April 9, 2008
Vigilante etiquette justice over cellphone yapping in subway
The Village Voice reports on a lawsuit brought on following an incident in a subway where 60-year-old cop-turned-lawyer Clifford assaulted a 19-year-old student for talking on his cell phone.
The New York Post described the incident thusly:
Clifford waved his hand at the kid, snapped his fingers in the kid's face, and started cursing loudly, all agreed.Clifford really blew a gasket - screaming "F- - -ing faggot!" - when the kid then suggested, comically, that Clifford himself not blow his nose and rustle his newspaper so loudly.
Clifford won his case, despite the judge's admonition that his vigilante style of etiquette justice is inappropriate (not to mention homophobic.)
This reminds me of a reverse incident that occured on a Japanese bus, when a young man observed that the middle-aged person in front of him was talking too loud on the mobile telephone. So he tapped the man's shoulder and asked him to keep the volume down. The man went bonkers. The video uploaded on YouTube has close to 2 million views.
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