No you’re right, this was quite a while back. Based on what I saw then, the emergency cord doesn’t do anything but emit a loud noise and (hopefully) notify someone. I can’t imagine that, in newer cars, it actually activates the brakes.
On Washington Metro, the emergency button summons the conductor (but also isn’t labeled as an emergency brake). I saw someone use it when his companion puked on the floor. The conductor asked what was wrong and the guy told him. Unsurprisingly they did not stop the train for this.
I’m sure you’re quite correct, but that’s not really the point I was trying to get across.
These are tactics that could be used to take political action, but in this case that doesn’t appear to be what’s happening. In the former event calling it asymmetric warfare might be valid, as it would be the use of non-conventional tactics to allow a small force (e.g. protesters or political activists) to combat a larger force. It doesn’t really matter if you agree with the politics or the methods for the description to be apt in that case.
Given the person or people pulling these emergency breaks appear to have no objective, asymmetric warfare isn’t an apt description, and, I believe, misrepresents sheer dickishness as activism, which I think is bad for the reputation of activists, and elevates the actions of assholes.
As for if this method would be acceptable if used in actual protest, I can’t really say. Civil disobedience has a long history of causing deliberate inconvenience and disruption as a means of non-violent protest. I don’t pretend to be knowledgeable enough on the matter to have an educated opinion on either the ethical implications, or how effective this particular method would be.
Pretty much exactly what I was thinking. Whenever I go to London, usually for gigs, I always use the Tube, it’s by far the easiest way to get around the city, but at certain times, like most cities with public transport systems, it gets very crowded; I’ve let three trains go without boarding, just to avoid the crush, but to imagine anyone would pull stunts like this just to create more misery among the travelling public really has me hoping said travelling public catches the perp and gets mediaeval on their sorry ass!
As I noted in the London subway thread, the best way to consider the impact of a disruptive action “with a point” is to imagine a protest which shuts down the subway on behalf of a cause one doesn’t like (Brexit, building a border wall) and then to imagine how that might affect one’s view of that cause.
There are some who think that a disruptive protest is acceptable when they like the cause, and unacceptable if they do not like the cause. I completely reject that.
In any event, the perp now seems to be merely an asshole, so in this case at least the discussion may be moot.
