D.C. area metro riders have been subject to several unsafe conditions throughout the years. The most recent being gang attacks by youth.
Is it safe to continue riding the Washington D.C. metro?
On Jan. 28, a group of teenagers punched and kicked a man at the Gallery Place/Chinatown Metro Station in Northwest during morning rush hour. The incident occurred around 8:30 a.m. when approximately 30 teens rushed at riders as they scrambled to get on a Red Line train. According to the Metropolitan Police Department, the teens’ alleged target was a 35-year-old man, but their motive was unclear.
“There have been several attacks on the Red Line, the one that I take every day,” said a witness, who saw the injured man on the platform and sought help. “I don’t think there’s been a proper response from Metro to protect the riders. I think there needs to be more of a police presence.”
Levert James from the Shaw neighborhood heard about the incident. “Yes, I was actually riding the subway that day, earlier that morning, but I missed it,” he told the AFRO. “Definitely, it doesn’t feel safe. I was surprised that anyone that was there would not help the person. The first thing I would have done was help the person.”
The attack adds to the rash of violent episodes on Metro subways over the last six months. In June 2015, a 54-year-old man brutally beat two teens for putting their feet on the back of his seat and a 46-year old man who stepped in to help the teens. In July 2015, Kevin Sutherland was fatally stabbed while bystanders watched; in November 2015, a gay couple was robbed and beaten and in December 2015, a man suffered a concussion and broken jaw after a rowdy group of young people attacked him.
The teen suspects in the latest attack were found on another Red Line train and picked up by Metro police at the Woodley Park Station in Northwest D.C. According to police, five boys and one girl may be charged with felonies. Their ages range from 16 to 17 and all of the alleged attackers are students at Woodrow Wilson High School in Northwest.
Fox 5 reported that a second mob-oriented attack happened around 5 p.m. on the same day. A man was hit by a snowball knocking his glasses off. He could not identify the perpetrators.
“First of all, it’s embarrassing. It’s embarrassing as a parent to see their young Black kids acting like that,” Lin Crawford from Southeast told the AFRO. “I feel anger, it makes me mad because they don’t have to do that, it’s senseless for real.”
“I wish one of them would come up on me because I’m gonna get one of them. That’s how I feel,” he continued.