Posted on 04/09/2008 8:22:41 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
All John Clifford wanted was a peaceful ride to work on the 7:39 to Pennsylvania Station. He would get to the Long Island Rail Road station at Long Beach early every weekday morning, board the train, stake out a five-seat section to rest his bad back, and prepare to read his newspaper and eat his breakfast.
But all around him, there would be chaos. One woman putting on full makeup while listening to her iPod and talking to friends. Another inviting guests to a barbecue and talking about personal problems. Men chatting on cellphones. They were treating the ride as a social situation, he testified in court on Tuesday, forming cliques and getting to know each other by name.
He asked the passengers to keep it down, but the chatter continued. In March 2007, Mr. Clifford had had enough. He shouted an obscenity at a passenger talking on his cellphone and slapped the hand of another, and was arrested. On Tuesday, he found himself in Manhattan Criminal Court, telling his tale.
I stand up for my right to be let alone, Mr. Clifford, a retired New York City police sergeant, declared from the witness stand at his nonjury trial on charges including harassment and assault.
To his accusers, Mr. Clifford, 60, was a bully who hogged five seats and had told one passenger, Donna DeCurtis, who had talked loudly, that he knew her name and where she lived, and that I can make your life hell. He had been arrested before, the prosecutor said, though, until now, the charges had always been dropped.
After one of those arrests, Ms. DeCurtis testified on Tuesday, everybody just stood up and applauded.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The author, or an infectious disease?
Bully and Jerk. Why does he need 5 seats? I mean, we all don’t want scummy folks around us, but 5 seats? There is no right to silence on a train. I hope he pays huge fines.
When you read the article, it will tell you he needed 5 seats because he has a bad back. Yeah, right.
And no, he did not pay huge fines; he was acquitted.
I think he is trying to fight human nature- long commutes do tend to foster socialization. If he really wants to assert his right to be left alone he should consider driving to work or finding a job closer to home.
A dick, for sure.
You know, the root of the word Miller is a Greek word. Miller come from the Greek word "milo," which is mean "apple," so there you go.
As many of you know, our name, Hartocollis, is come from the Greek word "hartokali," which mean "orange." So, okay? Here tonight, we have, ah, apple and orange. We all different, but in the end, we all fruit.
What an a-hole! If he can’t stand to have other people around, he needs to get himself a car and drive.
Victim? Or VIGILANTE???
I know it’s a movie, but letting a guy get that close with a knife before you perforate him causes unnecessary facial wounds.
I know the feeling, but I believe the real difficulty is that nobody understands the meaning of “public” or “community” anymore and everyone believes he or she is entitled to have the world the way it would be if he or she were in the living room at home. One example: a father who wanted to read aloud to his daughter on an airplane for 3 hours became outraged when I asked the stewardess if I could have a different seat, as I wanted to study; a mother became outraged because I, wearing a business suit and on my way to a week’s conference where I would not have access to dry cleaning, removed the soap bubble jar from her toddler who was sitting next to me and asked her to please find something for him to do that would not spill. In the latter case she whined “Well, how else am I going to keep him quiet?” and I looked Junior in the eye and said, “Hush!” in the Mom voice and he shut up like a trap. But she was still not amused. And last week on the way home, a Murmuring Daddy was trying to Parent Effectiveness Training his brat who was sitting next to me (Daddy was standing) and demanding that his father place him on his shoulders on a subway car that was too short for that activity -— whereupon the kid let out a screech that, no lie, was just as loud as a Formula One car passing the main grandstand at Monza at full song (I have reason to know whereof I speak). I restrained myself from slapping him insensible, but did tell his father that if he’d warned me the kid was a bat I’d have put in my ear plugs. Daddy murmured, “He’s only a child....”
So it is possible that EVERYONE in that car could have examined his or her behaviour to see if it was disturbing and annoying to others; but I think this guy went about it the wrong way.
Neither, this guy is an idiot.
Ludicrous.
Apparently, this guy never worried about how HE bothered folks, taking up a row of seats and eating his breakfast on the train.
LOL! I love that movie!
If I had to ride one of those trains everyday, I'd find another life quickly.
He’s neither a hero, nor a bully. He’s a liberal dumbass.
Riding a train, taking up five seats, telling others he has a “right to be left alone” on public transportation?
He’s an idiot.
This guy realizes he’s in NEW YORK right? lol
Sooooo, what are they???
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