what the fuck?
So I took the train home this evening 'cuz it was crappy out and I was feeling lazy. For those of you who don't know, I live off the southern-most end of the Blue Line. I happened to have brought the book I'm reading with me, so I took my usual course of action which is to bury my nose in it. There were about 6 people in the car I was in. Somewhere in the loop someone got on wearing a dark gray hoodie with the hood pulled up, very dark gray jeans, and brown boots. I was reading, he walked past very slowly, so I looked down at his shoes to gauge what sort of person was eyeing my bike so closely. They looked to be in good condition, as did the rest of his clothes, so I just kept reading, or appearing to read. The guy was obviously trying to intimdate everyone in the car, coming very close to everyone, trying to decide who to pick on I suppose. There was a guy about my age, nicely dressed, sitting near the other end of the car who this guy decided to mug. They were talking, I figured the guy was just asking him for money (which I suppose he was) like so many people do on the train. I kept my eyes and ears open, 'cuz the nicely dressed guy was clearly nervous, and it looked like something bad was going to happen. A different guy got up and walked away from that end of the car and sat down in the seat across from me. The nicely dressed guy got up after a minuite, after he said something about not having $20, and stood near the doors at my end of the car. Mugger dude follows him. Somewhere in the time covered by the last three sentences I noticed that mugger dude is a young black man wearing a neoprene mask. I pulled my knife out and decided that was a bad idea, so I put it away again. As mugger guy is standing next to nice clothes guy, the train stops for the next station, and neither of them moved. Very wise on the part of nice clothes guy, not so smart on the part of mugger guy. Before the train started moving again, mugger guy left the car through the doors that go between the cars. I started talking with nice clothes guy, suggesting that he report it by pressing the little "talk to the operator" button which was near us. This he did, the operator responded, nice clothes guy told him a very brief version of the story, and we watched what was going on in the next car. Mugger guy saw that we were watching what was going on and decided to leave the train. Train operator guy was walking towards us, we pointed down the stairs where the guy had gone, and operator guy called someone on the walkie-talkie. I don't really know what happened from there, other than the train operator getting the train going again and me going back to my book, but it really fucked with me.
I mean, mugger guy was intelligent enough to attempt this kinda late at night, in the underground section of the train system where cell-phones don't work, but he was dumb enough to think that he could get away with it. If the car was totally empty except for he and his victim he might, but it's fairly plain that one is trapped on the train with people who might frown on such things, and if just one person is confident enough to call the train operator while the train is moving or the doors are shut, you're fucked. This guy might have gotten away, he might not, I don't know. Thing is, you REALLY don't know what you're fucking with when you accost a random stranger. The little old lady you're trying to mug might be John Gotti's aunt, or a blackbelt in Hand-ya-ass-too-ya. You might be stronger than the guy you're mugging, but the guy sitting down the train might be a whole lot bigger than you, and not like what you're doin'.
I guess the reason I'm posting this is to remind people that even small actions like calling the train operator can prevent bad things from happening. I don't want to get shot, and helping nice-clothes guy keep the $2 he had on him isn't worth it for me to take the chance, but all I ended up having to do was suggest that nice-clothes guy press the button and not only did mugger guy not get a chance to mug anyone else, but he ended up running off, hopefully into the arms of the station guard or the police. The CTA signs say very plainly "If you see something, say something" and I would like to say YES! PLEASE DO!
I mean, mugger guy was intelligent enough to attempt this kinda late at night, in the underground section of the train system where cell-phones don't work, but he was dumb enough to think that he could get away with it. If the car was totally empty except for he and his victim he might, but it's fairly plain that one is trapped on the train with people who might frown on such things, and if just one person is confident enough to call the train operator while the train is moving or the doors are shut, you're fucked. This guy might have gotten away, he might not, I don't know. Thing is, you REALLY don't know what you're fucking with when you accost a random stranger. The little old lady you're trying to mug might be John Gotti's aunt, or a blackbelt in Hand-ya-ass-too-ya. You might be stronger than the guy you're mugging, but the guy sitting down the train might be a whole lot bigger than you, and not like what you're doin'.
I guess the reason I'm posting this is to remind people that even small actions like calling the train operator can prevent bad things from happening. I don't want to get shot, and helping nice-clothes guy keep the $2 he had on him isn't worth it for me to take the chance, but all I ended up having to do was suggest that nice-clothes guy press the button and not only did mugger guy not get a chance to mug anyone else, but he ended up running off, hopefully into the arms of the station guard or the police. The CTA signs say very plainly "If you see something, say something" and I would like to say YES! PLEASE DO!