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ALPERN AT LARGE - After years of my own blood, sweat, tears, time, and money to help lead a grassroots effort to create an Expo Line to (in part) bring the different regions and ethnic groups together in L.A., and to connect us all to LAX with the long-sought “Green Line/LAX Link”), I am just SICK of being called names when I demand safety for public transit.
To be blunt and honest, usually those who called me racist, elitist, fascist, whatever were men who had NO kids, and often no spouses either, when I demanded a large and very public police presence on our trains.
The women all seemed to get it, however.
White women, Latina women, Asian women, black women…and a whole lotta men knew that crazies, wackos, gangbangers, those behaving erratically, etc. require a barrier (if not a wall, then the “thin blue line” of law enforcement) to protect them from physical harm.
Heck, that’s one reason why we’re seeing Waymo supplant Uber and Lyft, although arguably it’s those drivers who are more in danger from their passengers than vice versa.
How do I know this?
I asked them. I still ask them—I’m a physician and grassroots advocate who’s wanted Joe/Jane American to be represented, protected, empowered, and valued as individuals from all different corners of society…and that includes promoting safety and their tax dollars being spent well.
Well, enter Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska and mental patient/career criminal Decarlos Brown. Neither of them should die, but one just did and the other will probably die in prison or be executed.
Ms. Zarutska fled Ukraine as a refugee, but found a miserable and savage death here on a public light rail train in Charlotte. Iryna Zarutska: Video shows fatal stabbing of Ukrainian refugee on Charlotte light rail – stirring debate on crime in major US cities | CNN).
Her slayer was arrested many times, and yet released repeatedly despite his blatant mental and criminal background, yet no one in our enlightened-yet-benighted society saw fit to protect the general public from Mr. Brown, and no one saw fit to protect Ms. Zarutska from meeting her demise on what should have been a safe space.
And for those creepies who will scream how unfair it is that no one would care if this woman wasn’t a young blonde, and if this man wasn’t black, this racist (and it IS racist!) sentiment merits no support.
Because Mirna Soza, a Latina stabbed to death on the Red Line Subway, died just as cruelly from stab wounds to the neck as did Ms. Zarutska. No one should give a damn that their slayers were both black, because there are no shortage of white or other mental cases and sociopaths who are just as guilty as any non-white criminals.
So for those who support monster psychos like Brown (GoFundMe pages had to be SHUT DOWN, and Ms. Zarutska’s slaying occurred last month and was IGNORED AND CENSORED BY THE MEDIA AND EVEN THE GOVERNOR), keep your P.C. racism to yourselves when we discuss safety and security on public transportation.
Ditto for those claiming, “there’s nothing to see here”.
There IS something to see here. And despite the Orwellian censorship, it’s times and incidents like this that there are probably a LOT of folks who want the National Guard in our cities, on our trains, and whichever neighborhoods have gotten WAAAAAAY too used to death, crimes, and chaos being “the norm”.
Maybe even the majority, or at least a powerful plurality of our American society.
We’ve got a city and a society to promote, and an American Olympics in 2028 to be held in the City of the Angels, to boot.
I didn’t fight for public transportation, and to help raise taxes to make it happen, just to see it become a danger zone that my family, my neighbors, or any of you reading this would ever want to avoid because of a high likelihood of being harmed.
(Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D, is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father. He was active for 20 years on the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) as a Board Member focused on Planning and Transportation, and helped lead the grassroots efforts of the Expo Line as well as connecting LAX to MetroRail. His latest project is his fictional online book entitled The Unforgotten Tales of Middle-Earth, and can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)
