rather be anonymous said...
I am not sure where to post this however, thought it was important enough to report. Yesterday I took the H-street shuttle from Chinatown around 11:30 pm. The bus was more than crowded. About 15-20 kids, probably teenagers got on to the bus and soon enough started creating a ruckus. The kids were extremely unruly, loud and belligerent. Some verbal altercation ensued between a few of the kids which escalated into a full fledged fight. One of the guy's who can be clearly clasified as a sociopath started yelling loudly and then hit a girl so hard that she was thrown off to the front of the bus. There was an elderly lady in the bus and other passengers whose well being at that point was endangered due to the fact that the bus itself is very small and people were coming to blows in such close proximity in a moving vehicle. Another gender challenged (I could not clearly determine whether he was a boy or a girl) guy/girl then confronted the sociopathic guy who had just hit a girl. At this point the we were near H-street connection and the driver stopped the bus and the 10-15 kids then offloaded and continued their altercation on the street where I saw one of the kids pick up something that looked like a brick or a large stone ready to hurl it at someone.
The bus took off at that point leaving the scene of the commotion.
Just for the records, the driver did not call 911 neither did he ask the kids to stop yelling and speaking loudly. He probably was intimidated by their sheer numbers which is understandable.
I got home to get my camera and got into my car to take pictures of the scene and especially the sociopath who had just hit a girl. The guy needs to be locked up before he seriously hurts someone. Unfortunately they had all fled within 10 minutes.
Aug 7, 2010 9:22:00 AM
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UPDATE 9:34am
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rather be anonymous said...
I didn't call 911 since I saw another passenger calling the cops after the kids off loaded. Yes calling 911 in the middle of the brawl would be foolish because we were more than outnumbered by a bunch of rowdy, loud and unpredictable kids. We would have had to scream on the phone to let the cops know what was happening. I doubt that the kids were armed however, more concerned about the stampede which can cause serious injuries in close proximity due to the size of the bus. There needs to be a set limit on number of passengers. I hope officials in charge of the H-street shuttle have been notified of this incidence and a response protocol has been put together in case such thing happens in future which I anticipate it will now that the kids are aware of the free ride to H-street.
Aug 8, 2010 12:56:00 PM
anonymous said...
As the operating manager for the H Street Shuttle, I feel obligated to weigh in on what happened on Friday. According to our driver, once the different groups started the altercation, he immediately pulled over and proceeded towards the group involved in the altercation. As soon as he realized they were getting physical he opened the door and escorted the group out of the shuttle. One
patron asked for a group of three men to be put back in the shuttle since they were not involved in the fight. He then proceeded to drive away from the scene. His priority was the safety of the patrons within the shuttle.There were several people who witnessed the violence and since the vehicle was in motion he did not attempt to call 911.
Our drivers are always faced with difficult issues. Due to the reason that they are always on the same route they are bound an easy target if one wanted to take revenge. In several instances the shuttles have been egged, shot at with a Bibi gun and attempts to flatten the tires have occurred. Therefore our drivers walk a delicate line when dealing with the riders of the H Street Shuttle.
Aug 8, 2010 6:53:00 PM
Just a tip guys, while it is far better to call 911 during an ongoing emergency, you can always text the cops at 50411 if you are afraid to be seen/heard making a phone call.
16 comments:
so no one on the shuttle called 911? you witnessed a crime.
Start charging a fee to ride the shuttle and you'll get rid of some of this riff-raff.
Thanks for the texting tip!
Unfortunately, Anonymous @ 9:43, I don't think that would make a huge difference. I see similar things happen on the X2 all of the time. (Based on the description, it may be the same group of teens.)
"gender-challenged"?!? just because she or he was challenging your understanding of gender doesn't mean you need to insult them.
Stella artois- I don't think any of those kids deserve any respect of any sort. Putting innocent passenger's at risk by brawling in a bus ride which doesn't even last for more than 10 minutes is not a commendable behavior. Kid's like that don't show remorse for anyone and respect is definitely not a word in their dictionary.
I thought only white people rode the H St. Shuttle?
Get off of the race issue already Anon 1:39
I had a bad experience back on July 21. Nothing that made me feel threatened, just very rude behavior from several youth. The worst offense was from a guy LOUDLY pretending to hock a loogie into his cell phone for several minutes. I know it's a lot to ask for the drivers because they would have to check, but I wonder if there could be a minimum age (without a parent)requirement to ride the shuttle. The main intention of the shuttle is to support businesses on H street... I'm guessing most customers of the bars/restaurants are over 21.
Figured this was as good a place as any to add to the discussion:
Saturday night (well, Sunday morning to be more accurate) I was, I guess "attacked" by a group of three teens (probably mid-high school age). This happened at 13th and G street NE.
I put attacked in quotes because one of the kids attempted to use a stun gun on me. Thankfully, the idiots had probably been f-ing around with it before hand and ran down the batteries.
I turned and looked at them and started walking away, towards H Street. They seemed confused and started walking in the other direction.
I called the cops when I reached H Street and tried to warn a few people I saw heading back to where they were. Obviously, the kids were gone by then, but the police responded pretty quickly and were as helpful as possible.
I'm fine, and nothing was stolen but we're learning a few lessons here, people.
Lesson #1 - it is NOT a good idea to walk alone pretty much anywhere at night, guy or girl. I was about 2-3 blocks from home, and 1 block from the still very busy H Street.
Lesson #2 - (Pretty much directly from the cops) When you see a group of teens, it is completely OK, and probably a good idea, to assume the worst and cross to the other side of the street. We just don't live in an area where that is unreasonable behavior, sorry to say.
Lesson #3 - As much as I generally still love living in our neighborhood, this area still has a long way to go.
Can you please give more description than three teens so we'll know what to look for? Were they male or female? Were they Asian, black,or white? Were they wearing gangsta clothes or cargo shorts? Did they have blond hair or cornrolls?
There will be some on here that will try to turn this into a racist question, but then there will be some concerned citizens that will see this as a legitimate question. I personally would like to know what to be on the look out for.
Personally I think neighborhoods should start pushing back agaisnt this type of rampant criminality. I'd love to hear that a group of miscreant teens had their asses handed to them after harassing someone. Of course then we'd start hearing the inevitable cries of "hate crime" and how unfair it is that someone's "innocent" boy that "never hurt nobody" got beat on.
Just saw a rather raw youtube video of a group of unruly teen/twentysomethings harassing drivers in a narrow street at night in Boston. They were jumping on the cars and hitting the doors, generally intimidating people... that is until one driver got out of his car and cold-clocked several of them with a baseball bat. Heh. Justice is served.
This is why I always leave my golf clubs in my trunk. A driver or a 3 iron is far more effective than a short stubby bat
One, The texting tip is a great idea
two, describing perpetrators by race is far less useful than describing them by more specific ways, such as prominent tattoos, height, weight, clothing, etc
Saying black make, for example fits the description of one third of the people in this neighborhood and us therefore too vague to be helpful. Admittedly race might help if the suspect's race is more exotic to the area, like say eskimo
Sorry for the typos, posting by phone
Auto complete sucks
"Can you please give more description than three teens so we'll know what to look for? Were they male or female? Were they Asian, black,or white?"
Of course they were black males. Is that even a question? When's the last time you heard of a gang of Asian teens harassing people on H Street?
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