On October 27, 2021, I rode on
two mass transit buses in Phoenix, Arizona. Both drivers were knowingly and
willfully violating the federal regulation (42 CFR sec.s 70-71), which requires
transit operators to wear masks during the pandemic even when they are situated behind a plexiglass
barrier. One of the drivers, whom I had twice before seen not wearing a mask,
again had lowered the plexiglass window pane between the driver and customers
paying. The first time, I had asked her
to put a mask on, given the federal regulation and her proximity to the
passengers boarding. Replying as if making an announcement, she said, “If
anyone feels unsafe on the bus, they can get off and wait for the next bus.”
That prompted a passenger to insult me. The company subsequently backed up the driver's refusal by saying that the federal law doesn't apply to buses in Arizona. It did, so the company violated federal law with impunity.
I reported this incident to the regional
bus authority and the city of Phoenix. Nevertheless I saw her maskless more than a week
later and then during the following week. I did receive a voicemail from TransDev, a
bus-operating company contracted by Metro Valley, informing me that regardless
of the federal law, the company policy does not require bus drivers to wear
masks. In fact, a representative from Metro Valley defiantly declared on a subsequent phone call that drivers
can let maskless passengers board—again, in violation of federal law. Company
policy apparently can nullify federal regulations in Arizona, a U.S. state with
special needs.
Even though the FBI told me
that it looks to local law enforcement agencies to enforce federal regulations,
a supervisor at one of the police sub-stations told me that his department
would not enforce the regulation. “Oh, so they want to dump it on us,” he said.
Astonishingly, he claimed that only law passed by his state’s legislature is
“real law in Arizona.” About a week later, a police transit supervisor told me
that the chief of police had told the non-supervisory patrol employees not to
enforce the federal regulation, and this directive had come down from the governor.
As shocking as such corruption
is, the immature, even pathological behavior of the second maskless bus driver
I witnessed on the morning of October 27, 2021 told me after I had asked her to
put on a mask that she didn’t care if a federal regulation requires drivers to
wear masks. “I don’t care. Go ahead, call the FBI,” she said with a daring tone
of presumed impunity. She also encouraged me to call the local police after I
said I would contact them too. “They don’t wear masks either,” she shouted.
Yes, shouted. I replied that I was ending the conversation, which she ignored
until I went to the back of the bus. She then accused me of threatening her.
“Get off my bus!” she exclaimed angrily even though she kept the bus in motion.
She was clearly making up an excuse to get me in trouble for having asked her
to comply with U.S. law. What a strange, absurd mentality, at least outside of
Arizona. Not surprisingly, she had let a maskless man ride. While walking to
the back door to exit the bus, the maskless old male passenger felt entitled pick
up the baton from the driver and shout “I’m vaccinated; I don’t have to wear a
mask” at me. I knew he was ignorant so I did not comment. Nevertheless, she
kept shouting his presumed factoid to me as he got closer. After he left, the
driver once again began shouting insults at me, having dismissed my statement
that I was done with the conversation. She called me a dumbass and a weirdo, and
told me in a dismissive and hostile tone, “Go back to your institution!” My
stop was coming up, so I could not get off the bus, but I did not want to hear
any more from the childish driving having a temper-tantrum. So I began repeating,
“I don’t talk to local creepers.” I had said this to the maskless passenger
too. “I won’t let you ride on my bus
ever again,” the driver said. It is significant that she referred to her bus, in repeating, “I won’t let you
ride my bus ever again,” when in
actuality the city of Phoenix owns the bus and she does not have the authority
to ban anyone from ever riding “her” bus ever again. Even were the bus her own,
she would still be required to follow federal law, though she clearly believed
otherwise. She even put her two hands to
her ears while operating the bus like
a kid would do, and angrily repeated, “I know you are, I know you are,” after I
declared that I do not talk with local creepers. It was surreal that any bus driver would
behave like a four year-old. “What are you in kindergarden?” I replied. Even when
I was walking out of the bus and then outside of the bus, the driver was
yelling insults, so I continued repeating my line. It was incredibly pathetic
that a four year-old’s mentality would stop her temper-tantrum only to pick up
her phone to call her supervisor, and yet the bus company’s customer service
does not allow passengers to speak with a supervisor of the drivers in real
time even when a driver is not only abusing his or her authority, but is having
a temper-tantrum. It is precisely because the drivers know that they can
misbehave with impunity that they go on the offensive even more by claiming
that a passenger is misbehaving. It is not surprising that drivers tend to
presume impunity in violating a federal regulation geared to ending a pandemic.
