Emma Anderson, of South Florida, was singing loudly in a seat on the train. Another passenger caught the incident on tape, showing a guard approaching her and tapping her on the thigh with a rolled up piece of paper.
In the video, the guard asks her multiple times to stop singing until he gives up and grabs her cart and starts taking her off the train.
“You’re getting off here, let’s go,” the guard tells her.
Other passengers were shocked by what they saw, and so was Anderson’s family.
“It was not right for them to drag her off the train,” Donal Anderson, Emma’s son, said. “Not by the way I’ve seen in the video.”
Though she tried to stay on the train, she was not stronger than the guard and was dragged off by him toward the exit. After he took her off the train and forced her on the platform, she fell down.
Karla Damian, a spokesperson for the Miami-Dade Transit, defended the guard by saying the transit system has a noise policy and prohibits singing, dancing and playing intstruments.
“We regret that Ms. Anderson had to eventually be escorted out, but regardless of age, all passengers need to abide by rules associated with using transit,” a statement said.
Donal said the policies do not excuse the guard for behaving in that way. “I understand what you’re saying about the noise policy, but there should also be a way that they can apprehend people and take them off the train,” he said.
When Emma was asked about her thoughts on the policy, she said, “Well, ya’ll may call it ‘noise,’ but wait till Jesus comes. It’s going to be more noise in there!”
She admitted the guard could have been more gentle with her.
“I didn’t cry, cause God told me long ago he was going to dry my tears, no matter what happens now.”
She suffered a bruised shoulder from her fall.
Her family contacted the Miami-Dade police on the day of the incident and have hired an attorney to examine their case.
