Soldiers For The Cause The Opposite of a Soldier of Fortune
13 occupiers from San Diego en route to Washington D.C. to attend Occupy Congress were left stranded in Amarillo, Texas. The bus driver, Donald Ainsworth, locked the occupiers in the bus and called the police to have them removed because of his anti-occupy beliefs. The police apologized but had to remove the activists because of Greyhound’s policy that allows bus drivers to remove anyone for any reason.
This sort of political discrimination cannot stand. Please voice your opinion by calling their customer service line at (214) 849-8966, Monday – Friday from 7:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m., Central time zone. You can also send them a message on Twitter @greyhound or by filling out their customer service complaint form by clicking here.
Update: San Diego occupiers left Amarillo, Texas on another Greyhound bus headed for Washington D.C. on January 15 at approximately 5:40 a.m. See more of the story here at the OBRag.
Update: The OB Rag has covered this story in detail. Click here to read it.
Update: News Channel 10 in Texas also aired this story:
Photo credit: Used-Buses.net
surely, Greyhound Lines didn’t just leave the Occupiers standed… What happened next. Were they given a ride the following day, a place to spend the night, food vouchers, a refund or just a hard time?
At last check, they were all sitting in the Greyhound Terminal, being told they couldn’t sleep or they’d have to leave.
No place to sleep. No Food. No Refund. Occupy the phone lines.
What an idiot bus driver! He’s exactly the type of person that benefits from the occupy protests. I guess he doesn’t want his social security or any protections. I hope greyhound screws him good. No healthcare, no OT pay, low wages, 12 hour days, no sick days etc.
Has any one thought about the laws this bus driver was breaking. Even in Texas there must be some statute against unlawful detention.
If not Texas then the Federal kidnapping laws should apply. Also – since Greyhound is the recipient of Federal subsidies this should cause them to be investigated.
Joe
This is not acceptable his personal belief does not give this man the right do do what ever he wants, this sould never be allowed .Grey hound lines need to show some integrity and make sure these people get to their destination.
Did this bus driver really do this by himself?
Apparently he did. Greyhound has a policy that lets any driver have any passenger removed for any reason and they back the driver. Too bad Greyhound didn’t do the honorable thing and put them on another bus or pay them back their fares.
Too bad the police didn’t do the lawful thing and arrest the driver.
Something tells me this bus driver is about to join the ranks of the unemployed. Maybe an occupy group in Texas can take him in and help him get back on his feet.
The Internet is a small world. I came across this story on G+ and reposted it all without realizing it was written by my very own cousin.
In this case, if Greyhound fires him (they probably won’t), I hope he gets to live with the consequences of his actions for a year or three.
Someone needs to contact Jeff Blackburn immediately.
This is baloney and bad reporting: “The police apologized but had to remove the activists because of Greyhound’s policy that allows bus drivers to remove anyone for any reason.” You can’t just refuse service to someone based on their beliefs!
I agree. I have talked to people who wre interviewed byt he news and when they read the news article, what they said was all twisted. Today, I do not trust top news stations and newspapers to tell the whole truth.
A news report gets posted inaccurately and sudenly everyone’s in an uprage. People, please use your common sense. Don’t believe everything you hear. Even if this did happen, which sounds extremely unlikely, without some kind of comppensation, these paggengers would likely have brought money for food and lodging…. unless of course, they had booked their stay at some motel in DC ahead of time. I’ve done that before. The news report fails to mention any of this and leaves me wondering.
actually greyhound drivers do have the right to have anyone removed. Occupy whatever makes absolutely no sense. Nobody in Nashvilles occupy group could even answer why they were protesting. Just unemployed ppl needing a place to stay. Get a job and get over yourselves.
“…get over yourselves.” Right back atcha, bub.
Yay, Saje! My next-door neighbor, whom I otherwise dearly love, is just like Jayme and that bus driver. She absolutely cannot understand how her blind support of the reactionary agenda is destroying her own life along with those of the people she looks down her nose at.
Idiot, there are 5 applicants for every job opening.
That is so easy to say. Much harder to do when 10 people are fighting over most jobs available. Everwhere I look, it is about 10 unemploeyed to every job opening that they could qualify for. And the salaries of most jobs that are available couldn’t possibly pay the house payment or rent for most of these people. Talk is so cheap. You’re just a troll who likes to give big opinions without backiing it up with anything.
Jayme… I am going to call you a JERK, just because I don’t like you… it is my right to do so by the 1st amendment and by my policy.
BOYCOTT GREYHOUND
WHERE ARE THE JOBS THEN, JAYME!? Jobs don’t involve being brainwashed by Rush Limbaugh and spread hate speech on liberal blogs.
Thanks for sharing this story. I just contacted Greyhound about their policy to allow a driver to discriminate for any reason and expressed my disappointment. I will never take a greyhound again knowing I have no rights as a paying customer.
