Just a small part of my 90 minute commute.
Yesterday on my way home, between Haymarket and North Station, some kids started yelling and one of them pulled a knife. At least, I thought it was a knife. This older guy and I discreetly stepped off the train and walked up to the operator at the front of the car. I dropped the description, "black and red hoodie." I got back on, next to the driver, which was probably a bad call on my part, especially since the older guy wandered off.
The doors closed in our car and the driver radioed for help. The first fourth of the car could hear the discussion, definitely. She told the rest of the train that there was a disabled train ahead of us, and that was the cause for the delay. I have to give her credit for lying convincingly to keep the passengers calm.
People kept running into the second car of the train; those doors were still open. I was terrified that the knife-wielder would make the connection. We waited maybe five minutes for MBTA police to arrive. I haven't had a bad five minutes like that in years now. I tried to rationalize that there are not many "innocent bystander" stories involved in a knife fight, but then it occurred to me that if someone brought a knife on the train, any person could also bring a gun onto the train.
So I was locked into this moderately full train car, there was a potentially violent situation going on, and I was breathing poorly-recirculated air. Air that came out of other people. I haven't been sicked like this on the train since my senior year when some guy projectile vomited into a stairwell; there had been a very loud splashing sound. The air was sticking to the inside of my lungs. I tried to not have a panic attack.
Police swarmed in and dragged five or six kids off the train. I remember the whole thing being very quiet with fluid motions. This one officer wearing a helmet came up to the driver's door and said there hadn't been a knife.
I felt my stomach sink. I felt foolish; I'd been sitting on a delayed train earlier in the evening because of a track issue - maybe I was just tired and frustrated. I felt so ashamed of myself because I'd caused such a huge inconvenience to a train's worth of passengers, and I reinforced a stereotype that thuggish-looking kids are actually up to no good. I felt like one of those old ladies that calls the police when she sees more than two teenagers gathered on her block.
Another officer called out from the back. He had a moustache. They'd found the knife. "Sometimes, knives like to hide under seats," he said; he was smiling a bit.
The doors closed in our car and the driver radioed for help. The first fourth of the car could hear the discussion, definitely. She told the rest of the train that there was a disabled train ahead of us, and that was the cause for the delay. I have to give her credit for lying convincingly to keep the passengers calm.
People kept running into the second car of the train; those doors were still open. I was terrified that the knife-wielder would make the connection. We waited maybe five minutes for MBTA police to arrive. I haven't had a bad five minutes like that in years now. I tried to rationalize that there are not many "innocent bystander" stories involved in a knife fight, but then it occurred to me that if someone brought a knife on the train, any person could also bring a gun onto the train.
So I was locked into this moderately full train car, there was a potentially violent situation going on, and I was breathing poorly-recirculated air. Air that came out of other people. I haven't been sicked like this on the train since my senior year when some guy projectile vomited into a stairwell; there had been a very loud splashing sound. The air was sticking to the inside of my lungs. I tried to not have a panic attack.
Police swarmed in and dragged five or six kids off the train. I remember the whole thing being very quiet with fluid motions. This one officer wearing a helmet came up to the driver's door and said there hadn't been a knife.
I felt my stomach sink. I felt foolish; I'd been sitting on a delayed train earlier in the evening because of a track issue - maybe I was just tired and frustrated. I felt so ashamed of myself because I'd caused such a huge inconvenience to a train's worth of passengers, and I reinforced a stereotype that thuggish-looking kids are actually up to no good. I felt like one of those old ladies that calls the police when she sees more than two teenagers gathered on her block.
Another officer called out from the back. He had a moustache. They'd found the knife. "Sometimes, knives like to hide under seats," he said; he was smiling a bit.
1 Comments:
If you see something, say something! Good jaerb Erin!
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