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Mask rage: Police say Red Line rider threatened to carve up man who was wearing a mask

Transit Police report arresting a Boston man they say took out a knife and threatened to stab another rider on the Ashmont branch in a dispute over the man's mask this morning.

Rafael Perez-Medina, 33, was arrested on a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon following the incident, which began as an argument after Perez-Medina insulted the man for looking "like a duck" after the train rolled out of Ashmont shortly before 9 a.m.

Not long before the train entered Downtown Crossing, "Perez-Medina now armed with a knife (blade fully displayed) stated to the victim 'I'm in the Army I'll kill you,' " police say.

The victim rushed off the train and reported the incident to Transit Police. Officers found Perez-Medina on Temple Place and, after the victim identified him, arrested him, police say.

Innocent, etc.

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Comments

Seriously- dude with the gun, now this?

WTF does he care if another guy is wearing a mask?

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…. like how the mask wearer was wearing his mask.

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Okay. That definitely explains why he wanted to kill him.

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Make your own conjectures, if that’s what you’re looking for.

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You're kidding, right?

It's hard to tell. You are really on a roll today.

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I’ve seen people look like ducks with their mask not pulled down over their chin.

You seem especially angry these days.

Glad I’m not you.

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You seem especially angry these days.

I think I just hurt myself laughing.

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Lee kind of has a point.

Reading the police write up, the alleged offender had no issue with the wearing of the mask, only that the mask made the victim look like a duck.

Now, the deeper issue is the mental state of someone who decides to assault someone because they don't like the way someone's mask looks. That's probably someone who should be kept from other people. Sometimes people are just batshit crazy.

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Like the Fellsway rapist and would be murderer who gave as explanation that his victim was small and pretty.
Batshit crazy, angry and looking for a target with looks that they don’t like.

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Lee seemed to be making a pretty reasonable inference from the story as posted. Are you maybe interpreting it as an attempt at *justification*?

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My guess? Unexamined emotions regarding manhood, respect, deadly weapons and the social implications of having them, etc.

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This is why we need a statewide mask mandate indoors. I know that works require Baker to be a leader instead of dithering, but having a haphazard approach town by town means those of us that work in retail and restaurants in Boston have to be constantly reminding suburbanites to put their mask on, and MBTA riders and staff have to deal with the same as people from towns without mask mandates get on the T and become enraged at the change in policy. The last generation sacrificed a lot to fight world war 2 and all the is being asked of the current generation is to put a mask on indoors and that is somehow too much for Baker and the rest of the Republican party. Today's Republicans would have flown the white flag during WW2, they can't do anything for anyone.

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And it also means that city and town councils and school boards are right up front in the line of fire. Baker is being a coward.

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The madman was confused about what mandate his victim fell under as the train traveled through towns.

Brilliant.

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This is about a violent offender, and your response is "More government and WWII veterans were better than us."

OK Boomer is a fading catchphrase, but I don't have a better one.

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But Baker and the Republican Party were not there to come between the loon triggered by duck faces and his victim. You can’t pin this one on them.

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But actual enforcement (I guess maybe your place of business excluded, so good on you) in Boston alone is abysmal and you've already made a good point about many suburbanites. I can't imagine it'll get much better when you tell those red counties and towns to cover up everywhere.

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… I got from a take out server on the North Shore. She wasn’t wearing a mask but I was, because I live in Boston and just there for a few days. She was also annoyed she couldn’t understand what I was saying.
Later she was friendly. Maybe she thought I was unvaccinated and thus on the side of the stalwart resistant? Not everyone in my party was masked.
Or she just could have been hard of hearing and anticipated another session of repeating orders when I walked in.
Maybe just tired. You can never know unless you ask.
A statewide mandate might only apply to those who have been outside the town limits to keep things fair. Few people are actually looking for a fight.

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and angry that Zorro is not yet carried.

Out of the night, when the full moon is bri-igh,
comes the horseman known as Zorro.
Zorro, Zorro, the fox so cunning and free,
Zorro, Zorro, who makes the sign of the Z.

Zorro, Zorro, Zorro, Zorro, Zorro, Zorro....

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This wouldn't have been an issue on the Blue Line. About a third of the riders don't wear masks. Nobody says or does anything about it.

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You may have missed it, but this lunatic and aspiring murderer was offended by someone wearing a mask, not by someone not wearing one, and thus he would have been right at home on the Blue Line. Unless you join with Lee, Waquoit, etc., who have decided, on the basis of no evidence whatsoever, that the crime he wanted to punish was not mask-wearing, but failure to demonstrate proper mask-wearing technique.

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Or you chose to ignore what you don’t like in it.

Didn’t read my comments either.

I made no conjectures other than agreeing with Waquoit that he was bat shit crazy. Which is just another way of saying you can’t know what goes on in a person’s head. Especially if they’ve been in an 8 day hospital stay for psychiatric reasons, spent Thanksgiving with their family and had their meds reduced and then stopped taking them.
Even if you are Sam Wack, web certified mind reader, and know more about the circumstances than the medical professionals, the police and the family of the madman.

Oh well.

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"…. like how the mask wearer was wearing his mask."

is not a conjecture?

The police report says that Perez-Medina "began insulting the victim about the victim's COVID mask. Perez-Medina was making statements such as 'You look like a duck' with that mask on."

There is no hint in this that he objected to the way the mask was being worn. If anyone is claiming to divine his intentions, it is you.

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