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 ...
Green butt-plugs.
__________________________
No, seriesly. Right click the image. Then click Properties. You get: http://www.tascocorp.com/IMAGES/tri-grip-earplugs.gif
bully
I used to ride a “party bus” home from work (a 2.5 hour commute) every night. The screaming with laughter, walking all around the bus, talking loudly across aisles finally made this commuter find a parking space in town at a greater expense.
I’m sorry...but public transportation should not be a shriner’s convention.
Bully
they should charge him for five seats.
Sure sounds like somthing I'd want to do every night. Oh yeah!
:o
Thank you. :-)
Neither.
We all get annoyed with silly people talking to friends on their cell phones about nonsense. I woudln’t mind that but they are so LOUD. It’s like they think it is cool or something to talk so everyone else around them can hear their conversations. That said: You CANNOT just outright slap someone because they are doing something you don’t like no matter how annoying or stupid it might be.
As for him...who gave him the right to take up 5 whole seats? Suppose someone didn’t like that and behaved towards him in the same manner? Sorry for his bad back but...it is NOT his right to grab 5 seats for himself so...it goes both ways.
ear plugs
The LIRR is a zoo. Kind of like a Fellini movie. I live in Westchester and can say Metro North, during peak hours, is like being on a different planet. There’s no quiet car but people are respectful of fellow riders.
LOLOLOL - perfect.
yep- the older I get, the less I want any of my time intruded upon by idiots - which is why I moved back to the country a couple decades ago. I only have an acre and a half, but with a 60' barrier of forest between me and the road = and my living rm/dining/kitchen facing to the back - look out only on sky and forest = I have peace, quiet and solitude.
I'm not antisocial, I just want the right to choose with whom I am 'social' -
You handled it correctly, congrats. I, however, am a fairly gregarious sort, and would have been right in the middle of the noise and laughter.
As far as I am concerned, just living in a big city is like living a 24/7 Shriner's convention.
That's why I don't live in one any more.
Do you have a pair of those? What model are they?
I agree that this guy is an idiot. However, as a person who rides a light-rail system every day, I have to have some sympathy, too. My job is located in a terrible part of town where it is dangerous to walk even a few blocks from a parking lot, so I can’t realistically drive to work. The station next to my building is close to an inner-city high school, and the teenagers ride the train home from school. There are large groups shouting and hollering to/at each other every day, including the liberal use of obscenities. It is almost as if they are deliberately trying to terrify other riders. This is in addition to all the people on their cellphones telling someone (loudly) which station they just passed. No system employee ever does anything about any of this, naturally. I’m retiring in six months so there is an end in sight and I will rarely leave my five acres in exurbia.
Back in the summer of 1971 I lived in the northern suburbs of Chicago, home from college for three months. A friend of my father provided me & a friend jobs for the summer working construction. His company had the insulation contract for the Sears Tower and the Federal Office Building. We rode the train, often with a friend named Penny who had a secretarial job. We often joined an older man in a quadrant of 4 seats. He was cordial and would ask about our plans for the future and engage in other small talk. Turns out he was William Rentschler and we would be seeing his name in the news as a member of the Nixon team in DC. Learned a lot about people that summer, both on the train AND on the unionized construction site!
LOL!
One of these times, he try this only to discover that he is in a car full of Bernard Goetzes.
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