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Somebody smashes a Red Line window at Park Street

By adamg on Mon, 07/15/2019 - 8:18pm
Smashed Red Line window

The smashed window at Charles/MGH. Photo by Katie Broida.

Shortly after 6 p.m., Steph Wilkinson reported somebody punched a window on her car of an Alewife train leaving Park Street: "Most of it is cracked."

Katie Broida reports:

It caused a stampede in the car.

Wilkinson adds:

Security footage should show someone punch/kick the window that was behind my head. Happened at Park. There was also an announcement of a fight on car 5. The window pic you posted looks like it’s from that car. Probably why the stampede at Charles/Mgh

The vandalism comes three days after somebody kicked out a window at Park Street and six days after somebody used a hammer on windows at JFK/UMass.

Neighborhoods: 
Downtown
Topics: 
Crime
The T
Free tagging: 
Red Line
Park Street


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Comments

By jmeltzer on Mon, 07/15/2019 - 8:39pm.

but I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

No one seems to care about the trains, so one might as well bash them in. That's how people seem to be thinking.

By Mjolnir on Mon, 07/15/2019 - 9:50pm.

Usually the government is the one talking about broken windows theory on the citizen's end, but here we have a great example of the reverse dynamic.

By anon on Mon, 07/15/2019 - 8:37pm.

Mentally ill, substance abuser, or punk kids looking for "internet fame"?

I hope the new trains will have interior cameras to help catch the the jerks that do this.

By adamg on Mon, 07/15/2019 - 8:40pm.

For better or worse, the MBTA has a very good surveillance-video system in the stations (they once outfitted a bunch of Orange Line cars with cameras, then stopped), so it might not be too hard to at least get images of the perpetrator leaving the train or doing it if he were on the platform).

By anon on Mon, 07/15/2019 - 9:41pm.

What new trains?

By SwirlyGrrl on Mon, 07/15/2019 - 8:55pm.

He said everyone in the area of the window break hit the deck since it sounded like a gunshot given the accoustics.

The perps better hope that the cops get to them first, since passengers might soon tear them limb from limb if this keeps up.

By adamg on Mon, 07/15/2019 - 9:00pm.

One person on the train tweeted about a "mini-stampede" at Charles/MGH.

By anon on Mon, 07/15/2019 - 10:38pm.

Of course there was

By anon on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 9:10am.

What?

By anon on Mon, 07/15/2019 - 9:07pm.

A vandalized train was taken out of service.

By MisterMagooForYou on Mon, 07/15/2019 - 9:18pm.

It’s the quickening. RIP Art, R. I. P. Magoo.

By rb on Mon, 07/15/2019 - 9:20pm.

I suspect the MBTA is using the cheapest glass possible, since subways aren't under FRA jurisdiction.

https://twitter.com/rob_bellinger/status/1150931902116880384

By Waquiot on Mon, 07/15/2019 - 11:16pm.

This probably happens in New York and Philly more than you think. They key thing is when it happens. It is odd how often this has been happening recently and that it’s been seemingly isolated to the Red Line and during commuting hours.

I’d also bet that all urban rail systems in the US have the same quality of glass.

By Chokmah on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 10:04am.

I wonder if the window was broken because no one could breathe in the heat?

By Scauma on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 12:44pm.

Can't say I've heard to much about windows being kicked out. There was a guy pulling the e-brake quite frequently which caused ridiculous delays. The bums take over at night so those early morning train rides can be quite harrowing. Not to mention they myriad other issues that come up.

Is it me or are mental health issues now more prevalent then ever before?

By anon on Mon, 07/15/2019 - 11:17pm.

The glass behaved it's designed to behave under such circumstances. And there's vandalism, including kicked and shattered windows, on the MTA trains in NYC all the time.

Nice try with your twitter link.

By adamg on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 12:19am.

Someone Is Pulling Emergency Brakes on New York’s Subways, Causing Big Delays.

By BostonDog on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 7:34am.

Nice to know the rivalry is alive and strong even when it comes to Dipshits Doing Things. Boston is just as good as New York!

/S

By anon on Mon, 07/15/2019 - 10:03pm.

What happens when the T runs out of replacement windows?

By perruptor on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 8:02am.

They have new ones made. Cutting glass is not Lost Secrets of the Rosicrucians or something.

By anon on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 9:12am.

Please. Plywood, of course.

By roadman on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 4:06pm.

old campaign signs I guess.

By anon on Mon, 07/15/2019 - 10:41pm.

There have been three or four instances of this in the past few weeks. Responses here have been remarkably caviler, as if it's acceptable, or at least understandable, that people are doing this because they are "frustrated" by the T. We're all frustrated by the T, but most people don't go around smashing windows. If this keeps up, somebody is going to get hurt.

By bgl on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 1:33am.

I was on a train maybe 6-8 months ago when a bunch of kids punched/kicked out a window at Shawmut. Don't think anything came of it. Fitting punishment: kids' parents need to pay for the window, and the dumbass kids need to spend hard time over the summer cleaning red line cars as "community service".

By anon on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 8:59am.

I saw an old T pic of some graffiti vandals scrubbing paint off the walls of some station, with an officer overseeing their progress. I’m pretty sure tagging station walls is no longer a thing. Sadly those days are over. Minimal punishment is barely handed out and parents are given leniency after they claim they can’t afford to pay for the window. Expect more broken windows.

By Jeff F on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 4:25pm.

Got any data to back up your "old man yells at clouds" schtick that authorities now let ID'ed vandals off the hook?

I think it's funny that you imply that tagging station walls is no longer a thing because of proportional punishment meted out sometime back in "those days". You do realize that teens have the cultural memory of mayflies, right? If current enforcement and punishment was not an effective deterent, this problem would still be as bad as it ever was.

I wouldn't be surprised if the recent spate of window bashing is the work of a very small group of assholes-in-training. Hopefully, someone will see something and say something (or at least take a pic of the perps), and this blister of bad behaviour will get popped.

By anon on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 7:06am.

that they cancelled the Area 51 meetup.

By anon on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 8:38am.

The root causes of anarchy on the Red Line:
1) Politicians don't ride the red line.
2) Judges don't ride the red line
3) Cops don't ride the red line

By Jeff F on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 4:37pm.

0) Assuming people/cctv are taking pictures of the vandals, it's still hard to track down a few assholes in a city with a daytime population of over a million.

(I'm definitely not an unalloyed fanboy of the T police, but still, I'm pretty sure they're plenty motivated to get ahold of the people doing this.)

By 617MoFoBecauseMyAreaCodeIsMyId... on Tue, 07/16/2019 - 9:42am.

If the MBTA gave out free skittles it would solve everyone’s problems. Why? Because when you taste the rainbow you’ll get a pot o gold. Wait what?