Subway Scene

A woman playfully roughed up her son on the subway. She smeared her hand into his face and continuously poked and prodded him. What started playfully soon strayed into abusive behavior. We all noticed what was going on. The young guy sitting down next to the woman leaned over to the strangers on his right and whispered "Are you going to say something, or should I?" The strangers didn't respond. The woman did.

"You bitch! Mind your own business, bitch!"

As she yelled, little balls of spit flew out of her mouth. Then, she lashed out and struck the guy, punching him in the arm.

He got up and stood near the door. She continued screaming at him, having lost all control (her son, meanwhile, submissively put his arm across her waist in a vain attempt to restrain her. It felt like he's done this before). She could not calm down. She raged and screamed, and then got up to strike him again. Two other guys and myself made moves to block her, and she eventually went back to her seat, screaming the entire time.

These kinds of incidents go to prove that appeals to reason and logic are not always a solution. There was no way to calm her down or prevent her from assaulting this guy, short of physically stopping her. Recognizing that makes me very uncomfortable.