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Harvard grad student says she was forced to open her bag on the Green Line to prove to other riders she didn't have a bomb
By adamg on Thu, 12/03/2015 - 4:40pm
UPDATE, 10 a.m. Bhaiwala has set her report to "friends only."
UPDATE, 8:35 a.m.: A Transit Police spokesman says: "We have attempted to reach out to her but have not, as of this correspondence, received a reply."
Zahra Bhaiwala, who is studying health economics at the Harvard School of Public Health, reports she was on her way from class to work on the Green Line today when the trolley entered Copley and some guy she says had been eyeing her since Longwood started yelling that she had a bomb in the black bag she was carrying:
"Copley is next! That’s the best place for them to do an attack!” Followed by “Women are doing it too now, don’t you see the news?”
4 or 5 angry men had now gathered around me and I showed them my Harvard and Genzyme IDs and opened up the bag to show them my computers. They nodded their heads and backed away slowly. No one in the car said anything to the man, who refused to come with me to the MBTA office and also refused to apologize. None of the 5 men apologized either, which is more upsetting.
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Comments
Im calling her bluff
She looks about as threatening as a marshmallow.
https://www.college.columbia.edu/cct/fall13/around_the_quads5
What is it with everyone trying to play the victim?
Play the victim?
What does she get out of it?
And when's the last time you rode the T?
Well the kid from Texas with the clock
is asking for 15 million. I could see someone playing the victim if there is that much money at stake.
But it seems by her account that one of the men was potentially committing a bomb threat and these men should probably be looked into.
If this goes viral enough, the T will find the man and get the whole story.
Videos
Not sure about the GL, but pretty much everything else has cameras.
Not the rolling stock...
...not 100% sure, but I think cameras inside railcars (light and heavy rail) are still pretty rare.
Ya. Bomb.
I'm thinking if I heard that word on the T, it would pique my interest. With all the cell phones out there, it's only a matter of time before something surfaces.
I just can't think
of anywhere on the green line where this could conceivably happen--five angry men, no one noticing this with any kind of alarm or sympathy. And I don't understand--does she wear a hijab? Why on earth would she be singled out? There is nowhere in the city where her looks would be considered unusual or threatening. Not saying it didn't happen but it's just odd--sounds more like people reacted more to crazy-guy-on-the-T rather than some kind of angry mob though they probably could have done more to reassure her afterwards.
Additional harassment and
Additional harassment and idiots on the internet questioning her integrity?
I'm sure this will turn out
I'm sure this will turn out just like the Black Lives Matter banner on the church in Arlington where it was a BLM activist looking for attention. Oh wait, it turns out it wasn't, and the nut jobs are full of crap as per usual. Surprise surprise. ,
Who's harassing her?
Asking for clarification and questioning details of the story are not harassment or questioning her integrity or sorry--oppression. There's no reason from say a journalistic point of view why you wouldn't want to confirm details especially if something seems odd to you. Being Middle-Eastern looking on its own seems a very odd reason to me for anyone let alone a group of people on the Green Line to flip out--if this were a common occurrence, the B Line would never leave the station. A hijab might make more sense but I'm not hearing about one. It still sounds to me like one unhinged guy and a bunch of people who were maybe confused or watchful as to what was happening but who knows? I just don't think you can say that applying normal standards of trust-but-verify are out of line.
I just don't think you can
I don't believe you actually believe that. I think you're just posting this because you're a sad person looking for attention. I'm going to need to see video confirmation that this is actually your belief. That shouldn't be too hard for you to do if you're telling the truth.
After all, "Trust But Verify."
Yes it is
The person who outburst about her probably having a bomb is probably mentally disturbed...or a Trump fan. He doesn't get to decide who has to clarify or be questioned just for existing. Proving a negative ("I'm not a terrorist") is next to impossible. What if he was right and she is a terrorist but the bombs are in her shoes! Of *course* she can open her bags safely!
