We Few, We Happy Few, We Band of Brothers

From an anonymous reader:

This morning, on an Orange Line toward Vienna, I boarded at Eastern Market which is usually a quiet, subdued station. The ride itself is usually uneventful unless a tourist jams the doors or someone gets sick, which happens quite infrequently.

This morning, however, was a different story.

I took my place near the center of the car when I heard a young black male arguing aggressively with the person sitting next to him, which appeared to be a slightly older young black female.

After she vacated the seat, a white man in the aisle next to me told the young man to settle down, saying it was early and people just wanted to get to work peacefully.

The young man did not want to hear this and became very aggressive with the rider.

Then, out of nowhere, a large black male stood next to the rider that was being harassed. He told the younger rider to settle down.

After the young guy became even more enraged, a third person, a tall black male came out of nowhere and was holding a collapsible baton. He told the younger rider "you picked the wrong train mother f***er, were trying to get to work!"

The young man stood up and got in the guy's face.

The man still had his baton in hand and told the younger rider that if he hit him he would make his day.

The three guys, which I refer to as the band of brothers, were standing side by side and really put the younger rider in his place by telling him they would remove him from the train if he didn't get off at the next stop which was, of all places, L'Enfant Plaza.

There was no physical altercation, this looked to be three alert riders that saw a kid looking for a fight and stepped up to prevent anything from happening.

Was the baton a bit much? Yes, but the younger rider wised up quickly.

A passenger alerted the driver of the train who called MPD. The passenger left the train, and we continued on our way in peace.