August 24, 2016
EDUCATIONCAREERS Special Edition
Standing Up to Violence
C ontinued from f ront
“He was taking total advantage of this
situation he was in with the power that
he had,” Romeo says. “My brother is the
smallest out of all of us, so he definite-
ly switched from the women to who he
thought was the weakest of us, the least
threatening.”
Emilio says the incident occurred right
behind the section of the MAX train where
the driver sits. Pablo, 17, claims he even
saw the driver open his door and peek out,
then close it without intervening in any
way.
The antagonist then got off the train,
only to get back on seconds later and de-
mand the brothers delete the video. He
shoved them again before getting off the
train for good.
The video of the incident has garnered
much attention on social media, prompting
both positive and negative responses.
“We’ve definitely gotten some bad com-
ments on the Internet, but the positive out-
weigh the negative ones,” Emilio says.
The brothers’ decision not to involve
the police sparked one commenter to
falsely claim the boys didn’t call author-
ities because they’re “undocumented
illegals” or have warrants out for their
arrest.
“When I read stuff like that, I just feel
like it’s written by someone that’s very
sad,” Romeo says. “We’re three people
that saw two people in trouble and we
stood up for what is right and that was
it.”
Emilio also expressed frustration over
the current climate between minorities and
the police.
“I watch the news. We’re three young
brown kids, so I didn’t know how that
would turn out,” Emilio told the Orego-
nian. Romeo defends his brother’s state-
ment, while also pointing out the power
that peaceful intervention can have.
“Yeah, maybe it would’ve helped to
have someone of authority around to help
deescalate the situation, but I think that
what people saw in the video shows that
you don’t even really have to call the po-
lice to defuse a situation like that,” Romeo
says.
The Herrera brothers were born and
raised in the Portland area and wish to keep
the city the peaceful and progressive place
they’ve known it to be.
Sweaney told the Oregonian how “ex-
tremely alert and uncomfortable” she has
been since the incident with her focus now
going towards learning to drive and avoid-
ing public transit, but the brothers don’t
feel that approach is that necessary.
“I don’t think this should make people
scared to ride public transportation but of
course you should be conscious and paying
attention to what’s going on around you,”
Romeo says. “If we had just stayed on our
phones with our headphones plugged in we
wouldn’t even have known that was hap-
pening.”
“You can’t live in fear of your life,”
Emilio adds.
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