Tuesday, December 16, 2014

$1.50 short on fare leads to 19 months in jail

Eucharia Nwerem ends up in jail over $1.50
I know I'm a bleeding heart when it comes to people paying their transit fare. Part of the reason for my bleeding heart is that everyone that works at Trimet Transit district makes pretty good money. If you're a Trimet executive you can actually retire wealthy.

 So when somebody like the person pictured gets on the bus and pays $1,  I NEVER, EVER questioned that. It was $1 more into the Trimet coffers. She most likely had no more money. I saw it as a positive for Trimet not a negative

 Unfortunately my opinion was the minority opinion back in the days when I drove buses at Trimet. 

Now the poor woman is in jail for 19 months over $1.50 and her inability to control herself

 Reminds me of the story of MEJA POOT who was 25 cents short on his fare. The bus driver made a deal out of that which eventually lead Meja's death and the closing of a psychiatric hospital.

You never know where a fare dispute will end, which is why I never in my 15 years at Trimet got hot and bothered about a fare
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1 comment:

  1. buddeshepherdTuesday, December 16, 2014 12:53:00 PM

    I'm a self proclaimed conservative, moderately hard working small farmer. I have found that it is a small percentage of the population/customer base that are thieves. They will steal from you if they can because they like to steal things.
    However, most people are quite honest. I would say that bus riders are probably pretty much the same.
    It would be nice to continue to live in a society where the bus driver doesn't call the cops if you are a little short on your fare. It would also be really nice if the cops arrived to find someone highly agitated and then calm them down again.
    I enjoyed Portland a lot more in 1984...
    I enjoy your blog, thanks for posting.

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