“A Cleveland transit bus driver has been suspended after a video surfaced that shows him punching a female passenger in the face. The Regional Transit Authority in Cleveland says the confrontation happened three weeks ago but didn’t know about it until seeing the video.
The agency said Friday that the bus driver is a 22-year veteran of the Regional Transit Authority and was suspended immediately. His name hasn’t been released. A video posted on YouTube shows the 25-year-old woman and the driver arguing at the front bus before he got out of his seat and punched her. The bus agency has apologized to the woman. She did not file charges.”* Ana Kasparian and Steve Oh break down the violent incident, why it shouldn’t have happened, and why some people are defending the driver.
*Read more from the Associated Press, via the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/cleveland-bus-driver-suspended-after-video-shows-him-punching-female-passenger-during-argument/2012/10/12/8ab55c68-14a8-11e2-9a39-1f5a7f6fe945_story.html
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Comments
Her actions endangered the lives of all the other passengers. The driver warned her several times that she had to, by law, stay behind the yellow line. Sometimes in a crash, people die. I’d bet no one would object to this punch if he were your airline pilot being accosted by this woman. In fact, you probably wouldn’t object to him shooting her dead.
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=cleveland+bus+driver+punches+woman&FORM=VIRE7#view=detail&mid=B3712F3903780BBC999EB3712F3903780BBC999E
In a perfect world, a passenger boards a bus, pay the fare and sit down until they arrive at their stop. But some people who ride public transportation act like self-absorbed savages. And it applies to all forms of transport (the woman in Seat 7A vs. Elan Gale). My brother used to operate a city bus and now moved over to commuter/charter buses. The difference is night and day. People need to take responsibility for their actions. Just as the bus operator lost his job, the irate passenger should be penalized.
I can’t be the only person who knows I would feel perfectly fine hurting someone, man or woman, if they came at me to hurt me first? Granted, this particular guy wasn’t really hurt and she had pulled away a bit, but the dogma of “you do not hit a woman” always ticks me off as it’s supposed to be taken as an absolute.