🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <uco20jo6jzy.fsf@sunset.ma.huji.ac.il>,
grabiner@sunset.ma.huji.ac.il (David Joseph Grabiner) wrote:

> In article <jposner-0806961542570001@jposner.dialup.access.net>, Jeremy
M. Posner writes:
> 
> >         Of course, if the LA system were actually running anywhere close
> > to capacity, like New York and DC, there would be no room on the trains
> > for the conductors to walk through. 
> 
> They do it in Jerusalem.  I have twice been in a city bus which was
> boarded by a police officer checking tickets.  Both times, it was at
> rush hour, just as the bus entered downtown, on a bus which was full
> enough that the driver skipped stops because he had no room for
> passengers.  It took him a while, but he worked his way through the bus,
> starting at the front door, and got off through the back door at the
> next stop.
> 
> I've also been checked on an overfull inter-urban bus, but that's easier
> for the officer because he has plenty of time between stops.

        The impressions I've gotten over my last couple of trips to Israel
is that with more people (legally) carrying firearms and a stronger
military presence, the police are not as involved in simply lowering the
crime rate by their presence. In NYC, it is often assumed (although not
always true) that cops are the only ones who will do anything to stop a
crime. When cops are doing otherwise useless things like checking for
train passes, they could be out preventing crimes. (At least in theory.)
Also, if this happened, since the transit police no longer exist, the MTA
would have to pay the police department a hefty sum just to get them to
enforce it. After all, the police unions would complain that they aren't
paid to be ticket takers, while the RR Clerks union would complain that
they wouldn't be well enough protected from "disturbed" passengers while
on the trains...
                                                -JMP

> -- 
> David Grabiner, grabiner@math.huji.ac.il, http://www.ma.huji.ac.il/~grabiner
> I speak at the Hebrew University, but not for it.
> Shop at the Mobius Strip Mall: Always on the same side of the street!
> Klein Glassworks, Torus Coffee and Donuts, Projective Airlines, etc.

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