What is it about stories involving obnoxious behavior by complete assholes that makes them so popular? The fifth most popular item at the San Francisco Chronicle involves an obnoxious passenger who had to be put off a train:
A passenger train made an unscheduled stop in Oregon over a woman’s cell phone use and verbal confrontations with other passengers.
Salem police say in a statement that 39-year-old Lakeysha Beard of Tigard was arrested on disorderly conduct charges Sunday afternoon.
Train operators called police and stopped the Amtrak train near Salem after complaints from passengers of Beard allegedly talking loudly and causing problems with others on the train.
Police say she had reportedly been on the phone almost continuously since boarding in Oakland, Calif., even though operators had repeatedly asked riders not to use their cell phones.
What I can’t understand is why the conductor couldn’t have just asked her to either shut up or get off the train. Conductors have the power to do that, do they not? And had she refused to comply, then why couldn’t they have just put her off at the next station?
Instead, they stopped the train at an unscheduled location (delaying passengers unnecessarily), and it took TWO police cars just to escort one woman (who now has her 15 minutes 29,000 hits of Internet fame) off the train.
Here’s the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDYszNQOvb8&feature=player_embedded
What’s next? Have the train met by a SWAT Team?
I realize we live in a complicated world, but as usual I am just not getting it.
Perhaps someone can enlighten me.
I mean, I knew that teachers can’t do anything about disruptive kids, but is everyone in a position of authority now powerless to do anything except call the cops when someone acts like an asshole?
Comments
2 responses to “Warholian assholian Internet fame”
You know the conductors could not physically touch her and that looks like the only way they could have gotten her off the train. One touch and it is lawsuit time, racial incident time, and probably a few other times. The cops are different. Move or else. Looks like it still took a great deal of effort to get her to get off.
By the by, having ridden Amtrak, it don’t move fast anyway, so passangers might not have noticed the extra stop.
I ride Amtrak nearly every day from Portland Me to Boston. (as a passenger) I guarantee you that the conductors asked her to cease before making an unscheduled stop. I have seen the amount of paperwork that they have to fill out for taking a passenger off the train let alone with police involvement. On top of that half of the time they get off duty when they get to the end of the line so they are not motivated to slow things down. In two years I have never seen them boot someone from the train for anything less than actions that would have gotten them arrested in any normal environment.
My guess is that you don’t have the full story here because the Train people want to let the legal system handle it.