There has to be more to it than this…. A motorcoach operator doesn’t just remove someone or a group of people for their beliefs, especially Mr. Ainsworth- a multi-year veteran of Greyhound with no noteable disciplinary marks against him. I hate when press does articles like this and doesn’t get both sides of the story. And by the way, he will continue to keep his job due to being a union member!!! Go ATU!!! Unions all the way!!!
I’ve taken Greyhound several times and nearly always the drivers are rude and disrespectful to the passengers. Mr. Ainsworth will become a meme.
the bus driver should have been arrested for unlawful detention in the least for locking them in the bus, maybe even kidnapping. i don’t really have a problem with a private company having policies to keep the driver feeling safe, and letting them make a choice on who is on their ‘ship’. but they can’t be locking peaceful passengers on the bus, and using it like a cage.
He may have the right to remove people from the bus that he doesn’t want on there, but he did not do that. Instead he imprisoned them and then called the police. Shouldn’t they press charges for being held hostage by the jerk?
I for one am glad he did it. OWS is the dumbest movement ever devised.
Jobs? There are so many jobs out there it is not funny. At this very moment I am looking at 10 different jobs just for myself. If you get off your ass and get off effing facebook maybe try not punching big ass holes all over your face and tattoos that can be seen, you might get a decent job. Oh and if you actually took a REAL class and got a REAL degree you wouldn’t have problems like not finding a job.
He has the right as the driver to have anyone removed for any reason. He exercised that right. Too bad so sad.
Really ? In my profession there’s over 370 people out of work in the local area and seven job openings.Where are all these jobs? Walmart ?
Mr. Ainsworth did not remove anyone, he locked them up. Unless he felt physically threatened and did this out of self defense what he did was criminal.
Try and pay attention and get a REAL grip on REALity. jeez sheeple
Tango ? – Sounds more like Whiskey Tango Candyass to me. Go read the fucking Constitution Of The United States , actually you sound like yer better off having someone to read it TO you. Any company that receives Federal funding or Aid or Subsidies or Corporate Wefare doesn’t have the right to discriminate due to color or creed and their bullshit Terms Of Service is a joke. Please do us all a favor and don’t piss into the gene pool if you haven’t already. I’d be lawyering the fuck up right now if I was among those from OSD. Big Time.
he has the right to remove anyone, but not everyone. he should have recognized that it was his own problem getting in the way and told management to get another driver. and to lock people on the bus until they were removed is criminal on some level. he should get fired for putting his own beliefs ahead of the performance of his job– don’t people get fired for that all the time?
There are 5 applicants for every job. I worked for a major insurance company as a procedures writer, software tester, and programmer for two decades. I have a Master’s degree in my field. My mistaje was to add one year to my age every 365 days and that is used against me. I believe your mother is calling you for dinner. Don’t forget to get up for your 8th grade classes Tuesday, since tomorrow is a holiday honoring someone with more honor, Christianity, and ethics in his pinky nail than you will ever have.
I agree, there are so many jobs. Every where I go, help wanted signs. The problem with the Occutards is that they can not get the dream job they want in a dream location, getting paid high compensation for doing nearly nothing. So they decline all the other jobs. You don’t need a degree to make 6 figures, trust me. It helps, but first you have to get off your ass, take a shower, shave, and try.
It is amazing all the freaking lawyers on here with out a job. They have to be unemployed lawyers, just read their post. He violoated this amemndment, he broke that law, discrimination, yaddy yaddy yaddy. I am Jealous I did not have the chance to kick them off a bus.
Unlawful detainer as well as Kidnapping are in play here. If he didn’t want to transport these persons they should have been allowed to disembark. They we’re not according to the story. And what of the other passengers. They we’re also included unlawfully
Tango
Sounds like you work for your daddy. So how many of those jobs pay above minimum wage? How many have any benefits? I work for a fortune 500 company, we had 700 full time workers 10 years ago, we now have 300 full time works and 300 part time, 899 hours, permanent part time. These aren’t jobs! None of these people can invest in a home, car, family as the job may stop tomorrow. But you “Tango” can continue to work for daddy and look down on all the others.
Greyhound is still around? I hope they sue the living crap out of greyhound for violations of their TOS and demand that his driver lose his job.
The driver may have the right to remove anyone for any reason, but even that has to be within reason. You cannot violate someone’s rights or the contract that is signed between them and greyhound when one buys a ticket. They are legally required to get you to your destination, unless you are removed from the bus for criminal acts. You can’t legally just kick someone off because you disagree with them politically. I personally would have told the police to kiss my backside as well and refused to get off until I was refunded my money and given transportation to my destination.
I agree, Eric. I would love to be the attorney that gets that case.
