Winner of Worst Halloween Costume Ever: The MBTA

MBTA employees are not endearing themselves to the public this week. First there was the driver on the C Line who injured a passenger by hitting the brakes at a bad time. She expressed her concern by going out for a smoke. Then there's the creep who made fake passes for the blind, which he sold to people who could see.

Now there's the bonehead who wore a noose to the MBTA office for Halloween. According to Dave Wedge, Jaime Garmendia claimed his getup was based on a Pagan ritual and wasn't intended to be an insult. How could he not have known what else a noose stood for? A person really must be tuned out of current events if he hasn't heard about the Jena Six and the appearances of nooses at Columbia University and the University of Maryland.

It gets worse. Garmendia claims he wore it to work in a different department last year, and no one had a problem with it. What's worse, the fact that this dude wore a noose two years in a row without realizing it might freak people out, or the fact that no one at the first office even noticed?

In defense of MBTA employees, the Improper Bostonian had a sweet portrait of Green Line driver Jimmy Holliday, who appears to be sane and reasonable. If you know of other sane and reasonable T employees, please, please restore our faith and let us know where they are!

Image from the "Diversity Day" episode of "The Office" from nbc.com.