Dueling Profiling in Los Angeles

So I’m coming home from church via a Los Angeles MTA Bus Sunday because the brakes on my hoopty are gone. In LA, using the Metro is perceived to be only for the “underclass” and it’s a shame too because if more used public transportation there would be more money to expand it.

I’d give up my vehicle if the public transportation were like that in East Coast cities. Maybe.

Anyway, I’m on the one of the accordion-style busses, sitting in the seats located in the “accordion.” (As far as I can tell, all of LA’s MTA busses are of this style.) The seats right next to and further to the front of the bus than the accordion seats are roughly a foot above them. And on this day, seated in such seats right next to me are two young Muslim men. They’re medium brown–skinned--around the same complexion as the youngest of my American sisters and as the two young Hispanic men sitting across from me—and, at first, the only way that I can tell that they are Muslim is that they are both wearing the little white knit caps similar to a yarmulke. (Any assistance as to what that type of cap is called is welcome.)

At first I barely notice the men. Being bored makes me nuts, so I carry a book everywhere I go in order to fill the times of expected or incidental waiting. On this day I happened to have two books, one being a Bible, of course. But I was reading the other one, a thick hardback from the library.

Then, something one of the young Muslims did caught my attention. He was wearing a thick leather jacket and he hugged himself for a long time with his hands hidden. (It was one of those warm days that occur during LA winters, around 75 degrees Fahrenheit.) I began to silently pray.

Please God, not now, not today.

The man then relaxed and began to chat with his friend in a language that I did not understand. At the next stop the friend exited the bus. The one wearing the leather jacket then moved closer to me so that he was sitting right next to me but a foot above me. Then he began to pray too--aloud and in Arabic. From (possibly faulty) memory, here’s the English:

In the Name of Allah the Most Beneficent the Most Merciful
All praise is due to Allah the Maker of Worlds.

I nearly got up and jumped out of the window of a moving bus. Instead I opened up my Bible to Matthew 21:21.

Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done.

I wasn’t up for withering fig trees that day. All I asked was that the guy not be a jihadi or if he was, to not be at “work” on that day. But of course I acknowledged that “God’s will be done.”

Just then a shapely young black girl walked done the aisle in front of us. The Muslim guy and the two Hispanic guys were staring at her with open mouths. I relaxed a bit because surely he wouldn’t want to blow up the pretty girl, right? (Okay, I understand that that does happen a lot sometimes, but cut me a break; I was grasping at straws.)

Then the Muslim decided to try out his Spanish on the other men. One cannot grow up in LA and not understand at least the rudiments of the language. And, in this case, even though the Spanish was accented, I understood every word.

I heard those n*gger b*tches are hot in bed.

I was angry now instead of afraid. Then I remembered the other book that I was carrying—the large hardback. I closed it so that the Muslim would be able to read the book’s emphasized subtitle should he look down over my shoulder. He noticed the subtitle--and the photos--as soon as I closed the book because I saw him do a double-take.

The book was this one.

No words were exchanged between us and the man exited the bus a couple of stops later. I thanked God.

Please contribute to my brake fund.

Comments

[Tantor]

B,

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but getting more people to use mass transportation won't bring more money into the system, but rather raise taxes, ie suck money out of the public pocket. Public mass transportation does not break even anywhere. It operates at a loss everywhere. The riders do not pay the costs of their ride, which is subsidized by taxpayers who don't use it. If you get more people to ride the bus, that causes a greater loss which must be made up in higher taxes.

This sad state of affairs was brought home to me by the peculiar revelation by the Washington DC metro that ridership was maxing out the system, causing it to incur extra expense. What, said I? In a normal business, when you max out your capacity to deliver goods and services, that means you're rolling in profits. Not so the metro, which I discovered, was never designed to operate at a profit. Nor do any other metros.

What that means is that once public transportation achieves a monopoly, it can not reduce costs by providing more service, but only by reducing the quality of service. In the case of the Metro, that means tearing seats out of the trains so that they can pack more people in standing and jacking up rush hour fares. So mass transit has an incentive to provide the worst service it can possibly get away with.

[Skippy]

I think I agree on public transportatiion, which works great in most parts of the world but is disasterous in te US.

