BART Scuffle

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/22/california.transit.police.scuffle/index.html

Yesterday an altercation between a BART police officer and an individual was caught on tape with the officer forcibly removing the person off of the BART, while arresting the man the glass window by the railing they were standing near shattered. The entire incident made the news and portrayed the cop as being too aggressive.

Today, I went onto http://www.sfgate.com/polls/ where it listed the incident between the officer and the passenger. The poll itself was worded as “did the BART officer act appropriately in the glass-shattering incident?” with the following possible answers: “Yes, suspect was resisting arrest”, “No, too much force used” or “Strength of the glass is key”.

To me, this poll is problematic and sets the voter up to be biased from the start since the question itself exaggerates how the situation was handled with the wording “glass-shattering” instead of using words like “that resulted in glass-shattering”. The way the question is worded almost gives the implication that the officer’s physical actions towards the passenger were so aggressive that a glass shattered from the force of the arrest. When really, according to news reports, the glass shattered on both of them with both men being injured. The question, with how it’s posed, falsely leads voters to believe that the passenger was the only one injured.
Also, by specifying that it was a BART police officer, that description could trigger negative opinions given the BART incident that happened recently where a man was shot. There have been numerous reports that have described the incident occurring between a passenger and an ‘officer’ or a ‘public transit officer’. Instead of giving some anonymity and side-stepping additional controversy, the poll adds to it.

I feel like this poll could have reached more people if it had been a bit broader with its question and subject matter. It would have also been interesting if the poll included an area that specified if the voter was a frequent BART passenger, sometimes rode BART or didn’t take BART at all; attitudes towards those on public transit and the BART police may also greatly affect the results.