“Not One More Girl is a BIPOC youth-led initiative in partnership with community-based organizations and BART to end gender-based violence and harassment on transit,” Bay Area Rapid Transit announces. “Wallet-size printed cards are now available to riders to discreetly hand to people to signal they need help or support or to notify someone being harassed that others are there to help and support them.”
Card Version One, “You Got Me?” is designed to be handed to a stranger to let them know you feel threatened and requests them to be ready to “stand with me while this is happening” and contact BART police or the train operator if asked. Card Version Two, “I Got You,” offers people who appear to be harassed the same.
As a curious aside, BART notes, “Our community partners, The Betti Ono Foundation, have also curated content around the theme ‘Our Story of Courage,’ emphasizing how girls can have a greater sense of empowerment in a harassment situation.” It’s curious because the foundation declares, “Our vision and creative practice embodies the bold, curious, and unapologetic spirit of our namesakes Betty Mabry Davis and Yoko Ono,” and because armed self-defense trainer and author (Armed and Female, Not an Easy Target) Paxton Quigley’s CV documents “She was briefly a bodyguard for Yoko Ono.”
Forget Yoko-style private security or armed self-defense options on BART, with a “Code of Conduct” that prohibits passengers to “Carry or possess any weapon in violation of the law,” and with Bay area sheriffs dragging their feet on permit applications, taking over 300 days.
That’s despite BART’s admission that “We understand the homeless crisis and drug epidemic is very concerning to our riders,” and routine headlines, including:
It’s also despite the transit agency withholding surveillance videos of crime and refusing to do a press release because “that would make BART look ‘crime ridden.’ Furthermore, it would ‘unfairly affect and characterize riders of color, leading to sweeping generalizations in media reports.’”
Amidst this backdrop, we’re supposed to believe passing cards to third parties won’t do more than aggravate an already insane situation? Who but a dangerous lunatic would threaten a stranger in the first place?
And the advice for dealing with an encounter gets even worse, with tips like:
Step One: Assess the situation.
Does the harasser have a weapon?
If yes, call BART police at 510-464-7000 (There is a text option using 510-200-0992 but when a weapon is involved, calling is best).
If no, continue with the intervention.
That’s every bit as brain-dead as asking a home invader to wait while you retrieve your separately locked and stored gun and ammunition.
Then there’s this bit of repeated tactical genius:
Approach the targeted person. Ignore the attacker… Ignore the attacker and engage in a conversation with the targeted person.
By qualifying the aggressor as an attacker, we’re beyond the point of triggering a dog by looking in its eyes. If anything will trigger, it’s passing cards, but in BART’s scenario, the action is already underway.
What incompetents wrote and approved that suicidal advice, what are their qualifications for promoting it, and what liability will BART incur should someone follow it and get killed? Find a martial arts expert who teaches to ignore a threat: You never take your eyes off an attacker, what’s in their hands, their body position, their foot placement, where they’re looking…
This is every bit as ridiculous, contemptible, and dangerous as advice promoted years ago by the Illinois State Police, instructing women if attacked to use rat tail combs and vomit. Seriously, they really did that.
There are plenty of other dangers, considerable physical ones, but also legal.
If you accept a “You Got Me?” card, you’ve already been dragged into the situation and are now a target. Maybe she needs help, maybe not. Do we automatically believe “red flag” accusations? What if she’s vengeful, or on drugs, or bipolar?
And if you do become involved, either voluntarily or by default, don’t count on “qualified immunity” like the police get. Instead, especially if you end up using appropriate force, expect the Daniel Penny or Bernhard Goetz treatment.
So what do we do, adopt the Humphrey Bogart/Rick Blaine “I stick my neck out for nobody” attitude and then have to live with guilt and feel like cowards for not intervening when we could have made a difference? Do we instead consider ourselves self-appointed sheepdogs and “rush in where angels fear to tread”?
We start by becoming properly trained to better respond to life’s dangerous surprises, and then we apply that training, our judgment, and our consciences to such situations as they arise.
It’s also a pretty good idea to avoid placing ourselves in dangerous situations whenever we can, and those, all too often, include riding on public transit. If it’s any consolation, chances are the ones who do, and who would carry a supply of Gotcha cards, vote for Democrats who keep them in danger and disarmed.
Such childish people literally don’t have a clue. And I rest my case with this:
❓ Did you know ❓
You can ask any station agent for BART’s free bystander intervention cards, which you can use if you’re experiencing or witnessing harassment in stations and trains.
Here’s how they work pic.twitter.com/09WmyquxVS
— BART (@SFBART) March 29, 2024
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
