Portland brothers film racist attack on train

Three brothers Emilio Herrera, 21, and his younger brothers, Romeo, 18, and Pablo, 17, were riding the MAX in Portland on Saturday evening when they heard a loud noise at the front of their train.

“I see this fairly big man yelling,” Emilio Herrera said to Oregon Live. “That man was just yelling at this woman, yelling the n-word, kind of being belligerent.”

Herrera says the woman the man was yelling at was an African American woman who was sitting with another woman and a toddler. “No one deserves to be called anything like that,” said Herrera.

The three brothers took action and began filming the attack. They approached the man and told him to stop. This is when the man took his focus off the woman and towards the three brothers.

He asked us what the f we were going to do about,” said Herrera.

The brothers didn’t want to start a fight with the man, Herrera told OregonLive, but they also were skeptical of calling the police. “I watch the news,” said Herrera. “We’re three young brown kids so I didn’t know how that would turn out.”

Instead, the brothers asked the man to get off the train. “We tried to handle it the best we could,” Herrera said.

In the video that has since gone viral, you can see the man call the brothers the n word and try to swipe the phone out their hands. According to Herrera the man pushed him.

The man finally got off the train.

OregonLive was able to speak to the woman through email. 27-year-old Portland resident Natisha Sweaney had this to say:

I was coming from a birthday party in Hillsboro when a man got on the MAX and was asking everyone for 75 cents. My godmother and I both said “No” and we continued with our conversation. The man sat down a few seats in front of us. A couple max stops later the man stood up and walked in front of us and flipped us off, while just standing there.

Being a new mom I am very cautious with riding public transportation.

I asked him “please sit down. please just sit back down.” He did not listen and came about a foot away from us and was yelling racial slurs and cussing in our face. At this point the only thing I could do was hold my daughter tightly and cover her ears.

Three men came running from the other side of the MAX. They distracted the man from being in our face. The man redirected his aggression to the three men. The three men stayed close to us, sitting a few seats away. The man finally got off the MAX but about 45 seconds later got back on and continued to harass the three men for their phone, since they recorded the altercation.

This all happened on the front MAX, right behind were the driver is located. After the man got off the MAX for good. The TriMet driver got on the intercom and stated that the MAX would be waiting a few more minutes before departure.

I have never been in an altercation like this, especially not since having my child. I ride the MAX every day to work. I’ve never felt uncomfortable on public transportation but since this I have been extremely alert and uncomfortable. My main focus now is learning to drive and getting my drivers license. I would never want my child to have to go through that again.

Source : OrgeonLive