I have been on an around the trip country using Amtrak for nearly two weeks, and it has been a blast! However this morning while arriving into one of our stations things got a little out of control. Since it was so weird, I thought writing it down would be my best way to remember it clearly for the future, and figured I could do so by sharing it with you! So hopefully you guys enjoy the read.
It begins at roughly 4:30 AM this morning. Things are quiet on board in the coach section of AMTRAK, with everyone is doing their best to catch some sleep. However this silence is broken by a woman sitting in front of me who is muttering to herself. At this point she is relatively quiet, and I'm still half asleep, so I am unsure what exactly she was saying. I drift in and out of sleep a few more times, awakening to her muttering only now and then.
However her muttering soon turned into a full conversation, with her accusing someone(s) of being a liar, thief, and nigger. At this point nearly the entire train car was awake.
Myself and the surrounding train passengers paid no mind to her originally, and she wasn't constantly going off. However that had changed, and passengers were getting noticeably annoyed. We wanted to sleep, and she was getting louder.
It is also important to note that people already had a short fuse with her from the evening before. This woman had been visiting most of the train passengers with a clipboard asking them to sign her petition, which many were visibly annoyed by. It is important to note at this point she never once approached me about her petition.
Anyways, she began making it clear on who she was insulting, or what was more likely, simply decided on two hapless victims to direct her verbal assaults. These were very nice older women which myself and my neighbor to my right befriended the day before.
She started calling them liars, thieves, and niggers. One was black, one was white. She also kept telling them to shut up, although neither of them were speaking.
She continued to tell them to shut up, when one of the women started telling her "Don't tell us to shut up, we haven't done anything!"
The lady who was muttering then began to go on a nonsensical tirade, peppering the words nigger, cunt, and other swear words into her speech.
I then kicked the back of this woman's chair. In retrospect, I am unsure what I thought this would accomplish, as this was probably the stupidest thing I could have done. Even if this lady was of a sound mind, which we all suspected at this point she wasn't, she wasn't going to immediately recognize the trouble she was causing and stop.
But alas, I kicked her chair.
She then began calling me a nigger (I am white), and threatened to hit me with her clipboard. I responded that we are trying to sleep, and she needs to be respectful to others in my "attempt" to defend the two women she was verbally assaulting. In retrospect I realize me kicking her chair was disrespectful, so I realize it is a hypocritical of me to say this. But in the heat of the moment of her verbal, and personal attacks no one seemed to mind.
She then told me she would have no problem hitting me and she was ready to go downtown. I responded "I would love for you to go downtown." I was actually waiting and hoping she would hit me just so someone would escort her off.
She then started yelling at me for refusing to sign her petition, which I never did as she never approached me, and having said nothing to her since telling her to be respectful she said "You are a fucking liar, you weren't asleep!" I continued to just look at her, saying nothing because it was clear she was having an argument with me in her head. As I mentioned earlier, she never once approached me and if she did, I was actually asleep.
Her personal attacks on me soon dwindled, and she began to go off more on her personal issues, and her petition/clipboard. I soon learned her petition had something to do with voices she heard in her head, voices she said would kick her in the head, and we were all lying to ourselves by not signing her petition to rid the world of these voices.
An AMTRAK employee soon got involved, who advised her to calm down. This only angered the woman again who then started personally attacking the AMTRAK employee. After using her standard set of curse words she began to repeatedly state "You want to know how I think you are acting? You don't want to know do you!?"
Trying far too long to get the woman to calm down in a nice manner, the employee finally got fed up and said "Well I know how you are acting!" and told the woman she will be arrested if she didn't stop.
The woman continued, and after a few more exchanges, the employee radio'd someone to get the police ready at the next stop who would escort her away. The woman then replied that she would write a letter to the president who would take care of the situation. She seemed to refer to the president as if she knew him personally.
The AMTRAK employee was able to eventually escort her away from her chair, and at the risk of appearing on /r/thathappened, everyone clapped. The crazy woman started saying "Thank you." to our claps as the employee took her down the stairs. As the train pulled into the station, she was the first one off, escorted by an officer.
TL;DR - Woman verbally assaults many on the train, and is angry no one wanted to sign her petition to rid the world of voices in peoples heads.