![Green Line bully](https://universalhub.com/files/styles/main_image_-_bigger/public/images/2022/yeller.jpg)
Camo-hatted bully in action. Photo by David Yamada.
A man's haranguing of a young Muslim woman that started on the Green Line platform at Prudential Saturday ended on a trolley when several people stood up and put themselves between them, according to one of the participants in the incident.
David Yamada, a professor at Suffolk University Law School - who focuses on workplace bullying - reports he was waiting for a trolley at Prudential early Saturday evening when he noticed a guy "annoying and haranguing passengers with his supposed Christian beliefs. It was merely obnoxious until he started to harass a young woman wearing a hijab."
The trolley came in, everybody got on and "he continued to make fun of her hijab and spouting off about Christianity to anyone who would listen (or not)."
And then, Yamada and at least three other people "intervened to move him away from her and told him to back off, for which she was very grateful." The trolley driver briefly stopped the train to join them and make sure the woman was OK. "There was no discussion about what to do; it was genuinely spontaneous."
Yamada adds: "I thought he might punch me when he saw me taking photos, but he was too much in his own head and rambled off at the next stop.
"There is power in numbers, including frankly the security of knowing that you're not the only one jumping in to help. I did get in one snarky comment of my own. As he left the train he said something about Jesus coming for all of us, and I said something like oh yes, pal, he's coming for you for sure!"
A similar incident on a Portland trolley in May ended with two men dead after, police say, the man doing the screaming pulled out a knife and stabbed them.
Last month, the city of Boston put up posters at some bus stops on ways people could step in when they see Islamaphobes in action.
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Comments
Did anyone call the cops?
By anon
Mon, 08/07/2017 - 9:30am
Where the transit police notified of this rolling hate crime? Did they respond and how long did it take for them to get there. According to their website that have a force of about 275 officers where are they when you need them.
Can somebody link us to news
By anon
Mon, 08/07/2017 - 10:04am
Can somebody link us to news of any official response to this incident ? Everywhere else seems to be shamefully silent about it.
"Dog bites man" is not really newsworthy.
By Bob Leponge
Mon, 08/07/2017 - 1:40pm
I'd say I am verbally assaulted by crazy people a couple of times per month, and have my life threatened by one maybe once or twice per year. It's not like it's front page news when it happens.
I'm glad to hear this.
By anon
Mon, 08/07/2017 - 12:25pm
I'm glad to hear this.
It helps counteract how I'm feeling about an incident last week. A woman got angry at a T bus driver who made her pay. The passenger started yelling about how she hates T drivers, "especially the lesbians". And when I called her out on it, bystanders started yelling at *me*.
This happens a lot
By BethC
Mon, 08/07/2017 - 12:39pm
I saw a very similar incident unfold on the Orange Line, not too long ago. The women in question, who were sitting quietly when they were verbally attacked and berated for "looking Middle Eastern", were right in front of me. People had to jump in and tell the guy to leave them alone. We didn't call the conductor or the cops. We just dealt with it. We didn't take photos.
I'm surprised at the comments from people who disbelieve the story. This kind of thing happens all the time. I've heard credible accounts of numerous other incidents. They are rarely reported or documented. Probably they should be, but at the time something is occurring people are generally trying to defuse the situation, not draw it out.
An MBTA driver was apparently involved in this
By O-FISH-L
Mon, 08/07/2017 - 4:03pm
Nobody doubts these incidents sometimes occur, the skeptics are just looking for some word from MBTA brass who have access to cameras and their trolley driver that might confirm the alleged incident. With a number of multi-million dollar news operations in the city, it would be nice if they assigned a reporter or even a summer intern to get a quote from MBTA investigators.
Charlie Baker himself along with MBTA Police Chief Kenneth Green should step to the forefront and say whether this incident happened or it didn't. Very easy. Like the questionable Fenway incident, there are firm legal grounds to expose the perpetrator in public. By failing to do so, it just perpetuates the "Racist Boston" stereotype with flimsy evidence provided by those with a special interest in the topic. The MBTA and its multitude of police and spokespersons have had almost eight hours today for the press release but the local news will show a car fire on 495 instead of demanding answers.