But now that he's planted that seed in the community of the subway car, it would take bravery and the strength to ignore your id that suggests "what if he's right...even if by dumb luck??" to stand up and tell the guy to shut up and demand he apologize. When the risk of being wrong to do that is possibly death, people are more willing to give in to their fear. They will go over and say things like "just show him you're not a terrorist so he'll shut up". Because the fallacy of the middle ground is that she should be compelled to compromise on her integrity as "one of us" and prove she's not "one of them" which basically puts her in the latter category and requests she be the one to come back to the "us" by way of proving the negative.
And to suggest that if she was wearing a hijab this all makes more sense to you is continuing the oppression. How many people in the US wear a hijab every day. How many of them blow up subway cars? Per day? You're just shitty at understanding risk and you aren't the one who has to deal with the fact that you're shitty at correctly assessing risk so there's no impetus to make *you* change your thinking on the matter. It's always someone else that's going to have to "verify" because you "trust" them...but not enough to leave them alone as they were leaving you alone.
And yes, that means sometimes your trust is going to be misplaced. Someone wearing a hijab/looking "Muslim"/etc. is going to blow up a bus before it's all said and done. Maybe even in Boston. Maybe even your bus. But welcome to humanity. It's really unlikely it'll happen or involve you. Really really unlikely. But if they can get a guy into a military installation and blow up a mess hall, then randomly pointing out Muslim-looking people and demanding they empty their bags because random other passengers are disturbed isn't going to be any answer that keeps you safe and only serves to make others, completely innocent of any wrong-doing no different than you or anyone else on your bus, feel like shit. Wrongly feel like shit. And that's on you and anyone else that thinks like you wrote above.
Fuck that. We're better than that.
Wtf?
As much as I hate to interrupt a good internet rant...maybe next time spend a little more time reading before you go off? I am not remotely questioning her integrity as to whether she's an ISIS supporter or deserved to be interrogated by some subway nutjob whether or not she was wearing a hijab, chador, burqa, etc.--that is clearly NOT the context in which I said "trust but verify." I said that I found the story strange--usually women wearing Muslim head coverings are the ones who receive this kind of harassment. And as I said, I'm surprised that no one on the subway responded kindly or protectively if this was indeed the scenario, or has confirmed the story. But anyway--thanks for conflating me with the racist subway drooler! Made my day, really, especially given that I had to deal with this kind of crap personally for years.
.
.
PS
Seriously. I know we're all posting on our phones during boring conference calls but really--given the time you spent writing, next time check the context of what you're responding to. I was referring to the poster who claimed that she's now being harassed on the Internet NOT the people who were harassing her on the subway.
Oh, wrong apologist, sorry
I meant to respond to this person above who wasn't writing in context about her internet harassment.
http://www.universalhub.com/2015/harvard-grad-student-says-she-was-force...
Because
many won't believe her without verification. Fake hate crimes have become commonplace. There's no way there weren't many independent witnesses to this alleged incident. In fact, I'm shocked no one videoed it with their phone. And there are cams everywhere on MBTA property, including buses and trains. Finally, if it occurred on a train, the driver would have known something was going on. Police can match the time she claims she was on a train, the stop she got off, etc. There's no question video evidence exists, assuming it really occurred. But she hasn't responded to the transit police, who are trying to contact her. Why?
Your information is outdated.
Your information is outdated. She spoke with Transit Police and put a report in on Friday.
"And when's the last time you rode the T?"
I would assume it was a ruse to look in the bag to steal her stuff. Last time I rode the T was a couple of months ago.
Agree
Any witnesses?
Well, there are five...
...who threatened her. That good enough for you?
Where are they?
Where are they?
I'm sure they're eager to show their faces
I'm sure they're eager to step up and identify themselves. If you've just behaved like a cowardly racist shit, wouldn't you want to claim it?
You cannot assume they are real
'Witnesses' referenced in only one person's account are no more than hearsay.
not for me
You can't call them witnesses if they are in her account of what happened and nowhere else to be found.
And you look
...well, like an anon troll.
never understood this on UH
What is the obsession with denigrating "anon" posters, like they are 100% always here to troll. I mean, what difference does it make if you are anonymous behind your registered name or if you're anonymous behind the default name the site gives you? We have plenty of registered users here who troll all the time. Being a registered user is not some exclusive badge of honor.
