Belligerence on the bus

Yesterday after work, I got on the bus to go to Target (now that one is finally open in DC). About five minutes into the ride, we pulled over at a stop and a man who was probably about 40 years old and neatly dressed in slacks and a button-down shirt boarded. He walked right by the fare machine without paying and took a seat toward the front of the bus.

Nobody paid him much attention, except the bus driver, who was probably waiting to see if he was going to come back to pay his fare, which passengers sometimes do if they need to dig for change or whatever.

Right after he sat down, he said to seemingly nobody in particular, "I hate Jewish people."

He said it loudly, and aggressively, and the whole bus, which wasn't that full, heard. We all looked up, and for a minute nobody said anything, and then the woman sitting next to the guy said in an offended voice, "Excuse me. I'm Jewish."

It should be noted that I am technically Jewish as well, but I didn't say anything, nor would I have if the other woman hadn't spoken up. For one thing, I don't feel that my being Jewish makes the guy's comment much more offensive--I would have been equally offended if he had insulted a group of which I was not personally a part.

But more importantly, I am just not the type to engage with someone who is obviously spoiling for a conflict and who could potentially be dangerous. I do not consider it normal behavior to announce to a bus full of strangers that you hate Jewish people, and the comment immediately put me on the alert for other hateful and possibly more dangerous behavior. My instinct in such a situation is to put my head down and try to stay out of it.

In short, I would never have done what that girl did, for fear of escalating the situation. But I don't necessarily think that she shouldn't have done it. It did escalate the situation, though. The man leaned up close to her and repeated, more loudly, "I HATE JEWISH PEOPLE."

At this point, the bus driver got involved and said to the guy, "Where's your fare?" He responded that it was "right here," she asked him to pay it, and he didn't. She said to him, very firmly, that the next stop would be his stop. He said no.

She pulled the bus over and said, "This is your stop." He disagreed. He yelled that she was racist. He kept repeating, angrily, "I'm an American." The girl who had said she was Jewish responded, "So am I." He said, "No you aren't, you're Jewish." She said, "I'm still an American." The bus driver yelled, "Sir, get off the bus."

The guy yelled, "You're all racist. I'm an American. I hate Jewish people. I'm not getting off the bus."

The thing was that he didn't seem mentally disturbed. The way I'm telling it, he does sound like he had issues, and likely he did, but he seemed totally normal, totally aware of what he was saying, totally in the moment, and plenty intelligent. He was articulating himself and reacting to other people in a generally responsive way, the way you would assume that anyone would.

The bus driver screamed at the man that he had better get off the bus right then or she would call the transit authority. The man said, "I don't feel like it," and walked further toward the back of the bus. Other passengers, including the woman who had said she was Jewish, started yelling at him as well, shouting, "Get off the bus." One man got up out of his seat and moved toward the guy while telling him he needed to get off the bus.

The man yelled, "I hate Jewish people. You wanna fight, motherfucker? You wanna fight?" He moved menacingly toward the man who had stood. The other guy didn't move. The Jewish girl screamed, "Get off the bus right now or I'll call the police." The guy did not get off the bus. The girl got on her cell phone and called 911. She started reporting the situation. All the passengers on the bus, as well as the bus driver, were yelling and screaming at the guy to get off the bus, and he was yelling and screaming about how they were all racist motherfuckers.

Then, suddenly, he did get off the bus. He went through the back door, and then seemed to change his mind and walked back up to the front door as though he wanted to board again, but the bus driver closed the door before he got there. The guy pounded on the side of the bus and screamed, "I hate you Jewish motherfuckers." He almost looked like he was laughing as we drove away.

There was dead silence on the bus the rest of the way. The Jewish girl got off at the same stop that I did, and as she exited, she thanked the bus driver for dealing with the situation. The bus driver nodded and told us to have a nice day.

I've never seen such an episode on a bus before, or really anywhere else. I know it was tame, relatively speaking--the threatened fight didn't happen, nobody was hurt, and normal behavior resumed the second the belligerent guy got off the bus. But the experience was intense, and it rattled me quite a bit. I hope to never witness such a thing again.