Source: PIX11.com

Have you ever wondered, “Why in the world is this person a parent?” If not, I can almost guarantee that this video will make you ask that very thing.

PIX 11 in New York recently ran a story about a Connecticut woman getting into an intense argument with someone on a city bus. Sounds harmless, right? Well, it would be if the woman had not been holding her child while going toe to toe.

While there’s been no word on when the footage was taken, you can see a young woman holding her child but arguing with another woman a few feet from her. She keeps screaming that she’s being disrespected in front of her child and “someone grab my baby, mayne” because she was about ready to fight.

What happens next is…insane.

The young woman she’s arguing with says something about “…if you respected your baby…,” when all of a sudden, the woman throws her child into another passenger’s lap and lunges toward the other woman and they start throwing punches.

It is startling to see how quickly it happened but what is even more shocking is how calm the baby seemed about it and only covered her ears to keep out the noise.

As stated, there’s no word on when the video was taken but there’s also no word on if the woman has been identified or if there has been any investigation on charging someone.

So many questions here: Why didn’t the bus driver ask one of them to exit the bus once he noticed it was escalating? Why didn’t the mother just try to ignore what was happening (althogh it should be noted that no one knows why the argument started)? Why didn’t the other woman just leave it alone since she knew this woman had a baby with her? The list goes on and on.

Take a look at this and tell us what you think?

If there’s one thing that unites all people, it’s that when we need to get from Point A  to Point B (and occasionally point c) we have to seek out ways of transportation.  If you have your own transportation, or live in a neighborhood that you can walk to your destination, then you are very lucky.  But if you have to take public transportation you’re just as lucky.  Not only are you saving the environment with mass carpooling, but when else can you get people from so many different walks of life and see some of the most bizarre things you will ever witness?

Personally, I’ve witnessed a conversation of old men on the Greyhound debating which of their former prisons were the best, and then begin to threaten to stab each other.  How about the guy who, when I was in college, would take advantage of crowded buses to grope the women and sing “Falsetto” in our ears… creepy.  Or the guy who was rolling a blunt on the train, and then whenever people started looking started brandishing a knife and mouthing obscenities at people.  You can’t get these types of stories while you’re driving in your safe car!

Some stories are crazy, and others you really just need to see to believe.  Therefore, I’m going to share six tales of craziness that happened on public transportation, courtesy of the posters of YouTube and one vid from Worldstarhiphop.  If I missed something, let me know.  Hope you enjoy the clips, and if you’re playing the clips at work, beware, because some people like to let the expletives fly!!

Robert Champion and family - Source: wsbtv.com

Not really sure when those with positions of authority in these organizations and bands will get the memo that hazing is wrong on so many levels and needs to stop. But maybe, just maybe, after the death of Robert Champion and the charges brought against 13 members of FAMU’s legendary band, people will learn.

Champion, a 26-year-old drum major at FAMU, was beaten to death aboard a chartered bus after a performance last fall. Band members beat Champion severely, leaving large bruises on his chest, arms, shoulders and back, according to the AP. Witnesses to the beating say Champion might have been targeted not only because he was against members partaking in hazing, but also because he was gay, and was a candidate for the role of chief drum major.

The 13 individuals had the charges brought against them today, five months after the incident happened, and 11 out of the 13 people will face a hazing resulting in death charge, which can carry up to six years. The other two individuals will face misdemeanor charges for their role in Champion’s death. While the parents of the young man were pleased that charges were being filed, they were disappointed that the charges were not more severe. The mother of Champion, Pam, told the AP, “I thought there would be more serious charges. I thought it should send a harsher message.” It seems the possibility of manslaughter and second-degree murder charges were shut down. But State Attorney Lawson Lamar said these charges weren’t sought because murder didn’t seem to be the motive, plus, there’s no evidence to support that thought:

“The testimony obtained to date does not support a charge of murder, in that it does not contain the elements of murder. We can prove participation in hazing and a death. We do not have a blow or a shot or a knife thrust that killed Mr. Champion. It is an aggregation of things which exactly fit the Florida statute as written by the Legislature.”

