> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Alarmists can hop train out of town
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/alarmists-can-hop-train-out-of-town-editor/
- Published: 2007-02-15T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T00:03:59.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Don Fawcett Brentwood*

What a fine, funny, sad illustration of the perpetual climate of fear that is being nurtured in this country! In the article “Is Light Rail Good for Santa Monica?” (Feb. 7, page 1) a “policy analyst” for the libertarian Reason Foundation says people who board a train without a ticket are, more than others, “likely to engage in crime.” Actually, the incidence of crime by all individuals on all modes of public transportation is two incidents per million passenger trips, as revealed by the Federal Transit Authority’s database, mentioned in the same article.

Must we “be afraid, be very much afraid” of our fellow workers, shoppers, etc., and stay alone in our cars?

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 15, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/021507.pdf?ref=smdp.com)