Critics savagely mock 'bystander intervention cards' from Bay Area transit system to be handed out amid harassment situations

Critics are brutally mocking "bystander intervention cards" touted by Northern California's Bay Area Rapid Transit system for use during harassment situations.

BART on Friday posted instructions on X about the cards: "You can ask any station agent for BART’s free bystander intervention cards, which you can use if you’re experiencing or witnessing harassment in stations and trains."

The post includes a video featuring two female college students who ride BART and explain how the cards work. When riders are being harassed, they can hand out the "You got me?" cards as a request for help; when riders believe they are witnessing others being harassed, they can hand out the "I got you" cards to the perceived victim:

One student in the video says the cards "give me a concrete way to deal with an unsafe situation. I'm not very equipped to deal with them on my own, and so these cards give me a sense of community and a sense of support."

The second student says "especially for young college students and for youth, I think these cards are really accessible. It just gives a really easy way to either help someone or to ask for help without having to do much. If everyone has one then we'll just be able to support each other so much better and feel safer."

Oh, and they're free.

Here's the primary post with the video:

How are people reacting?

As you might expect, critics haven't been too kind to BART and its "bystander intervention cards." As of Monday afternoon, BART's primary post is getting ratioed at two-to-one rate. Here are but a few of the many blistering reactions:

• "Are children running BART? This is a shamefully juvenile approach to crime. Why don’t you hang 'crime-free zone' signs? Worked so well in those drug-free zones. Wish I could fire who is behind this," one commenter wrote.
• "When you see someone getting stabbed, hand them an 'I got you' card and wait for them to ask you to call someone," another user quipped.
• "Have you tried doing an interpretive dance to stop attackers yet?" another commenter wondered.
• "Are you f***ing kidding me?" another user asked.
• "This is what happens when sociology majors are given power to make decisions," another commenter observed.
• "This is parody, right?" another user queried.
• "Clearly you guys posted this 2 days early," another commenter noted. "April 1st is a not here yet."
• "Here are the rules for men," another user stated. "1. Help the woman being attacked. 2. If you injure the attacker, you go to jail."
• "This is not real right!? This is a sketch comedy routine right? Cause unless those cards 'magically' transport you out of the situation then they are useless! And BTW, who can up with this idea? What [clown] got paid money to come up with this!?" another commenter asked.

Then there's this gem:

Image source: X

Anything else?

BART added in its post that the bystander intervention cards "were created as part of BART’s Not One More Girl campaign, which encourages safety through bystander support and awareness, especially for girls and gender-expansive youth."

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