Because of the incident, the school has suspended the band, and Champion’s parents are even trying to sue the bus company for standing by and allowing the beating to happen–on the bus. But representatives of the company said the driver was not near the bus during the beating, and if he was, he wouldn’t have let it happen.

This is definitely a sad situation, and I hope the family can get some justice for Robert. Unfortunately, this has become far too common of a thing on college campuses. People hoping to get the shine of being a member of a prestigious band or having the chance to wear certain letters have been getting beat, run like mules, forced to drink to the point of alcohol poisoning and more for years now, and sometimes death is the result. Well a lot of the time actually. Look up names like Carson Starkey, Michael Starks, Kenitha Saafir and Kristin High, Vann L. Watts, Michael Davis, Joseph Green–just to name a few names. While this might change the way FAMU and their band happen to do things, what’s it really going to take for students in these organizations and groups elsewhere to get the memo? If the death of someone innocent isn’t the glaring sign these students need, then what’s really left to get them to wake up?

How can schools step in more to stop hazing? Is it possible?

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It’s not uncommon to hear a lot of inappropriate conversations on public transportation, but when Jim Hardie, a white, eight-year Marine and Iraq war veteran, heard black men throwing around the n-word and the b-word on a bus in Seattle last week, he said he couldn’t tolerate it.

He told King 5 that he said to the young men:

“Given the nature of what we’ve gone through with the word n***** it’s not appropriate to loosely throw that word around or refer to white women as white b***** and I’d appreciate if they stopped that.”

But that confrontation didn’t go over so well. Camera footage shows the three guys first began arguing with Hardie, then hitting him before jumping off of the bus. Although the altercation was three against one, Hardie came out uninjured.

It’s interesting that Hardie said he stood up to the men to protect the other passengers on the bus. Despite the tussle, he said he would do it all over again to stand up for what he believed in. I wonder if his words had any effect on the young men. Judging by their reaction it would seem the answer is no.

What do you think about Jim Hardie confronting the men? Was it the right thing to do?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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If you live in any big city, you know that public transportation is more convenient and often times, more affordable than riding around in a burdensome vehicle with a mad dependence on gas. But that doesn’t mean your buses and trains don’t bring their own inconveniences. However, a lot of the headaches and gross encounters can be prevented. Here are seven things you should avoid doing while getting around town. All these tips are for your benefit though. Whether you choose to do them or not, that’s your business, but girl, you’ve been warned.

Afrykayn Moon with her son and daughter. Photo courtesy of Regina H. Boone/Detroit Free Press

There’s yet another controversy in the ever-contentious subject of breastfeeding in public.

Afrykayn Moon, a 32-year-old mother of two from Taylor, Michigan on her way to rent a car, learned the hard way that some folks don’t mind if you need to breastfeed, they just really don’t want to see it. While riding a Southeast Michigan SMART community bus last Friday, Moon was shocked when she was commanded to cover up while breastfeeding by the bus driver, or remove herself from the vehicle. Moon claims she had her 2-week-old baby boy in a football wrap so she believed no one could see very much. When Moon aptly refused to oblige with either requests, the driver refused to move from the stop. Moon says security officers from a nearby mall were called, rather than police, and came onto the bus to question her. Once the officers found that she was not necessarily an “unruly” passenger and let her stay on, they got off the vehicle. However, Moon says she was still berated by the driver after the officers’ departure and decided to have a relative come and pick her up from the bus, as she claims she was being cursed at in front of her son and 3-year-old daughter.

Coincidentally, Moon is part of the group, the Black Mothers’ Breastfeeding Association, and says she is familiar with breastfeeding laws in the state. Tomorrow, Moon and more than 50 other women plan to stage a protest at the terminal where the driver allegedly leaves from. The driver is currently on paid leave until the incident is finished being investigated. In another awkward twist of events, the scolding driver who instructed Moon to cover up or get off the bus was also a woman. Interesting…

Do you think Moon should have covered up? Or was the driver out of line?