It hasn’t been a good week for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. As if constant underfunding, flooding and considerable subway delays weren’t enough, the transit agency’s overseeers aren’t reacting well to the national publicity it has received for the arrest of an EPA scientist for eating a candy bar while entering the Metro Center subway station downtown. The Post reports that some Metro board members want a review of its detention policies for minor infractions.
D.C. City Councilman Jim Graham, who sits on the board says he’s “not advocating to lift the rule or relax the rule; I’m looking for ways to avoid people ending up in handcuffs for chewing a candy bar.”
Regardless of the circumstances that got the EPA scientist locked up in a 1st District holding cell until her husband could come down and pick her up (she aparently talked back to the Metro Transit Police officer in question), it has sparked outrage among the riding public and questions as to what exactly constitutes chewing and eating. People chew gum, which would technically violate WMATA’s “chewing is eating” rule.
Why.I.Hate.DC has called on his readers for a little bit of civil disobedience on Monday:
I declare this Monday, August 2, to be EAT WHILE YOU RIDE DAY. I believe it is every Metro-riding citizen’s duty to stand up against our oppressors at WMATA by eating or drinking something… anything… on the train or bus on that fateful, delicious day. Bring a candy bar; bring fast food; bring a three-course meal if you like. Bring hors d’oeurves and serve them to fellow passengers. Bring a grape smoothie and spill some on the farecard machine. “Accidentally” drop some linguini on the escalator, thus rendering it inoperable for weeks. If everybody’s eating en masse, who can they police hogtie and arrest?
Why.I.Hate.DC, like Martin Luther at Wittenberg, has laid out WMATA’s crimes, which include fining a man in a wheelchair who yelled some profanity in a station where he was trapped because none of the elevators worked. Or the case of the 12-year-old girl who was arrested for eating a single french fry.
