there's our catastrophe

moniquemallo:

“Almost 7900 fines were issued on trains in January this year, nearly double the 4318 fines issued in January 2012.”

In one case, protective services officers fined a teenager with a severe intellectual disability 13 times in two months for riding his bike on a platform, failing to wear a helmet, failing to have a bike light and obstructing a pathway by sitting on steps. Some of the fines were issued 20 minutes apart.

Community legal centres say the officers issue infringement notices so often because they are bored.

Victoria’s public transport authority is increasingly handing over information about myki users’ movements to police, raising concerns that the smartcard is being used as a tracking device.

The Transport Ticketing Authority says police have made 113 requests about myki users since the smartcards were introduced in late 2009.

There have already been 71 requests for customer movements this year, more than three times the number of requests received last year.

the age. 

“just get a myki”, they said

“security culture is so 2008”, they said

WHO’S LAUGHING NOW

not me, because I cracked and got a myki

contains graphic descriptions of racist violence. 

The 24-year-old student calling himself “Xuanhao” wrote on his Weibo microblog that he and his friend were on a train heading to the Wolli Creek in the south of the city at about 11:45pm on Sunday when a group of Australians rushed into their compartment, trying to rob them.

“They wanted money so we gave them money. But then a caucasian woman sitting opposite told the robbers she just broken up with her boyfriend who had taken her purse,” the student wrote.

“She pointed to us and shouted to the robbers: ‘Rob them, they are Chinese, they are rich’.”

The student said the robbers then started beating them, breaking his nose and the jaw of his friend and repeatedly calling them “Asian dogs.”

…”It was the second time that I took a train in Sydney. I thought there were policemen in each compartment so I tried to run and screamed loudly for help, but the robbers pulled me back and beat me,” he wrote.

“There were no policemen in the train, but there were many other people and even train crews.” He said no one had offered help.

this is all-around horrifying, but I particularly want to highlight just how dangerous the idea that “international student = rich” is. 

THE first protective services officers started duty at central Melbourne rail stations last night, but key questions remain over their powers and the state-wide rollout.

…By November 2014, the government has pledged, every Melbourne station and key regional ones will have two officers on duty each night after 6pm until the last train.

Civil libertarians and legal groups have expressed concern over the policy - mainly because it will see officers armed with semi-automatic guns - but authorities insist they will be given the same weapons training as police.

…Areas where officers can use their powers, which include detaining offenders and using weapons, include railway premises and surrounding areas such as car parks.

But precise definitions in some instances remain unclear, including the definition of ”in the vicinity” of rail premises.

god, this is such a disaster waiting to happen

I would be more interested in their “negotiation skills” and “deescalation” training than their weapons training per se.  what are they gonna do, shoot teenagers putting their feet on seats? 

not sure why a bunch of randoms with semi-automatic weapons in the train station would make anyone feel safer anyway.  transit officers of all sorts are notoriously trigger-happy and I really don’t want that to become literal.  I have experienced violence or the threat of violence a number of times on public transport and only twice was it from people other than transit guards and both those times were not on train stations.  I feel so much happier knowing that the type of people grabbing my friends by their shirt collars and telling them they’re gonna fuck up their day will now have guns. 

A man hired by western suburbs youth worker Les Twentyman has admitted making a false report about being stabbed by an Islander gang.

The man, who Fairfax has decided not to name, last month entered a guilty plea under the diversion program at Sunshine Magistrates Court.

The 29-year-old from Altona Meadows had been an anti-knife campaigner with the 20th Man Fund, working with troubled youth across Hobsons Bay, Maribyrnong and Moonee Valley.

Last July, he told Fairfax he was robbed in Altona by five Islanders with Maori accents who punched him up to 60 times and stabbed him twice in the stomach.

He has since told police he fabricated the story, and the superficial wounds to his abdomen were self-inflicted.

…Following the man’s initial claims in July, Mr Twentyman told Fairfax that Islander gangs were a big problem in the area, with many young people afraid of travelling on the Werribee line.

…Mr Twentyman lashed out at police for not telling him the youth worker had been charged.

He said the employee was dismissed in October before the charge was laid. “We only found out last week the whole thing about the report was fabricated. I do apologise to that community for that incident, but overall [the former youth worker] probably used [Islander gangs in his description] because there’s problems in the area.”

this is bullshit.  I travel on the Werribee line regularly and I’d say bored white boys on speed and overzealous ticket inspectors are the real threats.     

anyway fuck les twentyman, he’s always pulling this shit

DOGS, cats, guinea pigs and even ferrets could become a more common sight on Melbourne’s trams, trains and buses.

Under changes to the Department of Transport’s ”assistance animal pass”, it will become far easier for people with conditions such as autism, Alzheimer’s, epilepsy and psychiatric illnesses such as social anxiety to travel on public transport with their pets.

The assistance animal pass was introduced more than two years ago for people who wanted to travel with assistance animals that alleviate the effects of their disability. However, since then, just 15 people have been issued with the pass, which has been criticised for being too restrictive and even discriminatory.

The conditions of the previous pass stipulated that it could only be issued if the animal had been trained from an approved shortlist of accredited animal training organisations. Under the new pass, those strict requirements have been lifted, opening the way for hundreds of people who have had their assistance animals privately trained.

<3_<3