Friday, September 12, 2008

Milwaukee Bus Video Shows Bus Passengers Robbed and Beaten

MILWAUKEE -- The robbery took place Tuesday when a young woman on the bus refused to allow a boy to take her iPod.

VIDEO: Passenger Beaten, Robbed On Bus

This latest incident has some riders wondering whether there's a security breakdown on the bus. But the transit system says it is anything but.
Last Wednesday it was a bus driver attacked, she was punched in the face by a belligerent passenger who police are still looking for.
Today, police released video of another incident from Tuesday of a boy who appears to be in his teens attacking a young woman for her iPod.
He struggles with her for a while, eventually punching her in the head several times as she screams for help from the bus driver.
He's eventually able to wrestle it away from her. He hit the emergency exit switch to open the doors and runs away.
Regular riders say they'd feel better with more uniformed security on the busses.
“No, I don't feel scared on the bus, it's just a lot of things happen on the bus and they need more security to secure the busses,” bus passenger Raquel Reed said, “because there's too much violence that happens in Milwaukee period.”
Transit officials say the video is proof the system is working.
“We want offenders to know that if they're on the bus and they perform a crime, we got their photo, and they're going to get caught,” said Jackie Janz of Milwaukee County Transit.
But rather than see these now fairly regular video releases as evidence of an increase in crime on the bus, they say, it's evidence of a more effective enforcement.
“There's not an increased crime on the bus. We're just starting to see the police department release videos so they can apprehend the people that did something wrong,” Janz said. “So, we're a reflection of the community. What happens in the community is going to happen on the bus, too. We're not immune to it. But we have great safety measures in place.”