Dear PoP – extremely disturbing incident on orange line metro

Photo by PoPville flickr user AWard Tour

“Dear PoP,

I wanted to tell you what happened to me on my way to work Tuesday morning. I reported this case of sexual assault to Metro Police, but I don’t feel like that accomplishes much.

This morning, I boarded the orange line at L’Enfant Plaza in the direction of Vienna. I was engrossed in a book and on “auto-pilot” on the way to work. When I got on the train, a man sat down next to me, in the seat closest to the aisle.

Continues after the jump, warning disturbing description of incident follows.

I sat next to him for about 10 minutes before I realized he was masturbating right next to me. I was shocked! When he realized that I had noticed he started talking to me, and making comments about oral sex. The train car wasn’t full, but there were many people in my near vicinity including families with small children. I had to ask him to get up and let me out, which thankfully he did, and moved to another car.

I was so nauseous and disgusted after this whole incident. Its especially shocking considering the time of day and the amount of people on the train. I reported the incident to Metro Police. The man was African American, about 40 years old, wearing jeans and a baseball cap. We were in the last car of the orange line train departing from L’Enfant Plaza in the direction of Vienna at about 10:30 AM this morning.

I don’t know what good it does to tell you this story, but I know there is little that the Metro Police can do.

I will be interested to see if there are others with similar stories or suggestions for what to do if this happens to others in the future.”

If anyone encounters a situation like this definitely don’t be afraid to scream/ask for help from your fellow passengers. Unfortunately incidents like this can escalate to even worse acts of aggression.