Metro Transit safety requires emphasis by government and the public

KING County and the transit-riding public threaten a multibillion-dollar investment if there is not a strong, collective response to the brutal beating of a pregnant teen aboard a bus.

Five teen girls were caught by Metro Transit surveillance video punching, kicking and robbing a pregnant girl and her boyfriend last month. Few can watch the unsettling footage of the suspects alternating punches with laugher and jokes — one suspect even complains that she broke her nail — and deny a serious problem. Who raised these girls, or failed to?

Public response to these things ought to go beyond outrage and record views of the surveillance video. The public should not become so desensitized that it fails to act.

Yet Route 358 was standing-room only and no one aboard the articulated bus called police. It is unclear how the bus driver did not hear the attack or the calls of passengers to stop the bus. When the bus reached its stop, the couple got off and went around to inform the driver of the attack.

This is not a call for passengers to turn into superheros. Transit fares come with an expectation of security. The King County Sheriff's Office, which is responsible for policing Metro buses, bus stops and transit stations, plans to increase emphasis patrols on Route 358. But the department says it also encourages passengers who witness crime to call police, but not intervene.

Law enforcement credits video equipment in nearly 400 Metro buses with deterring crime and, failing that, recording the act to help arrests and prosecutions. Cameras will be added to another 250 buses over the next few years.

Yet, this assault took place beneath visible signs alerting passengers to video-surveillance cameras. The teens likely knew the cameras were there. They could not have cared less.

These juvenile criminals did not wake up last month deciding to be lawbreakers. Three of the teens have significant juvenile criminal histories, mostly for assaults and thefts. One girl was convicted last year of attacking a woman and attempting to steal her purse, while another girl allegedly grabbed and shoved a nurse at Swedish Hospital in August. A third girl has several theft convictions, including stealing $918 worth of merchandise from the downtown Macy's.

The suspects have had their Seattle Public Schools-provided ORCA bus passes revoked and are banned from riding Metro buses for a year. They face serious charges.

Collective work around the challenge of transit safety should now move beyond five thugs.