Muni Diaries

We got a flood of comments after yesterday’s post about a teenage girl who slapped and spat on a 60-year-old on the J-Church train (see the original post). Leanne Maxwell, who  reposted the story on SFist, updated us on an account by an alleged witness. The story, as it turned out, was not as simple as the Noe Valley Voice letter portrayed.

First, the 60-year-old who was attacked was a man, not a woman. And according to SFist, the teen was later identified and apologized to the man.

But then the story takes a turn, the alleged witness told SFist:

Sadly, I was there. What seems to be missing from the account is that the man was yelling crude obscenities at the teen and pulled the her legs off of the seats which initally escalated the exchange.

Myself and the passengers around me couldn’t believe he would do that to a young woman, no matter how haughty she was. She responded so inappropriately that it just became a total mess.

Many people ignored what was happening, and looked at their iPhones and it was also very crowded. Some did try to minimally restrain the girl, but I think no one whole-heartedly jumped in to help him b/c he was initially so disrespectful to her. The story was just not as black and white as portrayed.

The worst part was seeing the young children going on a fieldtrip with their moms…ugh, the whole thing was ugly.

Thank you, SFist, for spreading the word of this terrible account. Check out more comments on SFist’s post.

Note: See our update from an alleged witness who told SFist that the teen was provoked. Thank you, SFist, for spreading the word and reporting this story.

This shocking letter from the Noe Valley Voice (via reader Randy) had us thinking, “Has it really come to this?” The Muni incident began when a 60-year-old woman asked a teenage girl not to take up three seats on a packed J-Church train headed toward Mission High School. When the teenager refused after being asked repeatedly, things turned ugly. The woman recounts the incident to the Voice:

I very politely asked her if she would move her bag so two people could sit down. She said, “No.” I asked her again and she told me, “F- -k off.” I asked her a third time and told her that I would remove her bag if she didn’t do it herself. I reminded her that this was public transportation and that everyone on the streetcar had paid the same fare to enter and that she didn’t have the right to take three seats. I reminded her that these seats were reserved for seniors and people with disabilities. She told me to “f- -k off” again. I reached down to move her bag and when I did so, she stood up and very forcefully slapped me in the face, knocking off my glasses. I’m 60 years old and the surprise and force of her slap knocked me down. She then proceeded to curse at me, calling me a “f- -king bitch” and several other things.

As if that weren’t enough, the abuse allegedly continued until the teenager got off the streetcar at Church and 18th Street. You can read the rest of the incident in her letter here in Voice‘s May Letters to the Editor (scroll down to “Incident on Muni”).

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