Public transit can be an adventure. There are so many different people from different walks of life and it can be really interesting.
Of course, sometimes interesting slips into problematic or dangerous and then you need to decide between stepping back or stepping in.
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It started as a fairly straightforward issue over a rule being broken.
Since 2008, drinking from or carrying open containers of alcohol has been banned from public transport in London, England.
In the video, you can see a man in a suit telling the guy next to him that he can’t be drinking on the train.
The man he’s talking to appears to be holding a glass beer bottle.
The suited guy isn’t wrong about it being against the rules, but once it became clear that the other guy wasn’t going to listen, he should have given up or found someone to report it to.
Instead, he noted the man’s accent and began to focus on his apparent foreignness.
“You’re in Britain – you listen to the rules, you abide by the rules or you get out,” he tells the man, who asks him if he wants to get off the train to talk about it.
The suited man’s tone is definitely patronizing as he points to the signs on the cabin wall.
“I’ll explain to you so you can understand,” he said.
The drinking man continues to get angry, noting that the suited man is also drunk and telling him to go to every other person drinking on the late night train and tell them the same thing.
Once again, the suited man turns to the fact that the other man is a foreigner to make his argument.
“I was born and bred here, you’ve come into this country. You abide by these rules. Abide by English laws or get out.”
The other guy was not having it. “I am a Polish boy from Russia and will f*** you,” he retorts.
Throughout the argument, you can see a woman sitting across from them in the corner of the shot.
For a while, she seems to be trying to ignore them, but eventually you can see her pull her bag onto her lap and work up the nerve to interrupt the men.
“I just wanted to say, yes you should not be drinking here,” she tells the Polish man.
But if the suited man thought he’d just won, she then turns her attention on him.
“But you have no right to talk to somebody like that, and to use their nationality against them. It is wrong… Using his race against him is disgusting. And because of your behavior I don’t want to sit here. People like you bring shame to this country.”
Then she left the car.
Watch the whole video to see the mic drop for yourself.
My favorite part is how the Polish man just takes a sip from his bottle while the suited man keeps repeating that she also said that he shouldn’t be drinking.
Like, way to miss the point, dude.
h/t: Metro
