The Chicago Transit Authority’s (CTA) public transit system has long been chancy for ordinary commuters, as documented by the excellent local crime reporting website, CWB Chicago.
Passengers gamble on whether and which kind of violent criminal they’ll potentially encounter: attackers at random (here, here, and here, including a self-proclaimed “King of the CTA” brandishing two hammers); sexual predators (here, here, here and here); robbers and muggers (here, here, here, here and here); gangsters; or even arsonists setting the train car, their belongings, or other passengers on fire. One individual violently stabbed another passenger multiple times in a completely random attack “because eye contact ‘triggers’ him.” And fellow travelers are not the only danger: an at-the-time CTA “customer service” employee was recently convicted of beating to death, without provocation, a man at a downtown CTA station.
Those most dependent on a reliable and affordable public transportation are at the highest risk. What makes the need for self-defense all the more acute is that once a train or bus is in motion, passengers are trapped aboard; security officers may or may not be close by. These same factors work in favor of the evil-minded.
The CTA rules/code of conduct reinforce the vulnerability of law-abiding passengers by banning the possession and carrying of any weapon, “including, but not limited to, guns, clubs, knives, stun guns, tasers and explosive devices” on transit vehicles or transit premises for all except law enforcement officers or security guards. The rules also prohibit “[a]larming or disturbing others or causing others to fear for their safety or provoking a breach of the peace … or engaging in boisterous or unruly behavior that seriously inconveniences, annoys or alarms other reasonable persons in their vicinity.”
In 2022, concealed carry licensees who wished to carry within the public transit system for self defense sued the State of Illinois and state officials, challenging a prohibition in the Firearm Concealed Carry Act that prohibited licensees from carrying firearms on public transportation. Although the district court agreed the law was unconstitutional, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed. Despite the fact that public transit did not exist until late in the 19th century, “the challenged law is comfortably situated in a centuries-old practice of limiting firearms in sensitive and crowded, confined places.” “Remember,” the court said, “that millions of Illinois residents put their faith in the government to safely take them where they need to go,” and the law “ensure[s] public transportation systems remain free from accessible firearms.”
Fat chance to that, if the all-too-frequent reports of felons and others in possession of firearms on the CTA are anything to go by. Chicago’s crooks aren’t playing by the rules.
Instead of rethinking the weapons prohibition as something the criminal community observes by breach only, the CTA’s new anti-crime initiative is a sign campaign throughout the transit system. “Violence on the CTA will not be tolerated,” the signs read, and warn that the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office will prosecute and seek pretrial detention for all violent offenses. Acting CTA President Nora Leerhsen stated that the “signs are a message to riders and employees that we’re working together to ensure transit safety is prioritized at every step.”
How on earth does anyone expect this to be more effective than the existing CTA rules that prohibit weapon possession, alarming or disturbing other passengers, and engaging in sexual harassment, and state laws on robbery, theft, and murder? What’s more, the threat of pretrial detention is after-the-fact: for passengers, nothing happens until after the violent crime has already occurred.
Even if the State’s Attorney’s Office does demand pretrial detention for every violent offender, it means little unless law enforcement and judges opt-in as well. Statistics prepared by the Circuit Court of Cook County “of initial decision points for criminal cases” filed in that court since September 2023 show that law enforcement officers cite and release the suspect in the overwhelming majority (72%) of misdemeanor cases; for felonies, cite and release drops to 30%. For offenders who are detained pending their first court appearance, the odds of being released with conditions pending trial are still pretty good. In misdemeanor cases held for a detention hearing, judges denied the petition for detention and released the suspect in 69% of cases; for felonies, the reverse was true, with 69% of detention petitions being granted.
A change of the transit weapons ban looks unlikely, even as passengers continue to get assaulted, robbed, raped and murdered while traveling.
Last year, the plaintiffs in the public transportation carry ban case, Schoenthal v. Raoul, sought review of the Seventh Circuit’s decision before the United States Supreme Court, arguing that the ban was incompatible with the Court’s decision in Bruen and that the “Seventh Circuit’s reasoning defies reality” by perversely relying on “the vulnerability of public transportation passengers as justification for Illinois’s ban on possession of firearms in such locations” (emphasis in original). The NRA’s amicus brief urged the Court to grant review, as the Seventh Circuit’s decision “exemplifies how some courts uphold unconstitutional laws by invoking historical tradition at an unduly abstract and generalized level” and undermined Bruen by, essentially, creating a new kind of sensitive place: “crowded spaces.” It warned that “lower courts will continue to apply inappropriately high levels of abstraction, creating inconsistency in the interpretation of a constitutional right,” leading to “the same type of results-oriented test that Bruen sought to preclude.” In April, the Supreme Court declined to take up the appeal.
Given that passengers remain at the mercy of the modern-day “stand and deliver” highwayman (and worse), “prioritizing” transit safety may be better served by posting signs with the most recent transit crime and prosecution statistics, at least allowing would-be users to make an informed choice.
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