Oh New York, You So Crazy

No. I did not get attacked with a hand saw on the subway today, for those of you who watch the national news. (I fielded a few concerned phone-calls this afternoon.) It seems sadly, though, that someone else did. He survived, thankfully. I think he'll be just fine. And the teddy-bear-wielding lunatic who sawed into him was apprehended. Especially shocking, is that this attack came just weeks after a said "gang initiation" drove a Harlem teen to stab a series of four or five tourists in a matter of twenty four hours on some uptown Manhattan trains. It all makes the subway system sound like a very dangerous place to be. But I can assure you, thus far, I have never even been attemptedly sawed, stabbed or assaulted.

Unfortunately, my good friend who is brand new to the city-- we'll call her Tampa-- was held at broken bottle's edge for a few frightening minutes on an empty subway platform last week. She eventually derived an escape plan between the lunatic and the wall which flanked her. She quietly tried to talk him out of an attack, without sounding confrontational, and when she spotted the opportunity, ran for her fucking life. I congratulated her quick thinking.

"I was just lucky," she says in her Southern accent. She's only been here two months and I feel terrible that this happened, let alone so soon. "He just decided to let me go. If he'd wanted to hurt me, there would've been nothing I could do," She sighed. A scary prospect.

Maybe I don't take regard the risks of the city with enough severity. I have to admit that the recent outpouring of violence talk has gotten me thinking.

My roommate has calmed my nerves slightly, however, with this simple truth. Maybe it will help you to put it into perspective too. Yes, there are crazy people here. There are a lot of them. The city attracts a certain number of crazy people...because that's what cities do. But there are also a tremendous number of completely normal people here as well. And we're all, normals and crazies alike, REALLY close together. With a few million people of any kind, surrounding you at any time, you run the risk that at least some of them are going to be out of their minds. (Just like some of them are going to be Italian or White or Men, Women, Elderly, Jewish, etc...)

Unfortunately, whereas in the rest of the world, you have the ability to shut your car door, buckle your seatbelt and lock the world and its crazies out of your SUVs...we're riding to work next to them every day. Brushing past them on platforms. Sharing a bench on the train. You have to be smart. Any one of those few million people (especially the Teddy-bear-weilding variety) may just be on the verge of crazy. New York is the only city I've ever heard of people being stabbed for looking at you the wrong way. (That doesn't make you crazy. I've almost stabbed someone for looking at me funny any number of times.) It's an occupational hazard. An overpopulation problem. And something to keep an eye out for.

In the meantime, I'm just fine. And everyone I know is fine, too. I realize this can be a dangerous place. But so can anywhere else! I'll keep an eye out, and I promise not to intentionally upset anyone who looks too crazy.