Minnesota Star Tribune Wants Readers to Know Light Rail Is Safe If You Ignore All the Violent Crime

Oct 14, 2026 7:30 AM
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Minnesota Star Tribune Wants Readers to Know Light Rail Is Safe If You Ignore All the Violent Crime
AP Photo/Erik Verduzco, File

The Left has made no secret about wanting to get rid of our personal cars and force us all onto mass public transit. In fact, when gas prices were so high, they bragged about "historic" use of public transportation. It's a great way to stifle individual freedom, our ability to move at-will, and control when, where, and how we move about our cities.

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There are many problems with this, of course, and chief among them is the Left's refusal to address crime on public transit. Their pro-criminal, anti-justice policies make traveling on public transportation unsafe. In New York City, a woman was set on fire on the city's subway, many passengers have been pushed onto the tracks, and there have been stabbings. In Chicago, a young woman was also set on fire by a career criminal. And, of course, in Charlotte, we all saw 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska be murdered by Decarlos Brown, Jr.

Now in Minnesota, where the assault rate on the light rail is 13 times that of New York. An elderly woman was beaten to death and at least two people have been shot and killed — on this past weekend and one two years ago (that case remains unsolved). Despite this, the local media insist the transit system is safe.

Here's more:

I want to feel safe on the light rail. I do feel safer than I did a year ago.

But with two killers on the loose, both of whom shot passengers on the Green Line and neither seeming to merit the public urgency of other high-profile homicides, it’s getting harder to feel that way.

I say two killers because in addition to whoever shot Joseph Denny Nezperce aboard an eastbound train approaching Westgate Station in St. Paul last Saturday night, the killer of Sharif Darryl Walker-El Jr. on a westbound Green Line train two years ago remains at large, or at least the case remains unsolved. They are the only two shooting deaths aboard Twin Cities light-rail trains in the system’s history.

Back in 2024, like many other riders, I didn’t feel safe at all. Federal transit data showed Metro Transit passengers faced a reported assault rate 13 times that of New York City Transit.
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This is diseased. "Yeah, people get shot and beaten, and criminals don't get charged, but light rail is safe!"

The rest of you should totally gamble with your lives so leftists feel good about themselves.

Mostly.

Right. Every time there's a shooting, they clamor to ban guns to "save one life."

But when career criminals kill people or illegal aliens murder Americans, we don't have a talk about jailing criminals or deporting illegal aliens to "save one life."

They have to lie in service of their left-wing pet causes.

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And at least one murder is unsolved. So much safer.

Of course, the laughable justice system up there won't properly charge the people who engage in violent criminal acts on the light rail system. They'll get a slap on the wrist, if that, and go right back to committing crimes.

But if the Left wants more people to use public transit, they have to clean it up. They won't, so we won't. 

Editor’s Note: The American people overwhelmingly support President Trump’s law and order agenda.

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