Loud Cell-phone Talker Removed From Train By Police from Planck's Constant

An employee of mine asked if I heard about a woman who was forced off a train by police because she wouldn't stop talking on her cell-phone. Without knowing anything more about the story I immediately responded with, "I bet ten dollars to your one it was a black woman." Now first let me say that rude, inconsiderate people come in all colors, shapes and sizes.

Having said that, let's consider one small clue in the short statement by my employee. The woman wouldn't stop talking. I assume it was a carload of passengers and must have had a number of men on board. No man would hesitate to scold a white woman and demand that she stop talking, but it's a rare fellow indeed who has the testicles to scold a black woman.

And if it were a white woman, the conductor would have warned her that if she didn't stop talking she would be thrown off the train. Nine times out of ten a white woman would have taken the threat seriously. It's a sure bet that a black woman is belligerent enough and inconsiderate enough to ignore the threat. Those of us who live in cities with large numbers of Blacks know that many, not all, have a chip on their shoulder, especially the ignorant ones. I say 'not all' because if all Blacks were like this woman, my bet would have been a thousand dollars to one.

Here's the story by Liz Goodwin:

Loud cell-phone talker removed from quiet car by police

A woman who was escorted off an Amtrak train by police this weekend after she allegedly refused to stop talking loudly on her cell-phone has the Internet cheering her fate.

Civilians and quiet-car champions are supporting her ejection for violating policy at high volume during the 16-hour journey. It doesn't help her cause that she became belligerent when confronted about it by one of her fellow passengers.

KOMO News reports that Lakeysha Beard says she felt "disrespected" by the incident, though passengers said it was Beard who was being rude by refusing to stop yapping while sitting in one of the train's designated quiet cars. She had not stopped talking since the train pulled out of Oakland, California, 16 hours before it reached Salem, Oregon, when a passenger confronted her about the talking. That's when Beard got "aggressive," KATU reports, and conductors stopped the train so that police could remove her and charge her with disorderly conduct.

Amtrak created quiet cars in 2001 when a group of passengers who rode the Philadelphia to D.C. route every morning asked if they could reserve a car where cell-phone loudmouths weren't welcome. Ever since, the rare havens of quiet have become a battlefield between silence-loving rule-followers and rebellious cell-phone addicts. Gawker suggested, not without a dose of sincerity, that the cops who removed Beard from the train were heroes, and that Beard should be charged with "unspeakable crimes against humanity and sentenced to life on some distant planet where there are no reception bars, ever."

According to a very scientific reader poll at The Huffington Post ¹, 77 percent of people were happy the woman was hauled off the train. And CNN personality Anderson Cooper blasted the woman on his "ridiculist" last night ², asking "What could someone possibly talk about for 16 hours?" He even compared being stuck on the train with a person who would do such a thing to the "fifth circle of hell."

The Internet is full of tales of innocent people's quiet-car journeys being marred by loud passengers who ignore the rules. An Israeli blogger with a PhD in conflict resolution wrote a lengthy post about the best way to get a fellow passenger to shut up without starting World War III. "Always assume the transgressor is ignorant, not arrogant. This way you won't feel wronged and can communicate your message with less contempt and hostility," he suggests.

Meanwhile writer Christopher Buckley, a self-described quiet car Nazi, wonders why there would be any confusion as to the correct behavior in that part of the train: "The Quiet Car does not hide its light under a bushel. Prominent and explicit signs hang from the ceiling at five-foot intervals. They declare, unequivocally, that NO CELL PHONES ARE PERMITTED and that conversation must be kept to a minimum and in hushed tones."

In a video taken of Beard's removal from the train, she appears to be quietly cooperating with the officers. You can watch here.

There will be those that will comment that I am a racist bastard for mentioning this at all. My defense is that there is no point in fearing to write the truth. It is not my reporting on these events that needs to stop, but the bad behavior. And yes, I have confronted dozens of black women who were exhibiting bad behavior such as smoking in no smoking areas, hogging pathways in stores, littering, talking on cellphones (or just talking loudly) in movie theaters and on buses, etc. If we tolerate bad behavior, we encourage bad behavior.

Related: Some of my readers may recall my article regarding a young woman who was fined for sending a text message during a movie.

Notes

(1):

Huffington Post, Lakeysha Beard Kicked Off Train For Talking Too Loudly

(2):

Anderson Cooper 360, The RidicuList: Cell Phone Lady
[Here are some comments left by readers:]
Erik Sonntag

I lived in Chicago all my life and this anti-social behaviour is typical. I'd love to see a story on that. Why did I know what this lady looked like, before the[y] showed her picture?
May 18, 2011 at 6:10 pm |

nathan pearl

Here is what is going to happen, though: somehow, someway, this will become a "racially motivated incident" as loud talking on the cell phone is "part of her culture". She will sue Amtrak for millions, and to avoid the possibility of losing millions, Amtrak will settle with her and her attorneys for maybe 50K-100K. You may or may not hear about it in the media, but that is the likely scenario.
May 18, 2011 at 4:32 pm |