The Onion Skewers Police Use of Public Transit During Protests

It's possible that bus public transit could some day again be a powerful tool for economic and social mobility.

1 minute read

June 5, 2020, 5:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


New York MTA Bus

Sorbis / Shutterstock

If you're familiar with the satirical, totally-fake-news-site The Onion, then you're familiar with the format of American Voices, where a question is posed to a repeating group of "random" people on the street for their take on a big issue of the day.

In this case, these "American Voices" are asked to ponder the following question, inspired by reports of transit systems being shutdown and commandeered all over the country in response to the wave of protests and police action in the past two weeks:

Transit worker unions in both Minneapolis and New York City announced this weekend that they stand in solidarity with protestors and will not allow the police to use buses to carry arrested citizens to jail or drive officers to protest locations. What do you think?

The answer of "Holly Pender, syrup cook," is this: "Take it from me, bus drivers absolutely hate it when you try to commandeer the bus."

There are two more similarly snarky and totally fictitious responses at the source article.

Monday, June 1, 2020 in The Onion

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

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