A pair of videos showing two adult men beating up on a younger man before throwing him off a San Francisco Muni train against his will has sparked outrage on social media.
The shocking footage was uploaded to Twitter on Thursday night and has since prompted an investigation by authorities, the San Francisco Gate reported. Officials with the city’s Municipal Transportation Authority said the incident was reported and logged that evening by its “Central Control,” which connects directly to the San Francisco Police Department.
“This is a very disturbing video,” said Muni spokesman Paul Rose. “We are working with (San Francisco police) to fully investigate this matter.”
According to the San Francisco Examiner, journalist Anna Sterling, who posted the videos, said the incident unfolded on the N-Judah Muni line Thursday night, somewhere between 32nd and 40th Avenue. While she wasn’t on the train herself, one of her friends was and sent video of the incident to her. The attack allegedly began because the teen was playing his music too loudly.
Whoa these two men just tried to throw this kid off the muni train because he was playing music too loudly. He easily could’ve hit oncoming traffic. This is not okay. pic.twitter.com/NYIZilSmNL
— ᜀᜈ᜔ᜈ Anna Sterling (@AnnaMSterling) August 31, 2018
In the clip, one of the men is seen holding the teen in a headlock as he squirms against the train seats, trying to get away. Other train riders are heard shouting at the man to stop and just “chill out.”
“Over music? Really?” a woman says. “Leave him alone!”
“He’s just a kid,” another person chimes in.
A separate video shows another passenger join in as they grab the young man by his clothes and violently drag him to the doors, attempting to toss him from the car. The young man screams in distress as his attackers continue to shove and kick him, ramming his body against the doors of the train.
“They’re attempting to throw him onto the street,” Sterling tweeted. “You can see it clearly here. He’s just a kid. This is not okay.”
According to the journalist, her friend who filmed the incident got off the train and tried to render aid to the young man.
Video of the incident sparked plenty of reactions from users online, most of them angry.
“Thinking you have the right to remove somebody from public transit because they annoy you is a perfect example of white privilege in action,” one user wrote.
“This is insane,” another person chimed in. ” First, why didn’t any of the other passengers respond with anything other than, ‘Please let him go ….’ Secondly, these guys NEED to be found, they were endangering the kid’s life over something as petty as the loudness of HIS music.”
One user even dubbed the seemingly white attackers as “#MuniMatt” and “#MuniMark.”
San Francisco Police haven’t yet commented on the incident.
Watch more in the video below.
They’re attempting to throw him onto the street. You can see it clearly here. He’s just a kid. This is not okay. pic.twitter.com/BGT3kado26
— Anna Sterling (@AnnaMSterling) August 31, 2018
