I'm typically a pretty outspoken person but on BART, I am usually non-confrontational and try to be low profile. Very unlike my usual self but after nearly a decade of taking BART, I've also learned to just mind my own business and get the **ck out of there as soon as I can.
Yesterday evening, a drunk, drugged, belligerent homeless woman was SMOKING inside the train. I was pretty far away, fortunately, but saw the entire situation. A woman told her there's no smoking, she screamed profanity, then another passenger called the train operator, causing the homeless woman to spit on the person.
She got ejected, and on her way out, she was spitting (yes, spitting) on all the passengers in her way, screamed in people's faces and then pounded madly on the train window. The entire train was filled with smoke and stunk the entire ride.
Would I have told her to put out her cigarette? I honestly don't know. I've been verbally harassed by so many homeless near the Civic Center and Powell stations that I've learned to just walk as fast as I can, or just walk away. But yet, in any other situation, at a restaurant for example, if a patron smokes, I'd have no problems walking up to them and ask them to put the cigarette out.
What would you have done?
2 comments:
Same as you for fear of being spit on. You are more vulnerable on Bart. Spitting is disgusting and can spread disease. People have tried selling religion and other things to me on Bart. It is even more distressing when I have children with me. I don't ride as often as you, so the majority of the time, my ride is fine. I make no eye contact and put my headphones in. Totally opposite of how I am when not riding BART.
I also mind my own business on BART. In fact I usually wear earplugs so I can zone out everything that goes on around me and because of the intolerable noise in the subways. But as far as smoking on trains go, I get involved. I never confront the person. I just use the speaker and inform the TO of the situation and give a detailed description of the perp.
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