So I guess if you want to ride the train for free all you have to do is act like a douche, be willing to hold up everyone else who is obeying the rules, resist authority and act like a douche (I already said that, I know!).
It seems that a 19-year-old young MAN was riding the ScotRails commuter train out of Edinburgh the other day. The man, Sam Main, didn’t have a ticket. He had been out drinking with friends allegedly celebrating having finished an exam with some friends. When the ScotRail guard asked Main for his ticket, he produced a one-way ticket TO Edinburgh. When the guard said that wasn’t the proper ticket for the train, Main began cussing the guard and refused to leave his seat, apparently willing to hold up everyone on the train while he pitched a tantrum claiming he’d paid for a ticket even though he was unable to prove it.
The other passengers on the commuter train from Edinburgh included a woman with several small children and commuters just trying to get home from a long days work. One of the other passengers was a 35-year-old banker named Alan Pollock, on his way home after a 12-hour work day. Pollock is a rather large man, standing over 6 feet tall and heavy set. After the tete-a-tete had gone on for a few minutes between Sam Main and the ScotRail guard, Pollock stood up and asked the guard if he wanted Main off the train and offered his assistance. He then proceeded to take Main off the train and prevent him from getting back on the train. The other passengers applauded Alan Pollock. Someone yelled out ‘Cheers, Big Man.’
Naturally someone got the whole thing on their cell phone and uploaded it to YouTube, as is the way of things in our modern world. Now Pollock is known as ‘Big Man’ on the internet and some are hailing him a hero. Unfortunately others are saying he’s a bully. Now there are threats to sue him for assault and the possibility of losing his job all because he stepped in to help with a spoiled brat when no one else would.
You be the judge ….
Amid a volley of foul-mouthed abuse directed by the young passenger at the elderly ticket inspector, the train is delayed at a station with its doors open, for several minutes.
Other passengers mutter and fume as the young man in a knitted hat — later identified as 19-year-old student Sam Main — fails to produce a valid ticket.
‘You can sit here all night if you want — I’m getting paid for this,’ the ticket inspector tells the student, who refuses to leave the train and insists he has paid the correct fare but been given the wrong ticket by ScotRail.
Main, who had been out drinking after finishing an exam, is heard cursing as he insists he’s paid the correct money, and will not get off.
As other passengers watch, including a mother with a group of young children, the student is heard repeating to the inspector that he has shown him his ‘f****** ticket’ and again refuses to get off.
In a loud voice, the inspector then warns the student that other passengers will not be happy unless he pays or gets off the train, allowing the journey to continue.
The guard repeats: ‘I’ll sit here all night, pal. I’m getting paid for this but they (the passengers) will start moaning. You’re off now. Other folk will start (to get unhappy). Why should they pay and you not?’
Clearly angry, Main retorts: ‘But I have paid — I will sit here all night.’
Sitting further down the carriage, Alan Pollock, 35, has listened to every word.
As the minutes tick by, and the train remains stationary, he decides he’s had enough.
On film, Pollock, more than 6ft tall and heavy set, can be seen approaching the inspector and asking: ‘Right? Off now?’
The inspector says ‘yes’ and Mr Pollock moves in, pulling the student to his feet by his jacket and shouting: ‘Off!’
The banker — wearing a rugby top and casual jacket having changed at work — is then seen pushing the student out the train door.
Main falls to the ground and is then blocked by Mr Pollock from getting back on.
As the train pulls away, a few passengers clap and cheer Mr Pollock and one passenger shouts: ‘Cheers, Big Man.’
But that’s not the end of the story. Sam Main’s father, Lenny Main, has jumped to his son’s defense, infantalizing the 19-year-old student by calling him a ‘young boy’ who was ‘thrown off the train face first’ by a ‘bully’ who was much bigger than him. The father seems to overlook his son’s disrespectful and inappropriate behavior all together and has said he’ll hire an attorney and file assault charges against Alan Pollock. Meanwhile, Sam Main is whining about having a boo-boo and having his picture made with a scratch on his cheek.
Seriously, I thought the Scottish were tougher than this. Since when was a 19-year-old a ‘young boy’. We have 19-year-old MEN in war zones and consider them MEN, not ‘young boys’. They fight al-Qaeda and other enemies of our country and certainly deserve to be called men. They don’t cuss train guards, refuse to pay their tickets and sit there in petulance while everyone else is inconvenienced. Then stamp their little feet when they are shown the door and get their face scratched when they resist being put off the train and kept from re-entering the train (dispute their attempts to do so).
I find it disturbing that there are people who are commenting on these videos that Alan Pollock is the ‘bully’ – completely overlooking the behavior of the ‘young boy’ Sam Main. He was repeatedly told to get off the train, but refused to do so, cussed the conductor and sat there acting like an over-grown baby. Do these people live in the real world? Does Lenny Main live in the real world? Since when is it okay to not pay for your ticket and have people jump to your defense when you are willing to inconvenience everyone while you pitch a tantrum.
I was raised, and raised my children, to respect authority. I remember a time when children were expected to behave properly and the parents would deal with them when they didn’t. It seems that we’ve gone in the opposite direction now. Now parents jump in to defend even obnoxious and inappropriate behavior of their children and hire lawyers to perpetuate the bad behavior. The good Sumerians are punished and the whiners are forgiven their trespasses as being within their rights. What happened to working together as a community and being expected to be civil to one another?
It’s like the world’s value systems have all been turned up-side down. I really don’t know how we’ll get things back into line.
You can see the Scottish train scuffle video below. You be the judge as to who was out of control and who wasn’t. Who was at fault and who wasn’t? Who was the bad-guy and who was the good-guy? If Sam Main and his father win this battle, then we should all ride the ScotRail for free.
