Walmart Gunwomen and Crazy Bus Passengers

There's a couple of things I don't do. The first thing is shop at Walmart. I don't like their declasse marketing approach and ruthless management style. The second thing is ride the bus. There's not many mass transit options where I live and work now anyhow. The last time I rode the bus was in Detroit some decades back. A fight broke out, one in which I had no part in starting and in which I did not participate. The bus driver stopped the bus and called the police. Not wanting to be bothered to actually do their job and figure out who did what the police just forced all of the black males in a certain area off the bus and called it a day. The group kicked off the bus included yours truly. The bus driver and police drove off. As the fight restarted I walked home, now fully convinced that I needed a car of my own. There are too many strange and/or violent people who infest our mass transit options.

I was reminded of both of these self-imposed prescriptions by two recent incidents. The first took place in Washington D.C. A bus passenger, a woman who is evidently suffering from either mental illness, drug issues or intense paranoia, didn't like the way that the bus driver, also a woman, told her to have a nice day as she exited the bus. Rather than do what most people would do and keep moving, this lady, one Opal Brown, threw a cup of urine on the bus driver before running away.


We write a lot about how municipal employees (i.e. police) need to keep their cool in some very challenging situations. But this incident is one where if the victim lost her temper and decided to deliver some well deserved street justice to Miss Brown right then and there I think I would understand. Of course you may be wondering just who the **** walks around with cups full of waste material? Brown apparently filled the cup shortly before getting off the bus which suggests to me that either she is mentally ill or had some pre-existing beef with the bus driver. Either way things like this are why I don't take mass transit and wouldn't do so even if it were available in my current situation. Life is too short to worry about weird women throwing waste material at you.

A woman accused of splashing a bus driver with a tumbler full of urine told police she did it because she “hates Metro,” but later felt bad after seeing news reports and decided to turn herself in. Meanwhile, the bus driver was so traumatized by the incident that she hasn’t returned to work and is fearful she contracted a disease or infection from the attack, co-workers said.

Opal L. Brown, 38, of Southeast Washington pleaded not guilty Thursday to misdemeanor simple assault in D.C. Superior Court. The judge also ordered Brown to undergo weekly drug tests and be assessed for possible mental health services. Brown, who appeared in court wearing a pink-and-black skirt and gray zip-up sweater, was quiet as she appeared before the judge. She declined to speak with reporters.

But a description of Brown’s alleged assault and subsequent arrest, provided by Metro Transit Police, appeared to shed light on what may have prompted her actions while riding the X2 bus Saturday afternoon near the intersection of Minnesota Avenue and Benning Road.
According to the police report, Brown told police she was standing by the door of the bus, waiting to get off. The driver, a newly hired Metro employee, told Brown to “have a nice day.” Brown shot back, “Are you talking to me?” Brown said she then threw the purple coffee tumbler at the driver. She said she had used the tumbler to relieve herself at the back of the bus, according to the report. “[The defendant] stated the cup was filled to the top with urine and she tossed the urine on the [bus driver] because she was mad at [the driver] and hates Metro,” the police report said. LINK

The second incident wasn't as disgusting but was potentially more dangerous. In Novi Michigan, a Walmart dispute over a notebook turned violent. Two pairs of women, one white and one black, were shopping for back to school supplies. They both saw a notebook that they wanted. And this notebook was the last one on the shelf. 

Apparently, rather than ask if there were any more notebooks in the back or I don't know, go to any of the multitude of other Walmarts or other office supply stores within a 15 mile radius, the women started hurling insults and eventually punches at each other. Supposedly when things graduated to hair pulling, the older white woman, a licensed concealed carry holder, pulled her gun and told the black women to back off or eat hot lead. Well it probably wasn't in those exact words but apparently her meaning was crystal clear. She and her daughter got the notebook. This isn't necessarily a racial incident. But I can't help but think of various black people (usually black men) who are shot dead because someone thought they had a gun or because they looked like they were thinking about having a gun or were carrying a gun in an open carry state or just because someone was frightened of them even though they had no gun.

Video from a bystander shows a woman pull out a gun during a fight inside a Walmart store in Novi on Monday afternoon. An argument broke out between two pairs of women over the last notebook on the shelf at the Novi Towne Center store, according to police.

The fight involved two Farmington Hills residents, ages 46 and 32, and a mother and daughter from South Lyon, ages 51 and 20. WCRZ-FM reports that the two Farmington Hills women were shopping for school supplies, and when one of them reached for the last notebook on the shelf, a South Lyon woman also reached for it. Police told the Free Press that it was the 20-year-old who reached for it.
The two women pulled the 20-year-old’s hair, and the woman's mother was pushed aside before pulling out a gun, according to Fox2Detroit.

This lady pulls a gun in a dispute over a notebook and wasn't shot by police or security guards. At the time of this writing she hasn't been named or charged. You're only supposed to use or threaten to use deadly force when you believe your life or that of others is in imminent danger. Does a catfight at Walmart fall into that category? I find that hard to believe. In any event that is reason #34,514 why I don't shop at Walmart. With my luck I would have been in the next aisle over when this lady pulled the trigger, missed her target and hit yours truly.

I don't think that Michigan or D.C. are singularly strange places. So wherever you are be on the lookout for someone who wants to throw body waste on you because you offended them or who decides to pull out a gun because they want to get the last donut in the shop. People these days... LINK