as someone who takes a 7-hour bus *frequently*, and very often hates the experience profoundly, I am in a good position to say that I am confident that there is no *crime* being done on those buses, but there is *human engagement with people Lakshya Jain would rather forget exists*
it's like Ben Shapiro's "notably nobody said ban crime" there's already zero tolerance for crime!
people, esp people stuck together in a conveyance, are annoying and smelly and loud and gross. telling their life stories in embarrassing detail to actively uninterested ppl, spitting tobacco into cups, wearing terrible perfume, calling everyone in their family the whole trip. this is not crime
I feel like people who talk about removing "undesirables" from public spaces just think those public spaces are actually their own private spaces
A lot of people are simply uncomfortable being in the same space as strangers. Mostly you'll get over that by about the 10th bus ride, but you have to stick it out to that point
yes!! yes
People just really fucking hate visible homelessness. This is pretty much it. (And a *hefty* dose of racism)
I don’t have a problem with homeless people on transit. But I do draw the line at being harassed, threatened, or open drug use (three things that have happened to me personally on metro buses in LA — on multiple occasions — and the driver just ignored it.)
I know 2 women who have been assaulted on transit (one fondled and nobody intervened; another was beaten up at a train station for being trans.) This is a fair critique by the right and the left should take it more seriously. That said, I think sending the military into cities over crime is nuts.
"Zero tolerance for loud phone calls" would make him sound petty but it's also what any regular bus rider actually wants
What he wants is like a dress code
there is an entire non-criminal spectrum from "this person is dressed badly and that makes me uncomfortable" through "this person smells bad/is obnoxiously loud/is consuming something distasteful" and "this person wants money/my attention and won't leave me alone" that gets bundled together here
The tell is how people feel about MeToo tbh. Lots of low-grade public antisocial behavior is directed at women, but this never seems to be the behavior these kind of guys want to argue about
in many cases they are people I would rather forget exist, too! i am not a perfect moral actor. i could merrily go the rest of my life without - let's pick a silly example - sitting behind someone watching Baby Shark on their tablet for seven (7) hours of a bus ride.
the difference between myself and Mr. Jain is that I am not making policy proclamations about how the Democrats need to make Baby Shark illegal so that people who watch Baby Shark on a bus can no longer take the bus so I don't have to see them, because I actually have a functioning ethical sense.
the thing is that I think he is correct about what an alarming number of _voters_, even ostensible liberals, want, and is responding to that it is an unrealistic and often unethical thing to want but this does not always stop people
The people most likely to be victims of crime on a bus are bus drivers