Rocks in the air and Metro

Imagine my surprise when getting off at the Rhode Island Avenue Metro stop Tuesday evening to see a rock heading my way. In fact in retrospect one hit the train while it was pulling into the station. The first thing you have to realize is the platform is a good thirty feet above ground. A few moments later another rock came hurtling toward the platform. I yelled loudly for people to watch out. Someone just missed getting hit.

Several of us moved toward the other side of the platform. Looking down we saw two boys throwing rocks up on to the platform. In fact while we watched, one of the charming darlings threw another rock. One of the guys on the platform yelled some choice words to the kid. With a sense of urgency a couple of people looked around to see if there was a Metro employee around to point out what was going on. There just happened to be one going down the escalator. The guy who yelled at the kid was the person who caught up with the Metro employee on the escalator. He told the Metro employee what had happened. He said that one women was almost hit in the head.

What happened next was not what I thought would happen. I would have thought there would have been some sense of urgency to go after these kids. A sense of urgency to make sure they couldn’t throw any more rocks (and they were good sized rocks) and potentially hit someone. There was in fact no sense of urgency at all. The Metro employee did not quickly walk down the escalator (it was full of people but he could have asked them to move). There seemed no great sense of urgency to get out of the station. I will say he looked out of the station in the direction that he’d been told the kids were throwing the rocks from.

Outside of the station were two Metro transit police cars. I got through the turn styles and walked toward them. Unfortunately, no one was in them. And where was the trusty Metro employee. Well he’d barely gotten out of the station by the time I’d determined that the police cars were empty. I’m not sure what happened next. I have to think not a great deal.

I went over to a walk way and could still see both of the kids. They’d moved away from their original spot of being on the train track bed up a little ways. I decided there wasn’t a great deal more that I could do. For a moment I thought about going after the two little bastards but decided against. I also thought about calling 911 but then couldn’t figure out exactly what I would say. I think I was still in shock over the total lack of concern by the Metro employee. I have to believe that since nothing happened to them, these two kids will be back on the train bed throwing rocks up onto the platform.

Next time people may get hurt. I assume then there will be some sense of urgency on the part of Metro then.