Tuesday, May 8, 2012

CLASSIC MOMENTS FROM THE RANTINGS OF A TRIMET BUS DRIVER

Al Margulies: Train Wreck

Posted: Fri, 07/23/2010 - 6:55 am | Read 241 | Commented 1 | Emailed 0

Margulies Bike Nazi blog. Marcus Griffith top left, Al Margulies bottom and right.

Institutionalized Racism?

Long time TriMet driver Al "Al M" Margulies topped even his own high standard for unprofessional conduct (more on that later). In a self-recorded video posted on You Tube yesterday, Margulies proclaims (eight minutes into the video) "...what makes our country great is racism." Margulies prefaced his declaration with caution. "“You can’t be an overt racist in TriMet, even through there are plenty employed there," he states in the video. And yes, he is filming himself while driving.

Margulies's brief racism comments start at 7:39 into the video and run to the very end.

Margulies' confession could explain the long speculated disparity in fare enforcement between racial groups on TriMet bus and MAX lines. Or it could just be the rantings of an infamous driver seeking the public spot light.

Margulies podcast is a response to another driver being placed on paid administrative leave for a making a potential threat against a cyclist. That driver, Dan Christiansen, posted a blog entry yesterday suggesting a photographed cyclist should be killed. Christiansen's posting quickly got picked up by local papers and made last night's news.

Christiansen previously posted an entry on his personal blog, TriMet Confidential, using the racial slur "Japs." "It’s been a while since America has had a good villain. We had Native Americans, Nazi’s, Japs, Communist and to a lesser extent Canadians," Christiansen stated in his blog.

Hopefully, no one needs reminded of the government sponsored racism and propaganda that made 'Japs' a house hold term during WWII. But just in case, Google search Interment camps to get a refresher on how many Japanese men, women and children the US government imprisoned under the guise of 're-location' for national security.

Margulies' Unprofessional Legacy

Margulies is no stranger to drama--or myself for that matter. Last month, Margulies got himself into hot water for questionable videos that included on the job filming of TriMet employees and passengers; filming inside TriMet restrooms and making potentially discriminatory statements about disabled passengers (on video no less). Margulies also posted a video indicating the two best job opportunities for women are being a bus driver or an adult escort. In last month's events, I was a vocal critic of Margulies, including filing several formal complaints with TriMet. I prefer bus drivers focus on safe driving--not on spreading his or her personal vile.

I won't go into depth about the secret videos Margulies made inside the Pearl District's 24-Hour Fitness. Suffice to say, Margulies filmed inside the gym and posted some of the footage online. The matter was reported to the gym's management and (hopefully) people can safely use the gym without fear of ending up in Margulies' personal-use video collection.

For its part, TriMet is handling things pretty quickly. Last month, it took mere days for TriMet to announce it would start prohibiting Margulies-style podcasting. Yesterday, within hours after Christensen posted his kill-this-cyclist blog entry, TriMet placed him on administrative leave and referred the matter to the police. No word yet on how TriMet will respond to Margulies' accusation of wide spread racism within TriMet's ranks.

In response to the public outcry over last month's scandals, Margulies created the Portland Bike Nazi's Vs Al M blog to document some of the events during the ordeal. In the blog, Margulies labels me the Hitler of the Portland bike nazis. Other than having a German grandfather named Adolf, I really am unqualified for the position. But, the title had little to do with me. Margulies seems to want a scape goat for his unsavory actions. He craves attention, not personal accountability.

Partially fueling the public outcry over his actions last month was lingering Margulies-related-drama. In 2007 Margulies was the driving force behind an attempt to improperly ban two teenager girls from TriMet. The young women angered Margulies when they filed a complaint against another driver for kicking them off the bus for kissing (the girls were dating). TriMet disciplined the driver and Margulies desired retaliation against the teenagers. Last summer, Margulies' podcasting habits motivated TriMet to prohibit employees from filming passengers and other employees without first getting their consent. Currently, Margulies is facing a civil lawsuit for secretly filming a female co-worker and posting the videos online.

It's noteworthy to point out the majority of videos with offensive or incriminating content were removed by Margulies soon after the uproar started. However, some can still be found in any one of Margulies' online collections (he has quite a few). Rumors exists that Margulies posts and removes videos frequently to taunt the general public. I am also concerned about the number and nature of videos Margulies filmed but has not yet posted online.

Ironically, despite his unprofessional conduct, Margulies maintains a perfect safety record at TriMet. But, know what? Margulies doesn't need any more collisions--he is already a walking train wreck.

Links:

Margulies' Primary website: http://rantingsofatrimetbusdriver.blogspot.com/

Portland Bike Nazi website: http://portlandbikenazis.blogspot.com/

Margulies' Vimeo collection: http://vimeo.com/user379694

Margulies' You Tube collection: http://www.youtube.com/user/PortlandsTransport

Bike Portland Coverage of the kill this cyclist issue: http://bikeportland.org/2010/07/22/trimet-bus-operator-placed-on-adminis...

-MG

mgriffith's blog

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Here we have Mr Marcus

Submitted by al margulies on Thu, 07/29/2010 - 1:01am.

Here we have Mr Marcus Griffith, who makes a career out of trying to ruin other peoples lives, who's own personal history is something to behold:

http://bojack.org/2010/06/spandex_vendetta.html

http://blog.oregonlive.com/commuting/2010/06/trimet_changing_video-recor...

http://portlandbikenazis.blogspot.com/2010/07/it-seems-that-i-am-not-fir...

Continuing to try to disparage me, all because I said some not very nice things to members of the Bikeportland.org blog.

Members of the bike Portland blog, egged on by the likes of a Marcus Griffith, will go to such lengths as LIABLE, exaggeration, and hysteria against citizens the deem a "threat" to their beloved bicycle culture.

This posting about me by Mr Griffith is something that one would expect from him.

A petty and useless leach upon society, who creates nothing of any value himself, he just seeks to ruins others in his search for whatever it is that gives this demented man, meaning in his life.

And just for the record, there were no secret videos made anywhere. He makes it all up, all the video recorded was taken in full view of the public around me. Most of the footage is of me talking to myself as I keep a VLOG about my life.

So go on Marcus, keep on spreading lies, I know that's all you know how to do with your life, its ok, I understand.

Maybe someday you'll get the help you need and find something to do that has real value.

Good luck to you Marcus, your gonna need it!