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Subway ride darkens as teenagers turn ugly
Joe Fiorito, Toronto Star
She was sitting on a long seat facing the aisle; there was a woman on her left and on her right, in a two-person seat, was a solitary man.
Mary said, "And then seven teenagers – a mix of boys and girls – got on at Bloor."
Here comes trouble.
"Two of the girls – let's say they were 15 years old – crawled over the man and sat down. One girl sat on the other girl's lap. They were laughing, tripping over the man, and I thought, `That's obnoxious; oh, well, they're young, they're just having a good time.'"
Mary went on reading her book.
Hang onto your hat.
"The girl who was sitting on top of her friend began yelling insults at everyone in the car, yelling in my ear, yelling that we didn't know anything about life. She was swearing. I don't recall the words but I thought, `She's got a bad mouth on her.'
"Maybe she was just having a bad day, a fight with her parents, or her boyfriend left her. She was angry and arrogant, too. She told us what a beautiful person she was."
Things got ugly then.
"She started yelling at the man. She called him a pedophile and a racist. He was reading the paper, I think. He hadn't been paying attention."
He paid attention fast.
"The yelling girl said, `I know you're coming to my house tonight to rape me.' The man raised his head and put his head back down again and she kept at him. Finally he said, `I'm not any of those things. I don't know why you're saying that.'"
The whole car, wondering the same thing.
Mary said, "I thought there probably wasn't anything any one of us could say to her, or she'd turn on us with an attack. I could feel the colour rising in my cheeks. The man was very mild but he'd obviously been stung.
"The woman beside me came to his defence. She said, `Why are you yelling at him? You don't know him.' The girl said to her, `You're a bitch.' I don't remember all the insults. At one point I said, `Maybe if we lowered our voices we'd all calm down.'"
The girl would not calm down.
"The tallest of the boys turned to the woman and told her to be quiet, there was nothing she could do, that she wasn't doing anything with her life.
"Finally, one of the boys – I wish I could tell you which one – and I've thought so much about this – threw a first punch, and the punches passed over my head. I reached up and pressed the yellow emergency bar. I didn't see the man get hit."
The train stopped at the College station. The kids fled through the crowd. Mary said, "The man's glasses were broken. There was blood all over his face."
Mary had some water and someone else had paper towels. They cleaned the man's face as best they could. And the police and the paramedics came and they made sure he was okay, and the man went on his way. Mary said, "A couple of us talked afterwards. We didn't know if the kids had weapons."
She went to work; she walked. She is still angry, still upset; she still wonders if there was anything else she might have done. I think not. It happened much too fast and yes, those kids had a weapon.
Teenaged rage.--------------------
Nusrat pulled into the lot at the Finch station and parked the car, and she and her daughter rode the subway downtown. At the end of the day, they went north again, got off at Finch, walked to the lot and ... wait a minute, where's the car?
I met her in the passenger pick-up area of the Finch station the other day – she had come in on the bus – and she showed me where her car had been.
She said, "I remember looking around. I was thinking, 'Oh my God, there are not many cars.' I tried to see where it might be. I was panicking. I was angry. My daughter said, 'Oh, mom, you're always forgetting.' I said to her, 'But you were with me.' "
Her car is a Toyota Corolla, silver, licence AXAR 616. Dangling from the rear-view mirror, a small deodorizer in the shape of an earthen pot.
She said, "I looked around for a towing number in case it had been towed, but there was no number. Then I called my nephew. He said he would come right away. My sister also came. In the end there were five of us searching all the lots. Then I called the police. They took all my information and they gave me a number to quote and told me to call my insurance. The insurance said okay, somebody will call you back."
The trip into town used to take her 25 minutes by car. The bus into town takes 45 minutes; the bus home takes an hour. She gets up at 5:45 a.m. She gets home around 7 p.m. That's a long day.
She said, "I had to get a hard copy of the incident report for the insurance. It cost me almost $40 for a piece of paper. I said to the police that I was the victim. They said I'd get the money back. So I paid it."
She said, "The insurance called me a while ago and asked if the car was found. I started laughing."
She has not rented another car; the thought of leaving a vehicle in that lot has got her spooked. What will she do now? She shrugged.
"I can't afford to buy a new car."
She will wait to see what kind of deal the insurance company will offer.
Here's what bothers her:
"I called the TTC and asked if they had a camera there. They said no. I said, 'How come?' Because at Finch station there are many cars; every day cars are stolen. They said 'You park at your own risk.'"
Nusrat smiled a bitter and emphatic smile. "If there are cameras, people will refrain from stealing." She is right; theft of cars from public lots is one of the few things security cameras actually deter.
"I told the TTC that I park at the far end of the lot. I said, 'If I get killed, you have no cameras.' They said, 'That's your tough luck.' They actually said that to me."
A spokesperson for the TTC said there is a five-year plan to put cameras in subway stations and on subway and streetcars, and also on buses. Parking lots?
Use at your own risk.
1 comment:
all evil teens need to die.
and the ttc is run by a 28 year old hottie.
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