I read UHub a lot; suppose I could register. But this way keeps me in check. "Anon" out.
Continuity
It's easy. How do I know *you* "anon(not verified)" from any other "anon(not verified)" post? I don't. Sure, sometimes the writing styles are so disparate, it'd be hard to believe it all came from the same person, but I can't know. If you login, then only you (assuming you haven't found somewhere to give out a password and have lots of others login as "you") can log in and post under that account. That gives accountability and continuity. If there were no logins at all, half of what you wrote wouldn't be possible. You're able to see that "registered users troll here all the time" because they registered. If they were all anons, then Markk's obsession with blaming cyclists for anything to do with roadways or O-FISH-L's anti-Obama screeds would just be part of the general noise and you wouldn't be able to process it all. So, it's nice that Adam lets you post anonymously. I think it can be handy at times and lets one-off issue posters (like families of loved ones posting on obituary articles) be able to effortlessly comment. But in discussions, especially those that might incite some repartee/trolling/flames/stupidity, you're going to have to accept that your opinion *is* held in greater contempt if you can't be bothered to log in. There's a simple solution for that...register. Otherwise, it's like fending off a zerg of stupid. I can't be bothered to care about what you have to say if you can't be bothered to login so there's continuity to who I can be assured I'm discussing the issue with.
I never said
All anons are trolls–I was commenting here long before I had an account as well.
But generally speaking, anon posts lack transparency, are too easy to hide behind, and often hurt online communities more than anything else in the big picture–this is why many websites are actually switching to social plugins for comments, because even registering a random username has such a degree of anonymity to it that it kills the community. Sure, if it's a funny quip or comment that doesn't necessarily steer a conversation or attack someone, it's pretty harmless and you may very well be in that category.
But to immediately start victim-shaming and trying to call out/discredit someone who may have gone through a situation like this, going as far as to actually "research" and make assumptions about how everyone would see this person, all behind a veil of anonymity is just...sad.
Sure, the update does make it seem like this was indeed a hoax, but the poster didn't know this for sure at the time, and if they had been wrong, there's no accountability there, no reputation at stake.
And for what it's worth, I'm pretty sure I've called more than one registered commenter a troll, and would have done the same had this come from a registered commenter.
From her profile:
From her profile:
During her free time, she enjoys exploring the city’s ethnic neighborhoods. “I love that you can step on the subway and every few stops you are in a different demographic,”
HA
And you find this objectionable?
If so, why?
jesus adam
maybe he doesnt? maybe he finds it ironic that her own 'demographic' is probably what caused this bullshit today?
stop putting words in peoples mouths dude, not only do you suck at it but it is cheap and petty
jesus scumquistador
I said it elsewhere...you really are on a roll today. This might be a day to step away from the keyboard for a few. I'm doing the same myself, this is all too raw, I need to recharge the batteries.
Get a papercut this morning?
I know how annoying those can be. Good luck with it!
And here adam proves he's just human like the rest of us
That was easily the most obnoxious comment so far in this thread. Nothing scum said (on this topic) was as rude.
How in the HELL did "her
How in the HELL did "her demographic" cause this?
presumably
she was a victim of stereotyping?
Wow because e-stalking her
Wow because e-stalking her isn't creepy at all. What is this reddit?
A courageous woman
I hope that this incident has been reported to the T Police. What the screamer did is essentially the same as yelling "FIRE!" in a crowded theatre (even if it turns out that he is mentally ill).
Unfortunately, because of her courage in reporting this online, she is now almost certain to be re-victimized repeatedly by the imbeciles who will research everything they can about her from their basement perches. Identifying her employer (or at least affiliation therewith) was probably ill-advised, too.
I don't believe her. A
I don't believe her. A commotion like that on a MBTA train these days would be "ZOMG!!!1111 all over twitter.
She has nothing to gain by
She has nothing to gain by posting under her real name, and a lot to lose over a fabrication. Try again.
how do you know?
I'm not flat out disbelieving the story, but people have all kinds of motivations for doing what they do.