Much like Doctors who refuse to prescribe the morning after pill to women simply because they don’t “believe” in it, The actions of the greyhound bus driver to refuse to do his JOB because he didn’t “believe” in it is not the same thing as having someone removed. What he did was plain and simple discrimination and it should not be tolerated by anyone for any reason! That driver should be fired for refusing to do his job… if a doctor walked out half way through surgery, they would be in a lot of trouble, so why isn’t this jerk?
It’s worse in some ways. The passengers paid for the service ahead of time, and not only did they not receive it, they were deliberately placed in peril by being locked the bus before being thrown out of the bus in place where they had no place to stay.
Greyhound is a tacky bus line anyway.
Ha! I love it. Occutards. If he does get fired he can expect a big donation from my family. Occupy the Occutards and long live the 1%.
99% can beat the crap out of 1% any day Jessy James…. remember that next time you get screwed the way these people where… I will be happy to drive out to you, drive you 1000 miles from home, and have the police remove you from my car, then I head for home…..
Greyhound’s policy could violative of the 14th Amendment. If the driver can throw anyone off the bus for any reason what stops him from throwing black people off for being black thereby violating his equal protection and due process protections in the 14th amenmdment. Not to even mention the interstate commerce clause.
what if he throws you off for being retarded?? I know that is AWDD but you are.
He locked the passengers on the bus, and then called the police to get them off of the bus? It makes no sense, and I’ll just bet some laws were broken here.
Since when is a bus driver allowed to hold passengers hostage? Why didn’t the occupiers ask the police to arrest the driver for locking them on the bus?
Also, were there non-occupier passengers on the bus too?
Just another bad case of bad news reporting. The news prints a 1 sided liberal view and does not care if it the truth or not. All occupy protesters should be arrested and prosecuted for property damage.
Mr. Ainsworth is a HERO!! I hope they give that man an award and a promotion. The Occupy protestors are just jealous because they are too lasy to get off their Ars and get a JOB. There are plenty jobs, help wanted signs every where I go. They can take any job until the day comes they get a dream job. The occupiers are the ones waisting so much tax money causing the govt. to spend on extra police and clean up after their nast Arses! Get off welfare, and unemployment, get a job and pay your share of taxes.
Do they even remember what they are Occupying and why? It is funny I just realized they chose to call it Occupy wherever. So that would make it an occupation of that place. But none of them can have an Occupation cause they spend all their time sleeping in a tent, and bitching about what the people with a real occupation have.
Its so funny, the columbus ohio occutards cant even occupy there own spot. There is very low unemployment in Columbus. They have one tent on the sidewalk (not even on State grounds) in front of the State House. 90% of the time you cant even see then because of all the city busses line up right in front of there one tent. The most they do is suck disel fumes. And to pansie WOLF. I have a job that pulls in aweome pay for my wife and three kids and i never went to College. lol. Idiot.
It’s, can’t, their, can’t, them, buses, their, diesel, pansy, awesome.
It is laughably obvious that you never went to college.
It is funny. While you cry over your horriable life that means nothing to me while i cash my paycheck. Some call me an uneducated RedNeck, some call us white trash. Which is fine by me because while you are occupying your good for nothing worthless existence, I will on my boat fishing and enjoying all the gifts the Great Lord has blessed my Family with. Lol.
Suppose that every day 10 men go to a restaurant for dinner. The bill for all ten comes to $100. If it was paid the way we pay our taxes, the first four men would pay nothing; the fifth would pay $1; the sixth would pay $3; the seventh $7; the eighth $12; the ninth $18. The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
The 10 men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement until the owner threw them a curve. “Since you are all such good customers,” he said, “I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20.” Now dinner for the 10 only costs $80. The first four are unaffected. They still eat for free. Can you figure out how to divvy up the $20 savings among the remaining six so that everyone gets his fair share? The men realize that $20 divided by 6 is $3.33, but if they subtract that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would end up being paid to eat their meal.
The restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same percentage, being sure to give each a break, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so now the fifth man paid nothing, the sixth pitched in $2, the seventh paid $5, the eighth paid $9, the ninth paid $12, leaving the tenth man with a bill of $52 instead of $59.
Outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. “I only got a dollar out of the $20,” complained the sixth man, pointing to the tenth, “and he got $7!”
“Yeah, that’s right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a dollar, too. It’s unfair that he got seven times more than me!”
“That’s true,” shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get $7 back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!”
“Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison. “We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor.”
Then, the nine men surrounded the tenth man (the richest one, paying the most) and beat him up. The next night the richest man didn’t show up for dinner, so now the nine men sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They were $52 short!
And that, boys & girls is how America’s tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up at the table any more. There are lots of good restaurants in Switzerland and the Caribbean
Ok. Move to Switzerland or the Caribbean, Jesse James.
The 1% is the 99% and the 99% are the 1%. Just like the Democrats are the bad guys and the Conservatives are the good guys. The Occupiers are working for the “Man”, Soros and his boys. The alphabet media is the mouth piece of the Left in this country.
Hurray, for the Bus Driver Person!!!!!