However, I don't, for a minute, believe the "the arab said this in spanish" part. Sorry. Too contrived and reminds me of after 11/9/2001, just after the events, everyone and their brother saying: oh yeah, I just KNEW it was my end, 'cause I saw an Arab! Boy I'm lucky to be alive.

I was living among the Arabs on 11/9/2001 and they too were shocked at the events, but not shocked at all at the stupidity of Americans to jump to conclusions and believe everything mr. main stream press had to say every time an Arab sneezed or opened his/her eyes. Come to think of it, what of that Muslim mother of, was it, 6 children, who was shot in the head a couple years ago crossing the street in Los Angeles? Or was it San Diego? It was southern CA is all I remember, but I'll seek it out.

But maybe the bad guy on the bus was our big, bad enemy, none other Los Angeles' own Adam Pearlman, aka Adam Gadhan, the "Al Quady spokesman," zionist-turned Muslim!!!! Isn't Hollywood where he makes his videos anyway?

[DonS]

Skippy,

If anything the MSM has gone out of its way to avoid implicating Islam.

It's amazing that the stupid Americans are such a success . . .

[baldilocks]

What Arab are you talking about, Skippy? I never mentioned any Arab. And, as I recall, Adam has white skin.

You should probably stick to talking about Australia, since you know nothing about America...or this blogger.

[Skipp]

hmmmm, "...medium-brown skinned Muslims." Kinds sounds Arab to me, but that's not the main point. The main point is the BS line one of them was supposed to have said. Like james the zionist woods after 11/9/2001, with his "I was there on the plane, crossing the country, and I just KNEW they were going to blow something up somewhere, sometime." And America says: drool, drool, we believe you, you 5th rate actor.

Adam Perlman is Ashkenazi, vice Sephardic, so his ancestor came from Khazaria, steppes of Russia, i.e., there's no more Jewish blood in his veins than my black Lab, making any Palestinian, even the child killed today, more "semitic" than Perlman.

"Kufi" is what the Muslim head cover during prayer is called.

DonS: you've obviously never LIVED overseas, but see America from someone who considers themselves well traveled for vacationing and getting plastered in Cancun.

[baldilocks]

My sister is medium brown-skinned (as I mentioned), but she's not Arab. Neither are Indians, some of whom are Muslim. The point was that the men looked just like the average person in LA--a city that you obviously know nothing about.

Perlman's descent is irrelevant--his skin is pale and I specifically said that the men in question were brown-skinned. *You're* the one who ignorantly suggested that it might be him, remember?

Thanks, however, for putting at least one useful thing in your post, Adam Skip--'kufi.'

[baldilocks]

BTW, Skip, you're not important enough to me for me to care about your belief. However, my story is important enough to you for you to have to come back here and scoff at it more than once. Why is that?

[Wry Mouth]

Baldi --

Sorry about the fright. And the anger. Still -- two reasonable emotional responses. I'm sorry the last Muslim fellow was such a poor example of his faith, too -- not for admiring a pretty woman, of course, but for his rudeness about it. How crude; how rustic.

He may, one supposes, have just been having one of his 5-a-day prayers, but the coat would have thrown me a little, too. N.B. if a guy's wearing a thick coat and he smells like nitrogen fertilizer, it's a time to fret. ;o/

And, primarily, a fine post about the twists of being a woman in that situation. My wife and daughter (24) have far more extreme reactions than I in such times, but I don't mind that b/c I would rather they were cautious.

Glad to hear the Bible is your constant companion. I aspire to that.

[IronMike]

Baldi,
Same thing I think while I'm out in the boondocks of ass-crack-istan: "God's will be done."

Also, it helps that I keep my life insurance paid. That does, sadly, make me sleep well. (When I get sleep, that is!)

[baldilocks]

I'm sure that the lovely Ms. S. isn't ready to cash in just yet, Mike. :-P

[baldilocks]

Wry Mouth

Glad to hear the Bible is your constant companion. I aspire to that.

I only carry one when going to church, but I always carry a book--just not necessarily that one. :-)

[Wry Mouth]

oh well then -- I have already arrived! ;o/