Activists hold rally to demand NO vote on Metro police powers expansion.

Video by StonieFlix of continuing protest INSIDE Metro 44 sec

Update Sep 9: vote on expanding Metro Transit Police powers expansion delayed again

On Sep 7, Black Lives Matter and transit activists rallied at Columbia Heights Civic Plaza to demand that the WMATA (Metro) board vote NO on the proposal to expand Metro police powers. This vote originally scheduled for July 29 was postponed to Sep 9 after WMATA board member Tom Bulger received a protest at his home on July 27.

The proposal in question would allow Metro transit police to bar anyone charged (not convicted but only charged) with a laundry list of offenses from riding Metrobus and Metrorail. ACLU studies indicating this proposal would lead to more police stops of Black and Brown riders. It also would block people not only from getting to work or school, but even to court hearings and probation hearings stemming from the very arrests (not convictions) triggering the ban on riding Metro trains and busses. Many of these riders do not have cars and are not in their own walking or bike range of their jobs-or the courthouse. The so-called "justice" system in the US is supposed to presume people innocent until proven guilty, this proposal would let Metro's notoriously racist police force reverse this, with riders considered guilty until proven innocent and riding after this presumption risking a trespassing arrest.