>
>
>