A viral video captures the moments teenagers harassed a woman along the Red Line – hurling racial slurs and even attempting to stop her from getting off the train.
“They were trying to corner me and the entire time they’re getting close to me, I can literally feel their breath on me.”
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Vivian Dang says she’s lived in Boston her entire life and has never experienced anything as terrifying as she did on the night of September 21. Dang was sitting on the Red Line train heading to Ashmont around 10 p.m. when she says a group of 5 to 6 teens boarded the train – claiming they wanted to rob the passengers. When the riders did not respond to their threats, they attempted to steal a man’s shoes.
“They tugged his feet and tried to grab his shoes off of his leg,” said Dang.
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The group turned their attention to Dang after she left the train and moved to a different car. At that point, she says they surrounded her. Dang pulled out her phone and started recording the group as they hurled racial slurs and asked if she made eggrolls.
At one point the passenger across from her tells the group that their words "weren’t nice." The group then turned their attacks to the Good Samaritan.
“When she started saying stuff they were being like why are you interrupting why are you getting in the middle of the conversation and then they were mimicking her accent,” Dang remembered.
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The video captures the woman motioning for Dang to sit next to her. Unfortunately Dang was unable to get up. While she was surrounded by the group, one of the boys turned his bike and pushed the wheels into her face while telling the group not to let her leave.
“One of them screamed don’t let her leave and at that point that’s when I felt the true shock because at that point they could follow me home. I was afraid to get off my stop personally because I was afraid they would follow me."
The teens soon left the train after breaking one of the windows inside the car.
Dang got off the train at JFK UMass and filed a report with police who were already at the station looking for the people responsible for breaking the train window. The MBTA took to social media later saying they are actively looking for the people responsible for breaking the train window.
Dang tells us she is still trying to process the terrifying situation and hopes this will bring awareness to racism throughout the community.