It is not surprising that several drivers in 2020 and 2021 felt entitled to
ignore the local and federal laws, respectively, requiring that passengers and
drivers wear masks. Some drivers actually wore their masks to cover only the
chin area as if that constituted compliance. Arizona’s pre-college education
ranked 49th out of the 50 states at the time. Go figure. Presumptive
arrogance combined with astounding ignorance is a toxic combination.
I submit that this last driver
was so brazen at least in part because there really is no accountability in the
local mass transit system, which includes Metro Valley, the regional transit
authority and TransDev, a private subcontractor that operates the buses, which
are owned by the city of Phoenix. Both Metro Valley and TransDev have told me
that their policies allowing maskless riders and drivers invalidate the federal
law. By the way, a local police patrol employee informed me (when he was off duty) that bus drivers are not federal
employees to the federal law does not apply to them. “So you locals are ok with
the federal money you get from the feds for your mass transit, but that doesn’t
obligate you to follow their regulations,” I concluded. He gave a thumbs up.
Three weeks earlier, a patrol supervisor informed
me that the only “real law in Arizona is that which goes through the state
legislature.” There is virtually no
enforcement of masks on the light rail by security guards either. They
illegally impersonate police officers by wearing silver badges, yet have
admitted that Metro Valley won’t allow them to enforce the local ordinance in
2020 and the federal regulation in 2021. I think the guards are more interested
in intimidating passengers to feel the pleasure of being dominant (albeit
certainly not superior in any way) than in enforcing even federal law.
It is strange seeing three or
four guards on one half of a car yet not one of the Allied Security employees
are enforcing the federal law as it is even stated on on-board signs declaring,
“Per Federal Law, Masks Are Required.” Once when I heard a train’s operator
make an announcement at every stop, I pressed a red button at an intercom with
the driver. The drivers want passengers to report problems, so it was ironic
that a young black guard rushed to me (I had not seen him in the back) and demanded
to know what I had been talking about. I asked him twice to lift his mask from
his chin to cover his mouth and nose. He obviously felt entitled to break the
law even though signs on the doors and windows were obvious. Without even
waiting for me to answer his question, he became very hostile toward me and
declared that if he ever sees me use the intercom again, he would kick me off
the train. As I was leaving the train, I passed by the operator’s open window. “Of
course we want you to use the intercom to report things like you did—that many
passengers are ignoring my announcement!” I asked her to report the guard.
In short, the arrogance,
corruption, and incompetence at the state, city and mass transit levels at
least in Phoenix are such that someone who is not used to such a sordid,
ignorant, and hostile culture cannot but be astonished—jaws-dropped astonished.
Not only does the bus company ignore reports of illegal behavior; the company
claims that its policy, which contradicts federal law, is the only thing that
the company acknowledges as valid. How could anyone at a company believe that a
company policy nullifies a federal law? How could a police chief tell her
police force not to enforce a federal law, when according to the U.S.
Department of Justice, the F.B.I. routinely relies on local law enforcement to
play a role in enforcing federal law. Yet in Phoenix, Arizona, a police supervisor
specializing on transit refused to acknowledge that state officials ever enforce federal law. “They want
their laws enforced? They will have to send feds to enforce them.”
