Bus passengers recognized

Score one for Metro's security cameras. Warning: the video here of a mentally ill man's attack on a blind woman aboard a Metro bus is quite upsetting. RantWoman posts here without an opinion about whether it is good that the surveillance video found its way to Youtube. Surveillance video of attack on blind woman

Score two for a whole bunch of bus passengers who, when a severely mentally ill man boarded the bus and immediately started attacking a blind woman sitting in the front seat across from the driver, swarmed into action. The other passengers pulled the guy off the woman, surrounded and restrained him until police arrived.

The passengers were recently recognized by King County Sheriff Sue Rahr for meritorious service to the community.
http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/45871102.html

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0905/21/ldt.01.html

http://www.wivb.com/dpp/news/crime/Blind_woman_attacked_caught_on_tape_20090521

http://doubledoublethoughts.blogspot.com/2009/05/man-punches-blind-woman-on-bus.html

The same KCPQ transcript above along with some freepers raving about how they wish someone had had a Glock to oblige a guy screaming about "the sick must die." Free Republic commentary For the record, RantWoman thinks a gun could have made a real mess here.

Score three for the WA state mental health system keeping the guy behind this attack behind bars ever since the attack. RantWoman is not sure she entirely wants to know whether or not he is another case of totally inadequate monitoring of the severely mentally ill or another case where he was being monitored but the system could not do anything to intervene. (In this vein, RantWoman notes that the severely mentally ill man who murdered a young employee of the Sierra Club near the young woman's Capitol Hill apartment recently pleaded guilty and will henceforth be residing in secure state custody, likely for the rest of his life.)

RantWoman picked up the thread about recent recognition of the passengers in this incident almost as soon as it came across one of her blindness lists; she supposes tomorrow might bring more media coverage or details known to some but probably not many for over a year. RantWoman wishes the passenger involved a full recovery from all injuries and trauma.

Predictably, RantWoman has a whole list of additional thoughts. RantWoman also cautions that she is speaking for herself; other blind people almost certainly have a variety of other perspectives.

RantWoman generally thinks security cameras aboard buses are a very good idea and she suspects some of them are monitored live. RantWoman previously witnessed an incident where some very gawky middle school girls were basically brawling in the back of the bus. The situation was a very underage more ghetto than average version of Jerry Springer with the combatants mouthing off, running back and forth hitting each other and basically being highly juvenile though thankfully without weapons. The driver eventually came back and told the charming young ladies involved that unless they shaped up he was going to put them all off the bus. One of them who seemed to be kind of the instigator got off shortly thereafter and other passengers had a fairly interesting conversation with the ones who remained about insecurity and the difficulties of fitting in for new students. RantWoman was glad of the camera but she was also glad of the wisdom of the other passengers in talking to the girls afterward.

You read that right: RantWoman was sitting in the back of the bus that time. See, the stuff that happens in the front of the bus sometimes makes RantWoman very glad she can kind of fake it a lot of the time. On routes RantWoman rides all the time, routes where she knows where she is going and where to get off without needing to hear the driver, RantWoman's first choice is NOT to sit in the front of the bus.

First, the front of the bus is full of drunks, other disabled people jockeying for space, and heavy traffic by people with bags and backpacks and things to bump into. Second, RantWoman is tall and having her feet walked on by everyone else getting on and off the bus for the whole ride just is not RantWoman's idea of a good time. Third, RantWoman can always justify riding further back just in the name of the rich opportunities for amateur linguistic and sociological research. Fourth, on some occasions when RantWoman does not know where she is going, she is just as likely to wind up with a driver who really does not know either and sometimes will need to rely on passengers more familiar with the route anyway.

If there is room, for example if RantWoman boards near the beginning of the route, RantWoman will often opt for the first seat facing forward rather than the side-facing ones. RantWoman knows a few other blind people who also do this when they can.

On very crowded buses, especially if RantWoman is making Thwack work or the lighting is bad, RantWoman has plenty of times slumped gratefully into a front seat to save herself the awkwardness of trying to find her own seat, and RantWoman thanks passengers very much when they give up their seats for her. RantWoman may at some point offer a general tirade about who does or does not give up their seats in the front of the bus and when or for whom, but not tonight.

The thing is, awful as the incident with the mentally ill guy was, RantWoman is still a huge fan of the bus and still feels quite safe during the vast majority of all her fascinating, functional and frequently entirely unremarkable rides all over Metro's service area.