Letter to Supervisor Dufty (District 8) re: police on Muni

Discussion
1

Dear Starchild;

Nice letter but on a factual note any police offcier in unform can ride the Muni without paying a fare and getting a transfer as well as USPS postal workers in uniform carrying their mail delivery bags and nuns in the full penguin mode of dress.

As a further matter of note over the years of riding Muni the two times I have seen police riding the Muni they had to note down in their patrol notebooks when they boarded what bus and at what time and where they got off and at what time.

The two times I did see a SFPD office one was on the 38 geary limited who got on at 6th Ave and Geary and off at 25th Ave and geary. This was a mid afternoon and at that time of day there were maybe a total of a two dozen passengers on board and by the time it got to 25th ave about a dozen passengers. Not a very dangerous crowd.

The other time was a SFPD officer getting on the early morning 31AX Balboa express bus at the start of the run at Cabrillo and LaPlaya and getting off at 14th Ave. This is the morning commute bus for downtown workers with 3/4th's of the seats filled by morning commute regulars not exactly a very dangerous crowd.

BTW: the SFPD billing to Muni is expected to be $19 million.

Ron Getty - SF Libertarian
Hostis res Publica
Morte ai Tiranni
Dum Spiro, Pugno

2

Ron,

  Thanks. If officers are required to log their transit rides in their patrol notebooks that is something, but it might be prohibitively difficult to have an independent monitor go through an officer's notebook and find all those entries -- assuming they could even get access to the notebooks in the first place. It should be a simple matter to require Muni drivers to dispense transfers to non-paying officers -- or just require them to pay. On their salaries they should be able to afford it. That's outrageous that nuns are getting special free riding privileges too. I wonder how the authorities justify that one -- a lack of pockets in their garments? No excuse, really; they could still wear fast passes in necklace holders.

Love & Liberty,
        ((( starchild )))