A bit of a different post today, more of a PSA.
A little over a year a go, my partner and I were on a train from London to York.
A lady was sat across the aisle from us, minding her own business on a very busy train.
An older man (~60s) got on and was surprised to see her in 'his seat'. Instead of politely chatting to her, he immediately went on the offence harassing her, shouting, and being racist.
The lady moved on to another seat, the man then turned to my partner Mila asking if she 'want[s] to go sort [her] pal out? ... Because your both Chinese'
Mila said he was being extremely rude, put her headphones on and was understandably very upset.
He turned to me and asked if I have a problem with him, to which I said he was being rude and racist. He said that it wasn't racist, and began threatening me with violence 'to go sort it out'.
I laughed at him, ignored him, and his friend said to drop it and told him to be quiet.
I text the British Transport Police (BTP) on 61016 reporting racism and harassment, they replied asking for a description and any more info.
I did so with a description of the man, that we were due in to York station at 16.35, his seat / carriage number.
Once we rolled in to York station, there were BTP officers at the platform where they boarded the train, arrested the man, and took a some witnesses' details.
>> Fast forward a year it was time to appear in court. After 5 hours of us waiting, the man plead guilty.
It transpired that a number of other people, whilst not getting involved, had also text 61016 and were ready to give statements.
If you see something, you can make a report and not get involved in the altercation potentially putting yourself at risk or escalating the circumstance.
Stick up for others, call out wrongdoing.
If you are involved, statements are key to a strong argument.
It feels like a win, but sad that it happened anyway.
❤️✌
