by Aaron M. Renn
Chronicling life riding the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)
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An anonymous person sent this story in.
My latest encounter with perverts on the L:It was Tuesday around noon and I was going to work late due to a doctor's appt. So, I got on the Brown Line at Paulina and sat parallel to the windows right next to the door. At about Belmont or Fullerton (definitely one of the larger stops) a suspicious gentleman boarded the train. I say he was suspicious not because of his color or race, but because he had an all green sweat suit and a tiny gym bag.
Let me give you some background on my past experience with psychotic sexual perverts before I go any further. I've never been "flashed" or sexual harassed in a graphic sense until I graduated from college. I guess the suburbs aren't much of a hangout for freaks. The University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign didn't have any that accosted me in my years there either. No, it was only after I started riding the CTA that I got my first taste of sexual perversity. It was a Sunday at 1pm, I got on the Red Line at Addison and was going home to Evanston. This incidence was probably the worst out of all of them, because he cornered myself and a female tourist and proceeded to masterbate to the expected outcome and then left. I was shocked and had a look out on the L ever since that day - the fall of 1997. After that I've had had 3 other occasions where sick, sick men have exposed themselves to me. Mr. Green was the 5th.
So, I've had some experience spotting trouble. You see, sweat pants are a sure sign of a pervert because it's easy access. If a man wants to expose himself in the quickest way possible they can't mess with buttons or zippers! So, he sat perpendicular to the windows and riding backwards (of the direction of the train). At about Sedgewick I looked over and noticed that he had pulled down his pants, put that gym bag on this lap and positioned his legs so that I'd be the only person to see his pride and joy. Now, as I said earlier I've been in this situation too often and knew to act like nothing was going on. My stop was at Merchandise Mart - I wanted to get a CTA person to arrest his ass in the worst way possible. SURELY there'd be somebody at the Merchandise Mart (since it's so touristy) that could help me out. So I got of the train, ran to the conductor and the platform guy who were talking to one another and said: "Hey, there's a guy exposing himself in a green sweatsuit, he's black with glasses about 30 years old" "What car?" "The second, sir." So, the CTA hobbled, I mean, HOBBLED over to the car, by this point, enough time had passed to make the freak concerned why the doors weren't closing when all the passengers had left. So the freak got off the train, I screamed at the CTA guy - "GO GET HIM HE'S RIGHT THERE!" The CTA guy just whistled at him. Now, I myself, could run after this guy and kick the living crap out of him if I didn't have two bags with me. The worthless CTA guy said, "Well, I guess you have to be faster than they are!"
If the CTA wants, I bet I could round up 10 perverts that ride the L everyday within 2 working days. Bring it on!
The Weekly Breakdown is a small Internet journal devoted to the trials and tribulations of being a regular rider of the Chicago Transit Authority. I would be happy to hear about and include your experiences. Just send mail to breakdown@urbanophile.com. The views expressed by contributors are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the publisher.
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