While we're aware that women get inappropriately hit on and outright harassed on buses and in the streets of San Francisco, we're taking this new, semi-sensational piece by the Bay Citizen with a grain of salt. They assert that sex crimes on Muni, BART, and other forms of transit are going unreported left and right. The reason for their theory, however, seems to be some data pertaining to other urban areas, and the testimony of one academic who says that the reported numbers are "surprisingly low given the ridership [numbers]" on mass transit around the Bay.
To wit:
BART, the San Francisco Municipal Railway and Alameda-Contra Costa Transit together had 370 million riders last year on buses, trains and trolleys that cover San Francisco, the East Bay and beyond. [In 2011] police documented 95 sex crimes on those three public transit systems, including 35 cases of indecent exposure, often masturbation; 25 cases of sexual battery, which includes groping; one rape; and other unwanted lewd behavior. Forty arrests were made.
They also mention an instance where a man in an adjacent seat exposed himself unknowingly to a BART employee and began masturbating. We suppose that BART employee had never gotten the memo about the last car on BART.
We're sure that some of these incidents (at least ones involving women) do go unreported, but the other theory that isn't discussed in the piece is that people may be better behaved here than in New York, where a 2007 study showed that 86 percent of those sexually harassed on subways did not report it. Also, in the case of gay men exposing themselves to each other in the semi-privacy of the back seats of the last car, is that really a sex crime? It's a victimless one, anyway, and probably shouldn't be the lede in a piece ostensibly about women getting groped or otherwise invaded on transit.
We should note this case reported on today, in which a San Mateo County 18-year-old is being accused of groping girls on CalTrain and SamTrans. That one, obviously, got reported.
