Rantz: As light rail violence surges, riders forced to stop stabbing in Seattle

A group of passengers acted quickly to intervene in a stabbing in progress on Sound Transit light rail in Seattle. They likely prevented a murder. Security guards were no where to be found.

Ishmail Brown is accused of stabbing a 51-year-old light rail passenger in a random and unprovoked attack. Brown can be seen on surveillance footage exclusively acquired by the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH as he tries to pry open the light rail’s doors, though it’s unclear why. He dropped his knife in the process, but either no one noticed, or didn’t say anything. It’s not uncommon to see homeless with weapons.

After a few short beats, Brown allegedly turns to a random man seated behind him and begins to stab him multiple times. A witness told police, according to probable cause documents, that the victim asked, “Why me? I didn’t do anything to you.”

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Transit riders come to the man’s rescue in light rail stabbing

Multiple light rail riders immediately stepped in to intervene, putting their own lives on the line.

Surveillance footage from the July 21 incident shows one man used a duffle bag to block Brown from stabbing the victim. Another tried to push Brown away from the victim. During the stabbing, a man quickly pulled his young son from the nearby seat and instructed him to go to the other side of the train before the man, likely the child’s father, returned to help prevent a murder. You can even see a man removing his shoe and launching at Brown, in an attempt to stop the stabbing.

The light rail train stopped at the Othello station. Witnesses were able to carry the victim, identified by police as T.P., out of the car while the rest of the riders evacuated. Brown looked to walk out of the train but ended up staying inside. The doors were closed and locked until police arrived to arrest Brown. He is currently in jail on on $1,500,000 bail for assault in the first degree and assault in the second degree charges.

The victim, identified only as T.P. by police, suffered significant stab wounds. He was stabbed or cut ten times on his left leg, one on his right leg. His left and right hand suffered five stabs or cuts. The left side of his face was also slashed. T.P. confirmed to police that he didn’t have any interaction with Brown prior to the alleged stabbing.

Transit riders do security’s job

Prior to the MLB All Star Week, Sound Transit announced they were hiring an addition 300 security guards to patrol light rail. But they appear to be little more than human props giving the illusion of safety — if you can find them.

Sound Transit security don’t appear to do anything. When you can find them, usually at Westlake station and sporadically on routes in Seattle, they’re just wandering around. I’ve witnessed them stare at homeless addicts passed out on light rail before just walking off at the next stop.

The transit riders who intervened in the stabbing are nothing short of heroes. They could have just as easily been stabbed by Brown. Indeed, the duffell bag used to block the knife was significantly damaged, according to the police report.

Transit riders shouldn’t have to have their heads on a swivel whenever they step up on board. But thanks to lax Sound Transit policies, dangerous and unsavory people can easily use light rail without paying — and without worrying security will intervene.

And thanks to Democrat’s soft-on-crime laws, these bad guys are out on the streets to begin with. Unsurprisingly, Brown is a prolific offender with felony convictions for unlawful possession of a firearm and second degree arson.

Light rail is dangerous even without this stabbing incident

Riding light rail is dangerous and Sound Transit hopes you don’t notice. There were two recent violent attacks that Sound Transit didn’t disclose until after the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH received a tip.

In one instance, on July 28, a man struck his victim with a large rock multiple times. Photos from the scene show large amounts of blood throughout the train. It was unprovoked, according to the King County Sheriff’s Office. Transit security were not around to intervene.

Days later, on July 30, one man stabbed another at the Angle Lake station. Again, none of the 300 transit security officers were at the platform to intervene or call police.

In both cases, the victims were taken to the hospital (and their conditions are unknown) and the suspects fled.

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Downplaying the dangers

A spokesperson for Sound Transit downplayed the dangers of light rail.

“Even though the overall number of assaults on Link remains very low, we take these incidents very seriously and we have increased our security presence on the system as a result,” spokesperson John Gallagher said in an interview with KTTH sister station KIRO Newsradio.

The statement is itself a contradiction.

Why would you increase your security presence as a result of two incidents that rarely occur? They also likely didn’t increase their their security presence, but moved security from one location, to another. All it does is create another vulnerability.

Light rail could be safer

If Sound Transit has over 300 transit security personnel, they should be easily visible at every station — we only have 19. And if they took our safety seriously, they wouldn’t allow dangerous homeless people to ride for free, using light rail as a shelter.

Given the high likelihood that the homeless on-board suffer from serious mental health issues or drug addiction, they pose an obvious threat to the public. But Sound Transit won’t enforce fares in any meaningful way because the Radical Left views it as racist and classist.

Meanwhile, Democrats at the state and local level refuse to keep dangerous criminals in jail. Democrats offer light jail sentence schedules that handcuff the judges who take public safety seriously — if you can find a prosecutor who will actually seek to punish the criminal in the first place. Too often, prosecutors (and judges) favor restorative justice programs that don’t work over jailtime.

And when they embolden criminals with soft-on-crime laws (such as a ban on police vehicular pursuits, prohibiting police from any conversations with minor suspects until a lawyer is present, legalizing drugs), Democrats create a culture of lawlessness where you can’t even take light rail without fear you’ll be attacked.

Listen to The Jason Rantz Show on weekday afternoons from 3:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). He is the author of the book What’s Killing America: Inside the Radical Left’s Tragic Destruction of Our Cities. Subscribe to the podcast. Follow @JasonRantz on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Check back frequently for more news and analysis.

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