Bad Day on the MUNI - San Francisco Needs to Get It Together

Posted by Alexander Tsatkin

July 14, 2008

I love the idea of public transportation because it helps the environment and reduces costs associated with owning a car. In fact, I believe in it so much that I had no problem selling my car in favor of riding more public transport. I thought San Francisco public transportation was a great alternative: cheap, efficient, emission friendly, and safe. Well, I was wrong. Days like yesterday remind me of how dangerous public transportation can be.

Every few weeks there is an incident on the San Francisco MUNI that makes me question why I ever take the thing in the first place. No, I am not talking about the times the trains or buses break down, or the times it runs over people. I am talking about the times that the MUNI is so crowded that you can barely move. Even worse, the times that drunk bums and ghetto cracked out scum are allowed to ride it.

The particular incident that happened yesterday has been bothering me all morning. It has made me question humanity and worse my own capacity to stand up to things I know are wrong. I decided to write something down in the hopes that I can move past it.

It started with two loud obnoxious women who got on the MUNI. They were screaming and swearing using words so vulgar that a mom had to cover her child’s ears. It was surreal to see grown women act like apes, clapping, stomping, grunting, squealing, and speaking in what was barely the English language. They were not even fighting, this is how they communicated with each other.

Before long they started directing animosity towards anyone who looked at them. Within a few minutes a poor middle aged guy got the worst of it when he got slapped across the face for asking them to keep it down. They harassed the poor guy both physically and verbally. Only one person said something that got them to take attention away and direct it towards him. At one point one of the mothers got cussed out when she explained there are children around.

Somehow these two women (if you can call them that) were able to spit, push, slap, scream, swear, and degrade anyone they chose. They were able to intimidate over 50 people. I wondered how is it possible that 50 people can’t stand up to 2? Here is my theory, or at least my attempt to rationalize why this was allowed to happen. No guy could ever fight women, because it is a loose loose situation. To restrain these two, a guy would most likely have to fight them, and he can’t hit girls. To speak up would most likely get you slapped or spit on. As for the women, what woman would want to fight two ghetto scary looking people with their long nails and ruthless nature?

In situations like this you have to believe in karma and hope the universe will even things out. Maybe they will get hit by a car, or maybe dragged under the bus, or perhaps OD on whatever they were on.