This NYC Subway Fight Is The Perfect Portrait Of How Bad Things Have Become In New York

Drew Angerer. Getty Images.

Another day, another fight on the NYC subway. The last thing anyone needs is to hear about how bad the New York subway system has become, but it truly feels like you're putting your life on the line when you swipe that metro card these days. Or just hop the turnstile, as it seems half the passengers do. 

As the weather has grown colder, I've stopped getting to work my typical way, via Citibike, and have opted more often for the subway. I must have gone about six months without riding the subway and it was pure joy. Sure, on a citibike I have to dodge the occasional errant food delivery moped bro who is looking down at his phone as he goes against traffic in the bike lane and takes the absolute center of the lane, forcing you to ride up on the sidewalk to save your life, which pisses off the pedestrians on the sidewalk. And sure, you occasionally hit a pothole that is deep enough to bury a body in the middle of sixth avenue where they'll never be discovered, jarring your molars and sending your eyeballs spinning like toy clocks. 

But even the death-defying, traffic-dodging terror ride on a Citibike seems LEGITIMATELY less dangerous than riding the subway for six stops these days. I actually mean that: it feels more likely that I will die on the subway, sitting peacefully and doing my crossword, than by getting posterized by an Amazon truck in the Lower East Side. 

This fight between Alexander Rakatin, wearing a vest, and Timothy Barbee, the… uhhhhm other gentleman, is actually the best you could hope for. Just pure New York City fed-up rage, but at least it's not the unhinged menace of a homeless lunatic. Rakatin apparently bumped knees with Barbee and then they were off. Clearly, just two people who have had enough of how things are devolving in this city of cities. Barbee even says "I can't go to jail today," then proceeds to take the exact steps needed to go to jail. Sometimes, you reach the point where you just have to go to jail. 

"What the fuck are you staring at?" 

"It's 8:30!" 

Pretty bold of Rakatin, I have to say. Didn't look away, didn't shut up like I would have. I would have gotten up and walked away with my head down like a beaten dog. These days, I just assume every single person around me is carrying a weapon of some kind on the subway. 

I'm genuinely curious about the public transportation systems in other US cities. How bad is the Chicago L, or the Boston T, the DC Metro, or the BART these days? Have you guys kept pace with us fucking degenerates in New York? It's just beyond belief. Truly beyond belief. How many more innocent liberals need to be cockslapped by a homeless guy before we send the national guard into the subway system?