She publicly posted to
She publicly posted to Facebook using her full name, and her grad school and work affiliations. Look at you, look at me. We're not posting using any of that. Yet most of us still try to be honest in our point of view, and most of us are believed to be posting in good faith, even when we disagree.
Also, for the doubter who posted above us, but is probably not you: pity liars and cheaters, for they can never trust. It's not a great life, living in constant doubt and paranoia over others. To be wary is sensible, but too far beyond...
You must
You must not be following the right people.. it was all over my feed today.
But not from any source but her
It's unfortunate that there's zero corroboration from anyone else who was on that workday GL train.
Proving A Negative
At best you can maybe Google for other posts online about the same event, but that's hardly empirical.
For starters most people do not post online at all.
Then would you expect someone else on that train to post: Hey I was a real dick today on the Green Line because I a) accosted someone without cause or b)said nothing while someone accosted someone without cause right in front of me.
You certainly aren't going to treat an anecdote as definitive fact. But conversely, you don't need to assume everyone is pulling a Ben Carson or Brian Williams either.
I'm not making *any* assumptions
An anon stated that they didn't believe her because no one else reported it. Cybah countered anon's post by saying that "[the report] was all over my feed today" - implying multiple sources. I pointed out that this simply meant that a single report was repeated many times.
Single-sourced reports carry intrinsically less weight, but that certainly doesn't make them untrue. Conversely however, repeating the same story multiple times doesn't give it any more validity.
We now know that the MBTA has attempted to reach out to Ms. Bhaiwala. Since she has (for now) shut the doors to the greater online community wrt this report, we'll all just have to wait and see what comes of that.
See below
She's a friend of a friend so I can still see the post and comments. She filed a report with the MBTA so they can know about it officially and determine if there's any pattern/followup needed.
That's not how the article above reads
Adam's update says that the MBTA claims to have attempted to contact her, so far without response.
Maybe the MBTA....
... wasn't trying very hard.
You are being amazing antagonistic towards this young woman.
I don't care what the MBTA tried to do
I'm telling you what she says she did. Her update was after Adam heard from the MBTA about its attempts to reach her. It's possible they left her a message and she followed up on it a few hours later. I couldn't care less. If you don't want to believe anything she has to say, that's on you. However, that won't change the fact that she said it which is what I posted.
I feel terribly for this young woman....
Not sure I would have the wherewithal to follow my own advice, but someone in this situation should just look up and say 'Would you please call 911 then?' Take the idiots picture on the cell phone and get off the train. Go straight to security....
Oh. My. God.
And that's it? A passenger gets hassled for NOTHING, and T cops did nothing? And the other passengers did nothing, except of course for the five who threatened her?
I just don't have words for how ashamed I feel.
Welcome to the human race.
Welcome to the human race.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kitty_Genovese
There certainly aren't T cops
There certainly aren't T cops on every train.
And, yes, we do tend to butt out, especially when multiple people are involved.
If you see something say
If you see something say something.
If you see something...
What if the something you see is a student carrying a laptop bag who isn't quite white enough for your liking?
Oh, indeed
Oh, indeed. If I see a group of people harassing someone because some mentally unbalanced, bigoted xenophobe profiles her as a Muslim and therefore concludes she must be a terrorist, you bet your rosy red ass I'll say something.
Non-white male: "This bad
Non-white female: "This bad thing happened to me."
White male anon troll with *no* actual information: "I don't believe you."
Is what opression looks like.
Well now you are going to
Well now you are going to anon's level by assuming he is a white male. You are also assuming the poster wouldn't say the same thing if it was non-white male instead of a female :)
you can tell race and gender of anons?
Or do you just assume what would best fit your world view?
There's a name for that...
There's plenty of room on
There's plenty of room on tumblr for reaching statements like this that are forced to fit your ideas.
Hmm.
"The home of the brave", indeed.
And so much for
It's not a bad thing to re-read from time to time and ask yourself how you make this vision real--because I would very much like this to be the vision statement for our country. It's on Lady Liberty (thanks, Ms. Lazarus)...but are we living it? Can we all still rally behind it? I do. I hope others do as well.
