Any Californians? Can You Explain The Rationale Of This?

I live in Upstate NY and I never heard of such a "law" before. Apparently, a person is breaking the law in California, if they're eating a snack, or in this case, a sandwich, waiting for a train, while on their way to work. Seems to me there are bigger concerns in California...like the so-called "Defecation Crisis" that exists in California's biggest cities.

The following incident took place last Monday, on November 4:

A video has gone viral showing four Bay Area Rapid Transit police officers in Northern California arresting a man for eating a breakfast sandwich while waiting for his morning train.

"I was just up there eating my sandwich waiting for the train to come," Foster said. Foster says the officer, wearing the name badge McCormick, walked past several other people eating and drinking on the platform and confronted him. His girlfriend caught the interaction on her cellphone.

But earlier this year, BART spent $2.1 million to hire 19 more police officers in what it describes as a "Quality of Life" initiative, which apparently translates to cracking down on people eating sandwiches.

newsmaven.io...

Quality of Life? The guy wasn't littering, or taking a dump on the sidewalk, like in San Fran. Besides, there are food vendors RIGHT IN FRONT of the train platform. There were other people eating food on the platform, so why was this guy singled out? I can fully understand why this guy was arguing with the officer, especially if he wasn't aware of such a law. By the way, why does it take four officers to arrest a guy eating a sandwich? A sandwich! Why is this even an issue?

People Protesting This Arrest:

a reply to: shawmanfromny


What in the actual ....?

There are people who have a certain mindset, they usually work as:

- Traffic wardens

- Referees

- [sometimes] in the Police

- any other establishments where they feel they have Authoreteeeeeh.

Bloody hell, not eating or drinking should be a suggestion and if ignored, maybe you can let them know not to do it. But the cop held onto the guy's bag for no reason, and everything they giy said and did are normal human responses.
It's a sandwich FFS. Food. OMG I can't even...
Really everyone should from now on eat, without fail on that platform. They can't arrest all of them...can they?

ETA: just spotted the second video!

If he had been shooting heroin while taking a dump in the street, they'd have walked right past him.

California priorities.

originally posted by: DAVID64
If he had been shooting heroin while taking a dump in the street, they'd have walked right past him.

California priorities.

Yep that's what happens when Democrats run the entire state. Gov./House/Senate you get these nonsensical social engineering laws that leave the streets filled with poop/homeless camps legal in front of homes blocking sidewalks/while people who cause no real trouble get arrested for eating a sandwich while waiting for a train/or worse yet for giving someone a plastic straw.

Here is a new tourist map for entirely Democratically run San Francisco: so tourists can avoid human feces ridden sidewalks:


Time to let California go it's own way and become it's own filthy, poop ridden state who won't even clean up the forest floors to stop wildfires, while destroying and blaming the electric company for the fires.

Just .....What? Where do Democrats come up with this nonsense??????

a reply to: shawmanfromny

Was the sammich from Chick-fil-a?

a reply to: shawmanfromny

This is bat snip!

That cop, surely has something better to do than harass a dude for eating while waiting for the train.
Why would there be a sandwich shack at the station if this was not allowed in the first place?

Maybe the authorities in California figure it this way, keep people from eating and there will be less crap in the streets?

I am surprised that they haven't outlawed food out there. It causes global warming, you know.

a reply to: The2Billies

That's so disgusting. I can't believe that the citizens stand for this BS. They should be having mass protests (peacefully) every week, until city government does something about this health issue.

Got a weird feeling about this cop holding on to that bag so tight. Sometimes I think cops target someone in particular that they think may have some fun drugs inside their bag.
They are targeted by police using a stupid criminal offence, then once the drugs are found, they have what they want. They will even tell their targeted victims it is ok.. they won’t be charged.. they will just confiscate the drugs.

I know it sounds like a far fetched story, but some cops play dirty games for free drugs.

Food is offensive and racist.
Period .

Wow, just wow !!!!

No wonder they are being overrun by dirty needles and human waste in many of their cities.

Our idiot mayor (Austin) took their lead on homelessness and went to SF and LA to tour around to see how they are handling and planning, yet, they are possibly the worst example in the country ?!?

