DIRECTOR’S DESK | Mark says that if you want to help him, you can support a just and compassionate system
Mark Rodriguez’s plight with a TriMet citation struck a chord with readers.
On Friday, Nov. 8, Mark told us how he’d been served a $175 citation for not tapping his monthly pass before dashing to catch his MAX train. His Hop card and receipt were clipped to a lanyard, but the fare inspector was uncompromising. We posted a Twitter thread, more media covered it, and the community outpouring was strong.
One community member has already provided the money to pay Mark’s ticket, should Mark decide to do that.
“I don’t believe TriMet should be taking my time and my money and my energy for this,” Mark explained. “Was I profiled? I don’t know. But I’ve got the sword of Damocles hanging over my head. Because if I don’t do things, there’s repercussions.”
Homeless, Mark has been trying for two years to secure housing.
Mark tried to write a statement to respond to the large public outpouring. Nothing would come. So we sat down and turned on a recorder. It doesn’t take long for Mark’s thoughts to travel into the eloquent sphere he easily inhabits.
“A lot of times when you read books like “Les Misérables” or different plays, isn’t this always the theme? The injustice that’s done in the system. And it was Javert who was so stuck on the letter of the law.”
In “Les Misérables,” Inspector Javert relentlessly pursues Jean Valjean, whose first crime was stealing a loaf of bread for his hungry family.
Mark described TriMet fare enforcement as a kind of “epilogue” where the “Javerts of the world – I don’t know if the guy who gave me a ticket is a Javert – are operating on the letter of the law.”
Addressing the fare inspector system, Mark asked rhetorically, “You don’t have any grace? You don’t have a sense of grace?”
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A lot of people are upset about your story, I tell Mark. A lot of people would like to help.
“You know how they can help?” Mark said. “Support Portland Street Response, because I’m totally behind Portland Street Response, the first responders.” Mark has worked on the Portland Street Response campaign since last spring – testifying before a City Council budget forum, surveying unhoused Portlanders, and helping with the logo contest the morning we spoke.
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He recounts how citations and arrests pile up, poor people are sent to jail, and then “they have these horrendous records,” he said. “And they finally want to be a teacher – forget it! You want to be a nurse? You can’t! You have to have a spotless record.”
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I understand why he connects his situation with fare enforcement to his work on Portland Street Response. It’s about grace as a solution to legal entanglements.
But how does that same impulse to create a compassionate system transfer to TriMet?
Mark gestures out to the community. It’s for the community to figure out.
“It’s not one person’s battle; it’s the community’s battle. If the community can see clearly what to do through this, they need to do something.”
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