I’ve been riding the subway (in Manhattan) for over 4 years and I’ll never say that I know how it was back in the day where every day riders had to watch their back from muggings, thugs, knifing or other violence to the citizens of NYC. Since crimes in the city and on the subways have been at an all time low, I haven’t truly encountered a situation quite like the one in the latest Smoking Gun post:
*A male subway rider was beaten on a subway car, at night, in east New York, by a group of teenage girls who verbally taunted him before the attack, all caught on video.
I’m certain this abuse of riders (and other residents) happens more than it’s publicly give attention to, as it was a common occurrence in the 80’s when there were up to 40 criminal incidents reported a day in the NYC subway system. After watching this, it reminds me of why everyone needs to check themselves and their surroundings – never let your guard down and always expect the unexpected. The other side of this, is unless you know full well it won’t come to this, don’t engage unruly groups of kids/gangs/adults with out being prepared for this.
I can tell this guy was engaging this chick, and she full well wanted the confrontation – who wouldn’t stand up with 4,5,6 friends backing you up? In part I blame him for helping to escalate the situation, however, everyone has a choice and he could choose to walk away before it got to this point. You never know, one or several of these girls could have been packing tools, shivs, weapons etc. and there’s no guarantee a stranger will back you up in this town.
Ultimately we all want to think that gang violence shouldn’t happen, but kids are a product of their parental (or lack of) upbringing, their environment and the relationship with their peers.
Out here Manhattanites – and I say Manhattanites because we all do live on an island isolated from lower income residents, the disheveled neighborhoods, the street violence, and many of the lifestyles of the outer-borough residents (or other neighborhoods in this country) – have let their guard down for too long and are perceived weak and susceptible to attack from those that want to take advantage or prove something. I see them every day, unaware of the people around them because they feel guarded by the safety net Manhattan has seemed to have provide for the last few years. Violence has been pushed to the outer-boroughs; it can’t afford to survive in Manhattan anymore. But everyone should realize you can take the kid out of the ghetto but you can’t take the ghetto out of the kid, and if you didn’t know that East New York is only 30-40 minutes by train, you didn’t know you’re that close to some trouble.
If I give my perception of the video in the post (btw just fast forward to 2:45 into the vid), the guy is comfortable with or lives in East NY, he’s taking the train way out near Rockaway and he had several opportunities to dissolve or change the scenario. I don’t know what happened after the end, I can only hope he inflicted some pain on these girls, but I do know if he didn’t want it escalated to this, he could have moved cars, gotten off at an earlier stop, or just not engaged the mob mentality of this gang of bitches.
Now what I’ve written on this subject so far has been about mob mentality, violence, product of your environment, being in the wrong place at the wrong time… but what if I interjected race relations into this. Does it make a difference that the rider was white and the kids were black? Could it be that because of their race, is why there aren’t more people marching in the streets angered about this situation? This has been a light story around the streets for over a day now, and only online message boards and casual conversation have spurred debate on it.
What if the rider was black and the gang of kids attacking him were white? Do you think there would be more community outrage, at least even in the black community. Would Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson come out to denounce yet again the racial hatred in American and whites? Abso-fucking-lutely, but this incident was not about race, it was about garnering peer respect for showing superiority over another individual.
Ultimately this makes me think about the next time I take the A out to JFK, I might rather pony up the $45 for a car service…. or just make sure I have something other than my keys on me for protection…