Gee, thanks, Mr. Crazy Man

[jethrien]

A crazy dude pulled the emergency brake on my subway this morning.

He was in teh next car, so we didn't know what had happened for awhile. The conductor ended up searching car to car to find out what was going on. When he got through our car into the next, the conductor managed to pinpoint the culprit (probably because the other passengers were pointing at him and he was staggering around). When the conductor asked the crazy guy why he'd pulled the cord, crazy guy answered "I don't know". Then he lurched his way into our car and settled at the far end, upon which the rest of the people in the car came over to my end. (Partially 'cause, dude, crazy, partially because of the smell.) The conductor asked crazy guy again why he pulled the cord, as he was heading back to the front of the train, and crazy guy mumbled something about "it's all out of control".

20 minutes in the tunnel. Thanks, crazy guy.

Comments

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

Perhaps he knew something. He may have just saved all of you, but you'll never know for sure.

[wavilyem.livejournal.com]

Yikeys, that does not sound fun!

[jeths-mom.livejournal.com]

Kinda makes you wonder. If it's necessary to make the brake accessible to passengers, shouldn't there also be a swift, sure response when someone pulls it for no reason? And wouldn't Crazy Guy benefit from being taken away from the public transit system, where lots of untoward things could happen to him, and installing him where he wouldn't be a danger to himself and others?

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Well, they did call the police at the next station, but I doubt it did much to help anyone in the long run.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Installing him where? The reason obviously mentally ill folks like him are wandering the subways is because there is no place to just put them, and the insane consent laws (we've told you the story of our friend's mother, right?) make getting them officially committed a super-expensive nightmare. The police are basically given the option of arresting him and wasting a lot of time before eventually tossing him back out on the street; or hustling him along and hoping he wanders away for a few hours before coming back.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I think that's her point - that she wishes there was somewhere safe that the mentally ill could be taken. On one hand, from what I hear, the old state psychiatric hospitals really were barbaric, and they were disbanded for good reasons. But at the same time, the current situation is not exactly ideal, either.

It could be worse. At least this crazy guy did nothing but screw up rush hour traffic. He didn't pee on anyone, he didn't stab anyone, he was actually pretty quiet and not annoying, other than that whole brake thing.