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Has there been a thread yet about the woman who stood in front of a train full of yobs?

65 replies

sethstarkaddersmum · 05/10/2010 13:51

here

OP posts:
nancydrewrocked · 05/10/2010 19:55

whomoved a large group of drunken men shouting and swearing in a confined space is very intimidating.

And to make the point again the article does quite clearly state that she intervened only when they started abusing another woman.

By the time she pulled the alarm they do sound like they were being pretty threatening and I don't think it is unreasonable to pull the alarm if she felt threatened.

Of course if the men had been "taunting" and "abusing" and "shouting and swearing at" for example at police whilst at the match they would pretty quickly have found themselves arrested for a public order offence. Obviously much easier for them to save their abuse for a lone woman on a platform and a couple with a young child, especially when everyone will ignore what they are doing allowing them to behave as they wish....

HowsTheSerenity · 05/10/2010 19:58

Good on her. TOo many people sit back and watch.

whomovedmychocolate · 05/10/2010 19:59

It is intimidating and if I feel intimidated on the train I move.

I'm not justifying the football fans behaviour, goodness knows, groups of men and women can be twunts of the highest order when in closed quarters and a bit drunk, but she decided that her offence was worth stopping every other bugger getting home and probably left said abused woman on the platform with the footy fans Hmm Along with a load of others who were not being twunts.

LadyBiscuit · 05/10/2010 20:06

I was assaulted once on a tube by a random man who came over and started hitting and kicking me and most of the carriage just ignored it. I didn't think the woman who shouted at him and pulled the emergency cord was officious and attention-seeking. She had the balls to intervene when no one else would.

But it's easy to spin stories to suit your own agenda.

whomovedmychocolate · 05/10/2010 20:09

I was once attacked on the train and I broke the bugger's wrist. And yes everyone ignored it - pretty impressive really given his behaviour afterwards. But ho hum.

I don't want to spin this story LadyBiscuit - yes what they did was wrong but I also think how she handed it was wrong. Why didn't she call the police herself - mobiles do mostly work on trains.

I don't think it was attention seeking, I think it was a panicky move which could have backfired badly and which did have repercussions for innocent travellers.

nancydrewrocked · 05/10/2010 20:17

whomoved she said they couldn't move due to their way to the next carriage being blocked.

And my understanding from the article is that the woman who was abused was on the platform that they had passed.

Agree with ladyB - she had the balls to intervene when no one else did. I for one am certainly not going to complain about the manner in which she chose to do so.

LadyBiscuit · 05/10/2010 20:43

Very impressive WMMC - I shall remember not to mess with you Wink

I presume they didn't call the police because they didn't have a phone? Or maybe because they wanted the staff on the train (whose job is to ensure the safety and security of all passengers) to do something.

LeninGrad · 05/10/2010 20:53

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

bumpybecky · 05/10/2010 20:54

She was speaking on the Jeremy Vine Radio 2 show today. DS was yelling so I couldn't hear most of it though

onagar · 05/10/2010 20:59

Good for her. The world needs more people like her.

SolidGoldBrass · 05/10/2010 20:59

Look, this silly cow jumped in front of a train because she couldn't get her own way.
This was not a case of intervening to stop someone being assaulted, this was a self-styled vigilante having a complete tantrum over a trivial incident.

ravenAK · 05/10/2010 21:00

Good for her.

OK, it was a fairly daft thing to do, if we're being sensible about it, but I rather admire her gumption tbh.

whomovedmychocolate · 05/10/2010 21:02

Gosh it's not very often I get to agree with SGB Shock Grin

HumphreyCobbler · 05/10/2010 21:04

How do you know it was trivial?

HumphreyCobbler · 05/10/2010 21:06

i wouldn't stand in front of a train and impose my will in a situation like that, but I wish I WERE brave enough to do so.

Being abused by a load of drunken blokes doesn't sound like a trivial situation at all.

LeninGrad · 05/10/2010 21:11

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

LadyBiscuit · 05/10/2010 21:12

She stood in front of a stationary train. Not quite that dramatic really. Not because she couldn't get her own way but because people were being harassed and no one did anything to stop it.

SolidGoldBrass · 05/10/2010 21:13

Crap. No one was being hurt and by the sound of it they werent even bothering her until she waded in and told them to be quiet. People like this often escalate minor irritating situations to the point where someone does get hurt because not only can they never resist sticking their beaks in to show how righteous they are, they have no diplomacy either. She had clearly pissed off the driver and the guard as well as the football fans.
The DM just loves stories like this - 'plucky' Torylady against Evil Youths, remember that ludicrous bollocks last week about feral teens hurling rocks at a corpse which turned out to be totally exaggerated?

LadyBiscuit · 05/10/2010 21:22

Oh is she a Tory? Well, that changes everything

nancydrewrocked · 05/10/2010 21:22

They were "bothering" her - their drunken shouting and swearing in the vicininty of her young son was "bothering" her. As it would do most people.

Why the fuck can't we tell ignorant, antisocial fuckwits to shut up without fear of being branded interfering or accused of escalating the situation or have we got to a stage where we just have to ignore this low level abusiveness and hostility?

I don't think the fact that the guard and driver were thoroughly unhelpful is indicative of their beir irritated at her, more that they were pissed off at having to get off their arses and actually do the job that they are paid to.

animula · 05/10/2010 21:28

The DM may love a story like this, but, hell, so do I.

It cheers me up a bit about the stories that go nowhere, with predictable endings: My friend getting her nose, teeth, and ribs broken in a racist attack in Cambridge; me getting beaten up - on a bus - by a group of men, who followed me, and followed me onto the bus (without paying) - and the bus driver saying/doing nothing, and the passengers, doing nothing, until they ran off the bus - at which point he told me if I was lucky he didn't kick me off the bus!; two of my friends stabbed (separately) by "rowdy" groups of "lads".

Who says she's a Tory?

Why is it necessarily a bad thing just because she's not a victim? Would the story be so dubious if it were published elsewhere?

When I worked on a feminist fanzine, we printed a merry little tale about a group of girls, being harassed by some "lads", who kicked the shit out of said group - to their great surprise.

The police were looking for "a group of three young women, in stripey tights, dark clothing, and brightly coloured hair. With a dog."

Would that be more palatable?

I have to say, I am a leeetle squeamish about the use of violence in the story we published. This woman simply made herself unignorable until people did what they were supposed to do. That's, really, quite a minimal thing.

As a middle-aged woman, she was supposed to be meek and invisible and pliant. I would say she detourned the conventions admirably.

HumphreyCobbler · 05/10/2010 21:28

It must be great to be so brilliant at knowing exactly how things REALLY were SGB, even where you were not present.

I don't see anything that says she must be a tory either.

FlyingInTheCLouds · 05/10/2010 21:38

good on her. sticking up fir the woman on her own.

animula · 05/10/2010 21:41

Sorry, re-read post, perhaps not clear - the stripey tights young women physically admonished the harassing group of lads.

JoanneOfArk · 05/10/2010 22:07

I don't think there are many Tories in Ystrad Mynach, but she might be an exception. Obviously if she is, the train should just have driven over her, cos Tories are eeeeeeeeeevillllllll.