Train Attack

First of all, I am fine, safe, and mostly injury free. Second of all, I see it as a blessing in a lot of ways.

On Tuesday I was staying late at work to catch up on my marking before the end of term. I usually take the London Overground train directly from Barking station, about a 10 minute walk from work, to Gospel Oak. I usually get off at Upper Holloway, walk up to the Archway Underground station and take that one stop to Tufnell Park station, where John and I live. Anywho, I took the 5:34 train and usually I turn to the right and get one of the seats with the heater under it, but that evening they were taken and I had to turn to the left. Immediately I knew I had made the wrong choice, sitting across the aisle from me were three boys, between the ages of 18 - 24, all with hoodies on, rapping loudly and obnoxiously to their hearts content. My first thought is 'Oh God, not again, because there is a real bad problem over here with wild youths like this doing whatever they please on public transportation. People just ignore them as the disrupt, harrass, and sometimes get into flat out fights on buses and trains. I have seen the police pull one of them off a bus myself. Then I overheard them say they were taking this train all the way to Upper Holloway. My second thought was 'Ah man, I have to sit by them until then, I'll just move later then.'

It has been very cold this past week and was about zero degrees celsius that day. I had spent ten minutes on the platform waiting for the train so of course my nose began to run once I was inside the warm train. I took out my trusty pocket tissues and was about to wipe my nose when one of the boys screamed out, 'Big Boogers!' I blew my nose lightly, and just tried my best to ignore them while they laughed. I turned up my ipod and took out my phone to play my monopoloy game. This must have aggravated them even more because they continued to talk and say things on purpose they thought would annoy me, look over, waiting for a reaction I refused to give. I just turned my ipod up more and continued playing.

Finally, about half way through the journey, they threw bits of rolled up paper at me and laughed as one landed on my chest. I turned, fully annoyed now, and said, 'I don't think that's funny.' One of them said, 'What, you talking to me?' Another more agressive one said, 'Turn around, don't talk to me like you know me! F-you . . ' and continued to cuss and make threats. At that moment the train had stopped at a station and a family got on to sit on the seats around me. They started to complain to the boy that there were children present and I felt I was aggravating the situation by staying. So I got up, walked to the front of the train and told the drive what was going on. I explained to them that they were unknowingly getting off at the same platform as me. He said to get on the front of the train and to make sure when I got there that someone on the platform could walk me to safety. That was it! That was all he did. He did not radio ahead, or have them thrown off the train. So I waited impatiently for the train to reach my destination.

As we approached Upper Holloway the boys had walked themselves from the back of the train to the front of the train where I had moved. I overheard them say 'There she is!' and later on a witness that stayed to help me report the incident to the police said that they were walking up and down the aisles looking for me. I got off, walked up to the driver and pointed out the boys. I am so annoyed with the attitude of these punks on public transportation that I refused to let these boys get away with it. They had been watching me and saw what I was doing. The one that was really agressive earlier walked over and got in my face, almost close enough to touch my nose to his, and said, 'What are you saying?' I have to say all I felt at this point was supreme annoyance and determination. I looked him right in the eye and said 'I am not afraid of you, keep walking.' That just aggravated him worse, I could tell by the crazed look in his eye he was on something, and he said, 'What'd you say, huh? What'd you say?' And puffed his arms out in a challenging fashion. I crossed my arms, again looked at him straight in the eye and said again, 'I am not afraid of you, just keep walking.' He then said, 'What, you aren't afraid of me? Huh? Huh? What'd you say? What'd you say to me?' I just looked at him, wanting to say, are you deaf, but I didn't. I just said, 'What are you fourteen?' All the time I was standing by the driver and he was trying to keep the guy back from me. Everytime he did the boy pushed him back and shoved him. The driver finally got back on his train and left me there, with the three boys coming after me. Oh, trust me, the police had a field day with that and asked the station manager to find out his name as soon as possible.

Anywho, by this time his two friends realised that their friend was getting way to agressive and were ready to let me go, but he wouldn't. Seeing the train go I decided to walk away. I did not run, I walked purposefully away from the platform and around him as his two friends tried to hold him back. He came after me and pushed me, shoved me, and pulled my arm to turn me around to face him. I walked to one side of the stairs, he blocked me. I walked to the other side of the stairs, he blocked me again. He seemed to think that I had called him a name, 'Dickhead' and that proceeded to make him even angrier. I can swear to you now that I did not say anything to him at that point and as most of you know, I never use that word in my vocabulary. If I had said anything to him it would have been the word 'ass' because that was the one that was coming up in my mind at the time and is my usual tag name for people like him.

Finally, his two friends came at him again and got him down on the ground. He was still screaming threats and profanity continuously throughout this ordeal but I tuned it out and really couldn't tell you what he said. I walked up the stairs and was heading towards the station. I could see a man, the only one of the people who had gotten off the train and stayed, watching and I thought if I could just get past him I would be fine. I was walking past him when all of a sudden I heard glass shatter and felt some of it hit the soles of my shoes. The boy was still coming after me but just then the station manager had come around from the other side of the station and a woman who had been waiting on the platform for someone surrounded me, along with the man I had mentioned before. Apparently, according to the two witnesses and the station manager, the boy was coming after me with a broken vodka bottle.

Seeing that I was surrounded the two boys grabbed their friend and dragged him away, heading towards Archway station. Only then did I break down and cry and start to shake. The two witnesses stayed and gave statements to the police 40 minutes later when they arrived. The girl witness actually answered the phone for me when John called. I had texted him earlier, after the paper incident, saying I was being harassed on the train. I had also called him and left a message saying that the boys had attacked me and that I was waiting for the police. He came and got me and listened as the witnesses talked to the police and heard me tell my account of the event. He also walked with me as the station manager and I showed the police where the bottle was. He never let me go.

I don't remember much from the trip home. I know I clung to John for dear life and kept my eyes closed for a lot of it. When he got me home I felt ice cold and numb. He gave me a shot of whiskey and I think had to encourage me to drink it because I was just sitting there keeping my arms crossed around me. The next day I went to work and everyone wondered why I came? The group of people I work with are so loving and protective. They found me alternative routes home and walked me part of the way to the station. They even offered to come sit in my class and help me teach if I needed it because I refused to go home. Part of me wanted to, but part of me thought I should get back to normal as soon as possible. I think that I did the right thing, my students could tell something was very wrong and took care of me that day, making me laugh and being really good. I also am not allowed to work late, this comes from both my boss Jim and my boyfriend John. Looking back I think I was still in shock when I went to work. I had hardly slept all night because of nightmares and looked like a zombie when I came in. Not to mention the soreness my body felt from the stress and shock.


Ultimately though, I stood up to them, they never saw me cry or be frightened. I kept thinking 'I'll be damned if they see me scared!' I thought John would be angry with me for standing up to them, but he pointed out that if they had been searching for me on the train they obviously weren't going to stop, nothing I could have done otherwise would have made it turn out differently, it actually might have been worse if I had shown fear. It's funny, at the time, I wasn't afraid or felt that I was in danger. I was just extremely annoyed at the boys and how dare they think they could harrass me and take advantage of me after I had been up and working since 4:30 that morning. Dammit! ;-) The two witnesses kept telling me that part of the reason they stayed was because they were amazed at the fact I stood up to them. And as Diane, my beloved teaching assistant said, 'Look at it this way, most people have no idea how they would hold up in a situation like that, now you do, and you should be proud.'

Anywho family and friends, I am safe. My legs shook the entire journey back to work the next day but now I am fine. Hope you all are well and take care of yourselves. I miss you.