Friday, May 20, 2011

Loud cell-phone talker removed from quiet car by police

The following is from various news reports on the Internet about an incident aboard an Amtrak train this past weekend.

An Amtrak train was stopped in Oregon, and a woman was escorted off the train by police.

Lakeysha Beard was charged with disorderly conduct after police said she got into a verbal altercation with passengers on the train. The other passengers complained she refused to put down her cellphone, even after train staff made repeated announcements for passengers to not use cellphones, according to police.

When a passenger confronted her about her loud talking, police said Beard got aggressive. She was riding in one of the train's designated quiet cars; and she had reportedly been talking non-stop on the phone since getting on the train in Oakland, CA, a period of 16 hours. 

Amtrak created quiet cars in 2001 when a group of passengers who rode the Philadelphia to D.C. route every morning asked if they could reserve a car where cell-phone loudmouths weren't welcome. Ever since, the rare havens of quiet have become a battlefield between silence-loving rule-followers and rebellious cell-phone addicts. 

Many commuter agencies, including New Jersey Transit, have also created quiet cars on their trains. 

Two web articles that have further details and commentary are the following:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43078616/ns/today-today_tech/t/cops-kick-cellphone-blabbermouth-train/
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110518/us_yblog_thelookout/loud-cell-phone-talker-removed-from-quiet-car-by-police