LULAC responds to Metro beating
The February assault of a 63year-old eastside woman at a Metro light rail stop has angered local Latino leaders, who say transit officials have failed to protect and value some of their most loyal riders.
“If it is not safe; how can they continue to ride?” said Augustin Pinedo, District 18 director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, calling for a series of Metro reforms after the Feb. 11 beating of Esperanza Ortiz, including executive resignations, and suggesting a possible boycott of buses and trains.
Ortiz was boarding a train toward downtown around 8 a.m. at Magnolia Park Transit Center —
the easternmost stop on the Green Line — when she was approached by a man who punched her in the head, just over the left ear. Speaking Spanish at a Wednesday morning news conference, Ortiz said she fell to the train’s floor and heard the man say, “I hate Mexicans.” Ortiz said she pulled out her cellphone to call 911, and the man struck her again in the head.
Rather than help her, Ortiz said the Metro train operator returned to the train — operators take scheduled breaks at the end of the line at Magnolia Park Transit Center — and told Ortiz to exit the train so it could leave.
“She said the next train would be coming,” Ortiz said.
Metro Police Chief Vera Bumpers, in a statement, said officers immediately called an ambulance to address Ortiz’s injuries and she was transported to a local hospital. An investigator later came to St. Joseph Medical Center to photograph Ortiz’s injuries, Bumpers said.
Police later arrested Reginald Fitzgerald, 25, who was booked into the Harris County Jail on Feb. 27. He previously was convicted of two counts of assault.
Ortiz’s assault is one of four Fitzgerald is charged with in Harris County related to various incidents in February. According to court records, two days before he allegedly beat Ortiz, he punched a Metro bus driver near Broadway and Bellfort. He was charged in that incident with assault of a public servant.
Unrelated to Metro, Fitzgerald also is charged with assaulting two women, one on Feb. 24 and another Feb. 26, according to court records.
Metro officials said Wednesday they were reviewing LULAC’s concerns and eager to talk to Pinedo about the issues raised.
Nearly three months after Ortiz’s attack, Pinedo said LULAC and others await answers and remain concerned Metro is ignoring the pleas of the community.
Through a spokesman, Houston District I Councilman Robert Gallegos, who represents the area where Ortiz was attacked, said he “wants a complete and thorough investigation, including into the actions of any Metro employee who may have witnessed the attack and failed to help.”
Pinedo said elderly and vulnerable users, including children, should not ride Metro buses and trains alone. Joined by others, he called for the resignation of Metro CEO Tom Lambert, a former police chief for the agency, and for changes in Metro’s structure to allow more riders and Latinos to occupy leadership positions, including the transit agency’s board of directors.
“They do not reflect the community,” Pinedo said. “They are Wall Street bankers and lawyers.”
Metro’s only Hispanic member on the nine-person board, Terry Morales, grew up in the East End and is a senior vice president of Amegy Bank.
Five members of the board are appointed by Houston, two by Harris County and two by the 14 smaller cities that are members of Metro. Of the nine, two are women, Morales and Metro Chairwoman Carrin Patman. Five members are white, along with two Black, one Latino and one Asian. One of the white men, Lex Frieden, is the transit agency’s second-ever member who uses a wheelchair for mobility.
Advocates said the transit agency has to connect with everyone it serves.
“While Metro is a diverse organization, there is a need for more diversity of people who come from the different communities the organization serves, speak the languages of the riders, and know the neighborhoods,” said Ines Siegel, spokeswoman for LINK Houston, a nonprofit that has urged Metro to improve bus and rail offerings, as well as its diversity programs.
Siegel said personal safety often is a topic of discussion between LINK and local groups.
“I am a transit rider, and there are times I don’t feel safe at the bus stop or while riding the light rail,” she said. “We urge Metro to work with the community to reevaluate its security protocols to ensure all riders’ safety.”
Overall, as use of the transit system has dipped because of the COVID pandemic, reported crimes along the Metro system are down. In February, when Ortiz was attacked, transit police reported their lowest number of severe offenses, 73, down from 107 in February 2020 before many pandemic restrictions went into effect. Of those crimes labeled Group A offenses, 24 were labeled as crimes against a person, typically assaults and robberies. That also was down from 39 the previous year.
Local leaders said they worry the data does not fully capture the uncertainty riders feel at transit platforms, in part because of drug use or mental illness by those who congregate at the locations. Some riders may not feel empowered to demand more from Metro, said former Houston ISD trustee and education consultant Sergio Lira.
“They might not speak up, but here we are today to be their voice because we believe in them, and this is our community,” Lira said. “We need to stop this culture of hate and protect people and it is up to Metro and the city to do that.”