2:15 p.m., Wednesday afternoon, riding the #31 Regional Transit bus to California State University-Sacramento for CSC-137 lab.
Behind me and to my right, toward the rear of the bus, a woman sits with earbuds playing music loud enough I can hear it. I am tired, squinting at printed assignments.
The driver hears her headphones too. At a stop near J and Alhambra, he turns around and motions with his hands to her to turn down the volume. He repeats his demand verbally. She turns down the volume and he resumes driving. Meanwhile, she has not reacted well to the demand. She lets out an angry tsk and says to no one in particular, "You have got to be *explitive* kidding me." Tension.
Two stops go by. The driver turns around again and tells her to turn off her headphones. Gasoline, meet flame.
The driver tells her he can still hear the music and demands she turn off her music. The woman refuses to back down, seems to react defensively by arguing she has the right to play her music. She interlaces her argument with expletives, refusing to turn off her music player.
The driver demands she stop using explitives. Repeats his demand a second time. Three times. It is not working. She continues arguing with raised voice. He attempts to make the argument she is holding up her fellow passengers. She is having none of it. She tells him to do his job and drive the bus instead of waiting. Stop being the music police. It seems the bus driver realizes he has lost control of the situation and digs in. He tells her she can leave the coach or stay and be cited. She chooses the latter. He calls it in. We wait.
Ten minutes go by. Tension. The woman waits, apologizes, seeks support from the five or six other passengers. I say nothing. I am stunned by the violent rhetoric and too drained to give either of them any empathy. The passengers are largely in her favor. The driver says nothing. He has done this before. The woman has not. She calls her parole officer and leaves a message detailing the incident.
A fellow passenger who seems sympathetic to the woman's plight chooses to leave the bus. As he does, he passive aggressively suggests the bus driver try sex to change his attitude.
A Regional Transit security officer arrives, greeting the driver at the door. Outside the bus, he is putting on black gloves. He is moderately overweight, with a white moustache and a hard look. He boards the bus and immediately demands the woman exit the coach. She does, he follows. Through the now closed mid-section door, I can see and hear her arguing with him. We wait for 30 seconds. The security officer pauses, walks to the door of the bus, and informs the driver he is good to go. We pull away, leaving them behind.
At the next stop, the passenger who left the bus reboards and joins the other passengers behind me. He admits he feels like a "stupid *explitive*" for getting back on the same bus. A few people express frustration that they were not able to help her tell her side of the story.
Ten minutes later we arrive at the University.
I do not think either one of those people got what they wanted through their actions. I cannot imagine the bus driver, the woman, or the security officer enjoyed the encounter. To think if it all could have been avoided by simply (easier said then done, in reality) not using demands and not getting defensive.
