NEWS & POLITICS

work through is rail safety. What does this look like on a moving vehicle, on a moving train? And how do we get to the train? From our partners in this space—which are CPD and CFD, who have been doing this fi rst response work for eons longer than us—we’re trying to take the lessons that they’ve learned, so that we can apply them within this CARE space and partner with the CTA. In talks with the fire department, they’ll stop the train [if they respond to a call]. The thing that’s very good with CARE in the fi rst responder world is that we don’t have time constraints of how long it takes to mitigate a situation. Our average time on the scene is an hour, but we can’t have a train stop for an hour. So we have to truly operationalize how to do crisis work in this space. How do we do this, and it not be a complete stoppage of everything? Because for us, once the team gets in that space, we’re in. We’re locked in.

I’ve been there for two hours, and probably a little longer, just on the scene with de-escalation, because de-escalation for us isn’t just “is the person calm.” And it’s not just the one person: we’re working with everybody who was present, whether they’re bystanders or they’re family members. We want to make sure that we don’t leave anybody scarred by the experience.

Andrea Chu, midwest organizing manager, Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago

“At Advancing Justice, we build power through collective advocacy and organizing to achieve racial equity,” Andrea Chu told me during our interview. “That’s really our North Star goal.” Under the umbrella of their national organization, AAAJ | Chicago pursues this goal through issue advocacy and organizing. Multiple times a month, they also o er free, virtual hate-incident bystander intervention training for anyone who wants to learn. For more information or to sign up, check out their bystander training page or email antihate@ advancingjustice-chicago.org.

There was a lot of xenophobia in the COVID pandemic. We wanted to link it to Asian American history: this is something that happened to the South Asian community and the Muslim community post-9/11. We acknowledge that this sort of anti-Asian racism and sentiments don’t come from nowhere. [In our bystander intervention trainings,] we want people to have context around why these incidents show up when they do, and then also have the tools to intervene in them, if it seems possible in the moment.

One of the biggest pieces we want people to leave with is, yes, de-escalation is really the key, and so is prioritizing everybody’s safety. We’re not trying to get people to, like, be a hero in a way that is fl ashy, right? We want people to prioritize their own safety, and make a conscious decision about what you do want to do and what you don’t want to do. A through line is that your identity—and the identities of the people who are involved— are all intersecting in di erent kinds of ways.

It’s so di erent from situation to situation: how you’re feeling that day, what you’re wearing that day, and the triangulation of everybody else in this situation. It changes: I may have certain privileges in a certain situation that I do not have in others. As a small, Asian, femme-presenting person, there are strengths to my identity that I can use to de-escalate, because other people might not see me as a threat.

The question that we ask at Advancing Justice is, “What created the conditions for this situation in the fi rst place?” One, a long legacy of racism in this country. But more specifically, particularly in Chicago, is a lack of social resources. Very specifically, the closing of mental health clinics under the Rahm administration, generally una ordable hous- ing that has gotten worse and worse, and a lot of systems that point to punishment, police, and incarceration. This is the consequence of those policy decisions.

When those kinds of systems come up against the long-standing anti-Asian sentiments that fl ared up during the pandemic, of course these situations [like what happened on the Red Line] are going to happen, because you have created the conditions in which many people are unwell. The weapons that they are reaching for are the ones that are prevalent in society—the cultural scapegoat at the time.

And so, how can regular, everyday people intervene in a moment, when those systems don’t exist right now? You cannot change structural oppression on the train in three minutes [laughs].

In the moment, what we want to do is intervene to make sure that everyone is OK. In the long term, what we’re working on is making sure that situation never arises in the first place, because everybody is OK. What would it look like for Chicago to function for everybody?

Jeff Rasmussen

Jeff is a 64-year-old Chicagoan who loves music and mostly lives outside. We’ve known each other for a few years and regularly talk about how the city, and all of us in it, can better support people with physical and psychiatric disabilities: it’s a concern that’s an urgent part of his everyday life.

People out here need to have more respect for each other. Like with the guy you were telling me about on the train. You get these psychos, just try to stay away from them and let them go through whatever it is they gotta go through. But the lady, what she was going through, if he was going to attack her, like what the fuck?

When I was younger, I remember—I mean, I’ve always had crises. And I’m better, but a lot of times when the cops are called, they bring you to a hospital. They’re not gonna arrest you unless you’ve done something really stupid or crazy. Usually they’ll take you into custody, go to a hospital, have you admitted.

I remember being out in the cold, sitting on Belmont o Lakeshore. I remember being there, and nobody would give me no money. I was so frustrated. I had longer hair then. I just took a light and started lighting my hair on fi re. Somebody called the cops, and they wanted to take me away to a hospital. And I said nah, man. It took awhile, but I talked myself out of that one. But people do things when they’re frustrated. Like I said, I set myself on fi re, and I would do my yelling, and whatever. But you gotta understand their situation. A lot of people take for granted what you’re going through.

What do you think should’ve happened today, when Luke was yelling at May? Do you think we did the right thing? Could we have done something else? Do you think that the cops should have been called?

I think you done the right thing, because your goal was to protect that lady. It wasn’t to harm him, it wasn’t to cause a scene, it was to make sure she was safe.

About a month after L stepped between Luke and May, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s transition team released “A Blueprint for Creating a More Just and Vibrant City for All.” This 223-page report o ers policy suggestions for 11 issues close to Chicagoans’ hearts, including the creation of a “public transit violence intervention program.”

This program would “connect and coordinate persons experiencing a crisis” to community organizations and city agencies that are, per the report, specifically not the Chicago Police Department. The only public transit riders mentioned in this section are “vulnerable residents utilizing the CTA and RTA as shelter.” At this point, it’s unclear if CARE would be involved. It’s also unclear what violence, specifically, the public transit violence program is intended to intervene in: historic disinvestment from public housing and mental health services, police violence (since folks who are homeless and/or mentally ill experience higher rates of violence from the police than those who don’t), or something else? Interview requests sent to the mayor’s press o ce went unanswered.

In the months to come, Chicagoans will fi nd out more about how the city’s plan will make the CTA safe for every rider. Meanwhile, I keep thinking about that morning on the Red Line—not just the violence that didn’t happen, but the community response that did, and the possibilities for our future contained in both. v

@katie_prout