New BART Chief…?

The Chronicle is reporting that Kenton Rainey is likely to become the next Head Cop at BART. Rainey comes to BART from San Antonio where he was head of the airport police. Prior to that he’s been involved in various controversies in departments around the country. He sued the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department for racial discrimination – and won. He was also basically chased out of his post as Chief at Fairfield for siding with community members against white officers involved in a shooting.

Clearly, the people at BART are trying to respond to community pressure. Hopefully, however, the community will remain strong in their demands that the BART police be disbanded. Maybe there are compromises worth making, but this chief is not enough to change BART’s racism and culture of violence.