Good Lord, man...
By Bob Leponge
Mon, 08/07/2017 - 4:06pm
How many incidents PER DAY do you think there are, of crazy person harassing innocent bystander on the T? If Charlie Baker or Kenneth Green made a statement about every single one, they wouldn't have time to get anything else done.
You've lost it
By Irma la Douce
Mon, 08/07/2017 - 4:20pm
Your obsession with the Globe, Baker, et. al has caused you to lose the point of the story: Bostonians united to protect someone who was the target of religion-based (not racist) hate. Nobody has called this a racist incident, the photo of the alleged perp depicts someone who does not appear to be a white supremacist. As the first commenter noted, they all (minus the perp) represented our city well.
The example in Portland Or
By catherine dynes
Tue, 08/08/2017 - 8:37am
The example in Portland Or had a negative outcome due to the situational differences. While this incident in Boston had a more positive result, the two events are very different. I'm from Portland ,Or . The Portland stabbings were preventable if specific interventions could've taken place.I work in the mental health field and discussing this case with peers ,we all came to that same conclusion: One was the ranting man who was already in a state of psychosis, shouldve been ejected from the train hours prior by Transit Police. . The man in Portland had been ranting for at least an hour previous to the other passengers getting on, according to witness reports. The assailant in Portland had a prior history of violent behavior and lashing out and had spent most of his adult life in the penal system. Later he admitted to Police to a stabbing in downtown Portland ,so he was already predisposed to homicidal actions. . Physically intervening in that case was extremely dangerous given the assailants mental state,record of homicidal actions, and instability. The victims unfortunately were not properly trained to deal with someone like that . They acted with good intentions but with a tragic outcome. Forensically, to confront someone in that state ,already agitated,ranting and aggressively posturing is unsafe. What should've happened is the targets of this mans diatribe should've been moved away from him, THe 3 males and the 2 young females, his objects of fixation, should've deboarded the train. The ranter /assailant in Portland only started fixating on the two young girls wearing the hijab after they got on. That indicates symptomatic behaviors . He would've ranted about anything random but once they got on he fixated on them as mentally unstable people do. They also fueled his delusional thought process and reinforced his White supremacist belief system. The Portland case wasn't a case of a white supremacist targeting Muslim girls in a hijab,but a mentally unstable individual fixating on those girls because of their hijabs. He didn't specifically board that train to target Muslims, He was a lone wolf ,who was mentally unstable and decompensating who latched onto a fixation. Its also important to note that even Fascist / Right Groups wouldn't claim this man as a member of their community. Clearly the case in Portland Or, is also testament to systemic failures that allowed this dangerous volatile individual to walk free,unmonitored ,untreated, undiagnosed and unsupervised. That's an important key difference. The way he stabbed his victims is telling as well. He had his fist balled up with a four inch blade protruding from the middle of his fingers. He basically hard punched his victims with the blade. he did this after the 3 males surrounded him and one of them ,well intentioned, gently put his hand on the assailants chest and told him to calm down, according to witness reports. . The offender was already agitated and elevated, so that action would've been a trigger to attack. That's why when people are in that state ,its best to dis engage and get to a physically safe space ,away from them. They are not processing anything rationally so anything you say or do will be perceived as an attack. The killer in Portland attacked the 3 males the way a convict does. The balled up fist with a blade concealed within is a convict trick . Anyone that's works in the field and is familiar with clinically symptomatic behaviors recognized what happened. There was a lot more going on in the Portland scenario than how the media spun it as a simple case of Muslim targeting and White Supremacist attack. . Really the conversation should also focus on why this man was in the prison system so long and why his mental symptoms weren't treated in all that time,and how he was released without proper monitoring. . Boston case had a better outcome because there was timely intervention by not only the passengers but the driver as well, ejecting him from the train. the principal agitator was also not an ex convict with a violent homicidal history.
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