On your own | Power Line

The report from the BBC begins,

A woman who was attacked on a Tube train in central London has said she was then left standing on a platform for a “harrowing” 30 minutes because no one answered the emergency calls she made from a help point.

It doesn’t sound like she was seriously hurt. It’s not the biggest news story of the day. But it looms large in my mind as a metaphor for our times.

The BBC story makes it sound as if the man responsible was found, then released. After the stranger punched the woman, it appears that he struck a child at the same station, before eventually being caught.

But that’s how it goes these days: the victim does the right thing, hits the literal panic button to summon the proper authorities, but no help arrives. It makes you question whether the alarm button is even attached to anything. The help point button,

For their part, city officials call the incident “unacceptable.” I hear that word frequently, so frequently, in fact, I no longer know what the word means.

The transit line is investigating. You will recall the scene of far greater horror in our New York City subway, where a sleeping woman was burned to death while on the F train in Brooklyn. An “undocumented migrant” was later indicted on murder charges in the incident.

In that instance, the suspect merely walked past responding officers, boarded a different train and went on his way.

But don’t believe for a second that you should take matters into your own hands while riding the subway.