I feel like our cities are in decline because of the groomed idiots now holding the keys.

Seriously, eating a sandwich should not be a crime anywhere.

originally posted by: Sheye
Got a weird feeling about this cop holding on to that bag so tight. Sometimes I think cops target someone in particular that they think may have some fun drugs inside their bag.
They are targeted by police using a stupid criminal offence, then once the drugs are found, they have what they want. They will even tell their targeted victims it is ok.. they won’t be charged.. they will just confiscate the drugs.

I know it sounds like a far fetched story, but some cops play dirty games for free drugs.

My first reaction is there is more to this story. He may have been eating but that was not why he was arrested.

a reply to: shawmanfromny

Racism?

originally posted by: Sheye
Got a weird feeling about this cop holding on to that bag so tight. Sometimes I think cops target someone in particular that they think may have some fun drugs inside their bag.
They are targeted by police using a stupid criminal offence, then once the drugs are found, they have what they want. They will even tell their targeted victims it is ok.. they won’t be charged.. they will just confiscate the drugs.

I know it sounds like a far fetched story, but some cops play dirty games for free drugs.

According to the clip at the end of the video (or the one I saw on reddit anyway) the cop was there after reports of a drunk female on the platform, but when he couldn't find her, he decided to go after the master criminal muncher.

It's funny the difference between reddit and ATS.. there were so many people saying he brought it on himself over there, stating that he should have just taken the ticket and wasted his time in court.

Some laws really are dumb.. and should be ignored, especially by those charged with enforcing them.

originally posted by: Edumakated

originally posted by: Sheye
Got a weird feeling about this cop holding on to that bag so tight. Sometimes I think cops target someone in particular that they think may have some fun drugs inside their bag.
They are targeted by police using a stupid criminal offence, then once the drugs are found, they have what they want. They will even tell their targeted victims it is ok.. they won’t be charged.. they will just confiscate the drugs.

I know it sounds like a far fetched story, but some cops play dirty games for free drugs.

My first reaction is there is more to this story. He may have been eating but that was not why he was arrested.

There isn’t, and he wasn’t arrested. He got a citation.

Literally never seen that enforced on a subway, though.

a reply to: Edumakated

It was, actually. The clip I saw had more in it, with the lady who was with him talking to the cop after, asking why he focused on this guy, after he couldn't find the alleged drunk woman on the platform.

His own words..

originally posted by: Shamrock6

originally posted by: Edumakated

originally posted by: Sheye
Got a weird feeling about this cop holding on to that bag so tight. Sometimes I think cops target someone in particular that they think may have some fun drugs inside their bag.
They are targeted by police using a stupid criminal offence, then once the drugs are found, they have what they want. They will even tell their targeted victims it is ok.. they won’t be charged.. they will just confiscate the drugs.

I know it sounds like a far fetched story, but some cops play dirty games for free drugs.

My first reaction is there is more to this story. He may have been eating but that was not why he was arrested.

There isn’t, and he wasn’t arrested. He got a citation.

Literally never seen that enforced on a subway, though.

I've never seen anyone arrested either. Having a coffee on the train used to be routine for me on the way to work. They write these laws because invariably some idiot will litter but never seen it enforced without some other more major infraction.

How 11 000 scientists have recently called to kill a billion people is one thing that came to mind with this, banning eating will do the job.

Looks more like authority following the path of least resistance. Someone who has not had a shave and has his shirt out looks like a soft target. The thing about the bag was a good point too, maybe some free goodies in that.

Did have one security instructor that advocated asserting your power over others and this looks like a good case of it. Does not matter if you are right or wrong, you must win and keep the public compliant. I do not fully agree with this principle.

Maybe the officer just got annoyed in going all the way to the platform and not finding his target so just found someone else to pick on, probably needs a holiday.

a reply to: shawmanfromny

It’s just police acting as revenue collectors for the state. No different than what happened in New York with the subway police that’s causing all the protests there. In both cases neither are about safety or improving quality of life.

Police acting as revenue collectors isn’t a California thing, it’s an American thing.