Delayed police action confuses riders
Here's an interesting Tattler Tale from Brock. Thanks for sharing!
I arrived at the Clinton Green Line stop for the usual quick trip inbound to the Red Line to hear a PA announcement that service had been suspended due to police activity at California. I was in the midst of typing a message to CTA Alerts when another PA announcement delivered the news that service was restored and there was a 3 minute delay – nothing too notable about that.
An inbound train soon arrived and I hustled to the closest door. As people filed in and out a guy was partially blocking the door. I made a grumble about door blockers under my breath and found a place to stand. The doors remained open and the door-blocker stood halfway out of the door. He made some sort of affirmative nod towards the motorman and we were off. As he came back in the car I noticed that he had a gun belt and what I thought might be a police uniform shirt under his plain back coat.
As we left Clinton a guy closer to the other door started ranting and raving. As we crossed the river and got closer to the loop his ranting got louder and more violent. (Apparently he was ‘representin’ the West side, and no politician, woman, member of a number of racial groups, and more weren’t going to stop him ‘representin’ the thug life.) Other people in the car were clearly disturbed. I kept making eye contact with the maybe-cop-door-blocker hoping if he was a cop he’d intervene. Since he didn’t I figured he must be a security guard. We were delayed at switch into the loop and while the ranting continued, the I-guess-he’s-a-security guard guy did a little ancy-dance and uttered “come on…” under his breath.
As we approached Clark and Lake, most of the people around the ranter got up to escape, but as we pull into the station I see a whole mess of Chicago’s finest and a CTA attendant there to meet us. Turns out there were 3 or 4 undercover cops in addition to my not-so-hidden buddy riding in the car. They escorted Mr. Thug off the car and after a brief delay we were on our way.
Glad to know that the police are actually there when you need them, but I sure do wish I knew what the first part of the story was and why they didn’t get this guy off sooner.
This reminds me of my commute home last Friday night. There was a slight delay at Fullerton, but it was Friday and the delay wasn't too lengthy, so I didn't think much of it.
However, as we got underway, the motorman came on the intercom saying that there was a disturbance and that the troublemaker was still on the train! He then went on to encourage those on the train to let him know if there were any further problems.
We weren't unduly delayed at Belmont, so unless there were cops already there and they worked fast, whoever caused the problem must have minded their manners after Fullerton.
Posted by: jk1 | March 15, 2006 at 10:30 AM