Friday, August 27, 2010

I wonder if anyone else on the train saw, and just pretended they didn't?

I'm pretty sure that a guy tried to take a photo of me on his phone this morning while we were on the brown line. He came up to stand behind me in such a way that his arm was around me and his body was to the side of me, and he was sort of crowding me into the side of the train. Of course, the train was crowded so at first I figured that he was just trying to squeeze in and couldn't find anywhere else to put his arm. However, I felt like he kept sidling a bit closer to me, even though he never touched me.

I was feeling more and more crowded and was just considering asking him to move, when I saw a flash out of the corner of my eye. I immediately knelt down and sort of lurched backward so that his arm was no longer around me and gave him a death glare. I would have actually said something if I had truly seen his phone pointed at me, but since I wasn't sure I bit my tongue. For the next two stops he acted normal, so I didn't have a chance to say anything.

I feel a bit frustrated with myself for not reacting more strongly, but I now feel that in the future I'll have more courage to lash out when something like that happens. Incidents like these make me furious. I wonder if anyone else on the train saw, and just pretended they didn't? All I know is that if I ever see that happening to someone else, I promise to myself that I will confront the assailant immediately.

~Submitted by Rebecca