Monday, May 24, 2010

Kenton Rainey - A good choice?

Kenton Rainey will likely begin his post as BART police chief on June 1. Is it just a move to appease public opinion? Or is he a man who has proven that he represents both racial sensitivity and impartiality in policy and enforcement?

The last thing I want is a BART police chief who allows enforcement to suffer due to over sensitivity to BART's poor image. The aftermath of the Oscar Grant situation is certainly NOT the only problem that Rainey needs to rectify and while racial sensitivity is critical, general station safety concerns still needs to be addressed. For example, why is it OK for people to smoke marijuana and drink at the Civic Center station when BART police officers are less than 15 steps away? Also, why can't BART police effectively get rid of a drunken homeless man who screams obscenities at passengers right in front of their face? Is that not a valid concern?? I know it's been reported multiple times to them, yet why does this man keep coming back??

I hope Rainey is the right man for the job but we won't know until at least end of year.

What are your thoughts on Kenton Rainey??

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

He is a great choice, if he takes the worst mistake in FPD history with him, deputy captain paul bockrath. Oh yea, maybe chuck timm too!

Anonymous said...
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Tom said...

BART Police is a joke, but what do you expect when the entire system is corrupt and inefficient?

The abuses I see in the BART system every day would make most people's skin crawl, but it's all just business as usual.

Fare evasion, public drunkenness, lewd acts in public, employee abuse of work rules, employees ignoring their jobs, public urination, flagrant violation of posted rules, vandalism, etcetera.

But it's not all BART's fault. Considering that their system runs through Oakland, Richmond, and San Francisco, it's no wonder that the system is full of creeps and thugs when it services cities that are full of creeps and thugs.

Until San Francisco changes it's feel-good love-and-tolerance policies regarding criminal vagrants, and until Richmond and Oakland are able to do something about their pervasive thug problem, BART will continue to suffer.

Joe said...

I would like to see more patrols, but honestly, having ridden BART most times of day and night through safe and not-so-safe areas, I rarely see that many thugs and creeps inside the system. In fact, I see the largest number of "fare jumpers" among park-and-ride commuters at suburban stations who simply don't want to add the value of the fare to their ticket and so just walk out through the emergency gate to their cars.

kh3rii said...

Just because he has different views on the Oscar Grant situation doesn't mean his interest isn't to protect the passengers of the bart transit system. if you do your homework on him you will see how big a difference, a good difference, Kenton Rainey's influence has made in several different locations through out the United States as far as public safety was concerned. He has been a police officer for 20+ years and worked his way up from the bottom just like everyone else. So that "jerk" is probably the best man for the job and if you watch he will prove it to you.