Violent weekend

London is a big city, and has it's share of violence. This weekend, Jenna and I got to see two instances of that violence.

In the first instance, we saw the aftermath of violence. A building near the High Street Kensington tube station was a wreck when we walked by it on Saturday afternoon. This building, Como House, has an all glass entry and foyer. Apparently, a guy got really mad and went at the building with a large brick or cinder block.

He took out almost all of the buildings entry, while a whole crowd of people watched. We didn't see this part, but the aftermath when a crew of guys were cleaning up mountains of broken plate glass. Within hours the guys had built a temporary structure to enclose the building and keep it secure.

The second instance of violence was closer to us. We were on the Piccadilly line on our way to see a show. We got on to the Piccadilly line at Gloucester Road and as we were getting on a dazed looking woman got off of the train.

The woman looked glassy and confused as she got off of the train. Following her was a tall man who started yelling at here. It became obvious that she had gotten off the train at the wrong station, and the man was very upset about this. At one point he grabbed her arm and pushed her hard towards the train. She tripped and went sprawling on the floor of the platform.

The guy just got even angrier, and looked like he was going to hit her for falling on the floor after he shoved her. At this point Jenna and I were already on the packed train and the doors were closing.

I'm ashamed that I didn't do anything, although the guy was big and Jenna tells me that it wouldn't have been safe for me to intervene. No one on the train did anything, and when the doors closed we overheard several people talking about the incident.

The most amzing thing was that several people on the train were apprantly "friends" of the woman who was pushed. They kept saying that she should get a new boyfriend. While I'm ashamed that I didn't act, I'm astonished that this girls friends didn't act. They just sat on the trian as the doors closed and we left the station, watching as the man continued to yell at his girlfriend.