So I guess 2016 claimed its biggest victim yet - America

Here are a few articles and there are some statements they have in common.

“No one was saying anything and it was a BART full of people,” Wu reportedly told the newspaper. “I had enough, so I told him, 'Sir, you need to stop talking.”

The video ends with the woman telling him to get off at the Kings Highway stop so that she can report him to the police.
The woman says she didn’t actually report the man to the police because she heard they don’t take such complaints seriously and he didn’t physically assault her.
After the video ends, she says he did ‘jump’ at her and continued yell at her.
One thing that struck her about the confrontation is that no one intervened.
‘Nobody on the train really spoke up,’ she said.

Racist, anti-Asian rant on Sydney train caught on camera - ABC News

"I hope the video can make people aware of this issue and stop racism in Australia.

“There were about 15 people on the carriage but no-one did anything.”

And, on reflection a few hours after the incident, more than that young man’s actions were disturbing to me. This was a very public act in a very small space. Everyone at that café heard the incident and many saw it. However, only one patron came up after the incident.

I’ll tell you how this feels. It tells you that it’s easy for a lot of people to say they appreciate these values and support these ideals, but they’ll risk nothing for it. And you, the easy target, you don’t get support, you just get essays and agreements in safe places.

The bystander effect is really powerful and pretty shameful every time it shows up.

This video came out last year in response to a rise in similar incidents in the UK and it talks about safe, effective methods to disrupt these sorts of incidents when you see them occurring:

I would like to think I would object, I did once at a place I worked but I knew the guy was harmless, but intervening with an obviously deranged stranger by yourself is not a recipe for success in today’s world. If I was with other friends I could do it, by myself, I just don’t know.

I half-expect a crazy person to have a gun.

In these type of critical mass problems the key is always communication. Just like with individuals living under a dictatorship, noone wants to do anything individually due to the likelihood of extreme punishment, but everyone knows that if enough people got together then they could get what they want.

Unlike under a dictatorship, communicating is really easy on a train. If I was in this situation and the harasser looked violent, I would try to signal or talk to the other passengers to agree with me to intervene together. Not only is that better for me, but it also increases the likelihood of de-escalating. Harassers are usually cowards, most of the time a victim is someone far from intimidating. They will back off if 3+ people approach him. It shouldn’t be hard to get people to agree (unless there’s a weapon involved), as everyone does actually care they just don’t want to get hurt themselves.

EDIT: I say this as someone in Australia. I just realised in the US these people will often be concealing a gun, which makes it more scary.

This also occurred to me, not too long ago. I posted about an incident in the cop shooting thread, where I was incredibly conflicted when a fight was starting to break out when both my son and I pulled into a parking spot. A part of me wanted to jump out to try and get cooler heads to prevail but I worried about my kid, a part of me wanted to call the cops but was worried because every cop in my town is white (the person who was not at any fault wasn’t), and I admit a part of me wanted to jump to his defense and try to beat down the racist @$$holes but I kind of expected there to be guns in the other vehicles and again didn’t want to put my son at risk. (I called the cops, btw, and thankfully they defused the situation)

But I can understand people not wanting to get involved when every option has the potential of making things worse. There doesn’t seem to be any easy “This is the right thing to do” response EXCEPT just making sure you do something. But even then, it’s easy to rationalize away inaction.

Right, which is why everybody on the subway should be carrying a gun of their own! Then everyone’s safe!

I don’t understand it. I don’t get a chance. There is no want. I am assuming when they’re done with that person. I’m next. Yes, I have put myself in unknown danger to let someone know that their behavior is not okay. Most the time they back down because they really do think silence is not only consent it’s permission and support. The white man screeching at some random minority thinks all the other white men are in his camp. I refuse to live my life in fear. I drive and walk in a neighborhood where there are two confederate flags hanging up since Trump was elected. If I let fear rule my life, I would be fearful to the point of inaction every. single.day.

I don’t understand because I don’t have that privilege.

I like the idea of not confronting the attacker but simply engaging civilly with the attacked, as if the attacker doesn’t exist. I hope I do that someday if given the chance.

Yeah, and you’re doing the right thing. But people who succumb to fear are real and trying to understand them is important, as that knowledge can inform our future actions in many different ways.

Some people lack the confidence to speak out. Perhaps they’ve done so in the past, whether in a similar situation or perhaps with an abusive loved one, and it made things worse. Perhaps they’ve been shouted down so often they don’t believe they have the right to speak up. Possibly they think speaking up is what will make them next.

But all of these people are potential allies, and allies are needed in a struggle for the cultural soul of the nation. These same people are the ones most easily manipulated by fear-mongering talking heads in the media who have learned what makes them tick and manipulated them into being quiet sheep to be herded along. That submissive silence is the end result.

So if someone feels they don’t have a voice, we need to give them one. If someone feels powerless, we need to make them feel empowered. If someone has been hurt, we need to help them heal and feel safe. If someone feels defeated, we need to help them win. As these actions take root, their voices will grow from a murmur to a roar. Then we’ll all be side by side, an unstoppable march toward progress.

I was thinking the same thing. “Hey don’t I know you?” And trying to steer them away

It’s not always that simple. I intervened to stop a man from attacking a woman (whom he did not know) at a campground many years ago. He subsequently chased me around with a knife and only stopped when the campground owner told him that he would burn his passport if he didn’t leave. So he left, with his passport, and waited outside the campground for me to leave. So there we had a standoff for 8 hours. Finally, he left (food? bathroom?) and my friend and I ran as fast as we could – for 1.5 miles or so – to jump on a ferry and leave the island. He chased us the whole way. It was fucking terrifying.

No no, the plan is to pretend that the attacker is not there, as I clearly stated, and you clearly did not do!

p.s. holy shit, dude

what the actual fuck

Was this guy’s last name Voorhees?

Dude, why didn’t the camp owner call the police? That’s a crazy story.

Glad the crazy guy didn’t have a gun.

I also have a hard time not jumping in in these sorts of situations and had a similar, though slightly less scary incident when I called out what I thought was a drunk college student who was cursing at a little girl he’d cut off on the sidewalk. He immediately threatened to murder me and, still thinking I was dealing with a drunk I mocked his escalation straight to murder before looking in his eyes and realizing that he meant it. Turns out he was schizophrenic and, once his girlfriend let me know we worked together to de-escalate him.

This was in a campground on the Greek isle of Ios, back in 1992. The dude was high on something. Anyhow, my friend stayed in touch with the girl we helped for many years. She went on to be a movie star or something in France.

Did you dream this?

Something about the car name rings a bell.