A bad poem on an old French
A bad poem on an old French statue is not an immigration policy.
http://cis.org/Krikorian/StrangersAmongUs
So is not being a blind muttonhead.
N/t
You just insulted,,,
... both the visually impaired (who have more "vision" than this troll) and sheep (who have far better brains in their head). ;-)
Dispirting
Zahra, I'm sorry you had to deal with such bigoted jerks IRL and online. It's not okay to be harassed, and it's not what many of us like to think is not (but too often is) the American Way™.
Good God!
What is this world coming to?
https://www.washingtonpost
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/after-paris-and-california-attac...
Welcome to humanity. And this is rather benign considering what happens to most societies when fear grips them.
You can be more explicit and
You can be more explicit and just look back at our own history: Internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans, 85% of all those of Japanese descent in North America, after Pearl Harbor. Most of whom were natural-born citizens, and some of whom would go on to form the most decorated unit of its size and per solider in US history, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
Forced displacement to inhospitable and remote camps, in deserts, plateaus, and a swamp in one case. Where Japanese Americans were held behind barbed wire fencing, guard towers, and armed military watch. And where more than once, people were shot and killed, when they were old and suffering from dementia, and didn't know what the fence meant.
All this, even though not one case of sabotage or spying done by Japanese Americans was ever identified, not even in Hawaii. In our most strategically important territory of the war, there was never a mass round up and incarceration of Japanese Americans, even though they made up nearly 1/3 the population at the time.
You left out the fact ....
... that the internees also lost essentially all their property (businesses, real estate, personal possessions too big to carry in a suitcase) -- and never were compensated for thir loss.
I was trying to be succinct
Thank you for mentioning, Michael. I was trying to be succinct and failed. I should have just added in your point initially as well, seeing as I went long anyway.
actually there were *limited* govt reparations
The American Japanese Claims Act of 1948 and the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 both authorized payments to the individuals that had property confiscated by the government.
It wasn't enough, imo - Only $37M paid out via the first act, out of $148M requested, and the latter act only granted each surviving internee $20K.
But it's incorrect to say that no compensation was made.
Next to no...
Not remotely enough to compensate for losing everything (jobs, property) AND several years of their lives.
Adam, you really need to throw out the last batch....
... of anon trolls you got and get a new (hopefully far better) batch.
like I always say
We only see a small percentage of what Adam allows thru... I cannot imagine what he's not allowing on this thread....
He should have 'really open
He should have 'really open thread, I'm going to the Pleasant for a beer' day. Then we'll get to see.
Plus, the pizza is good (or it used to be).
Yes
I think so too.. I keep saying we need to have a uhub meeting up!
We can wear name tags.
"Hello, my name is
ANON
Just had to , much better
Just had to , much better days back then.........
Call the cops and find out what happened!
She hopefully called the Transit Police and they could watch the videos and identify the five men who threatened her. Call me skeptical but if a passenger started screaming she has a bomb I sincerely doubt that five angry men would approach her demanding she open up her bags. By the way what did the driver do? If he or she was notified that a person had a bomb on the trolley hoax or not and didn't report it to the police they deserve to be fired.
Waiting for Huff Po to uncover the Truth here.
n/t
The headline made me think
The headline made me think this story was about the MBTA starting their ridiculous bag search program again. But I guess not all thugs come with badges.
So where were the T cops when/after this happened? Busy doing their security theater at another station?
Transit Police statement
Added to the original post, but just in case you're only reading the comments, a spokesman said this morning: "We have attempted to reach out to her but have not, as of this correspondence, received a reply."
MBTA Report
The student filed a report with the Transit Police this morning, they had not attempted to contact her. She restricted her post because of the kind of comments seen here questioning her credibility and commenting on her personal appearance.
Update?
About 45 min ago, she posted a reply to her post stating that she's now filed a report with the MBTA so they can keep track that it occurred.
She deleted her note?
The Facebook link no longer works. I wonder why?
Maybe....
... she got upset at all the hate being directed at her by anonymous (or unknown to her) schmucks.
Especially since I can see
Especially since I can see she didn't delete her post, she just restricted it to friends of friends.
Corrected my update in the original post
Thanks.