After three recent high-profile incidents of violence on BART trains or at its stations, a coalition of business leaders, elected officials, and community groups are telling Gavin Newsom to beef up BART security with California Highway Patrol officers.   You’ll recall the horrific fatal shoving of a woman into an oncoming BART train in early July that took the life of 74-year-old Corazon Dandan. And not even two weeks ago, a man slashed the throat of 54-year-old woman on a BART train rolling in to 24th Street station, and while that victim has still not named publicly, media reports have described her as an “Asian woman.”  Then just yesterday, a man was found stabbed to death outside the Embarcadero BART station, in a case where the victim is still unidentified and the suspect reportedly escaped into the station.All of this has led to the business group Bay Area Council and a host of other elected officials to call for California Highway Patrol officers to be be deployed on BART on trains and in stations, as the Chronicle reports. “We write today seeking your immediate attention and action in response to recent violent crimes on BART trains and in stations targeting the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, seniors and other vulnerable populations,” Bay Area Council president and CEO said Jim Wunderman said in the letter. “We call for the immediate deployment of California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers on BART trains and in stations to ensure the safety of the community.”The letter is co-signed by some heavy hitters in state and local government: SF City Attorney David Chiu, state Assemblymembers Matt Haney, Evan Low and Phil Ting, incoming Assemblymember Catherine Stefani, State Treasurer Fiona Ma, and incoming District 3 Supervisor Danny Sauter.Also co-signing are the SF Chamber of Commerce, the Chinatown Merchants Association San Francisco, and other AAPI business groups. It’s additionally co-signed by constant Oakland recall advocate Carl Chan, and venture capitalist Garry Tan, ironic in light of his tweeting “Die slow, motherfuckers” at a Chinese-American SF supervisor, among others supervisors (though that sentiment was directed at the entire progressive bloc of the SF Board of Supervisors, not just Supervisor Connie Chan.)KTVU got a response from BART, who seemed to welcome any help, but also insisted they were making great progress on systemwide safety."BART would welcome the strategic deployment of the CHP in the areas around our stations. This will help keep problems out of BART," BART spokesperson Jim Allison said in a statement to KTVU. "Through September, BART PD made more than 14,000 enforcement contacts, an increase of more than 5,000 contacts from the same period in 2023."This is not the first time the Bay Area Council has harangued BART about safety and cleanliness.But KTVU also got comment from Newsom’s office, which seems not even lukewarm to the idea.Newsom’s deputy director of communications Tara Gallegos told the station that BART is “run independently by an elected board of directors. However, the state has committed nearly $550 million to support BART this year, and over $400 million to fight hate crimes since the Governor took office."And you have to admit, the CHP is already being stretched pretty thin with a San Francisco fentanyl eradication effort and crackdown on car theft and break-ins in Oakland. But those efforts have proven fairly successful, so it’s no surprise to see people wanting more California Highway Patrol deployments on matters that have nothing to do with California highways. Related: BART Throat-Slashing Suspect Has Had Multiple Arrests for Robberies, Drugs [SFist]Image: BART.gov