Dangerous breakdancers

There are some groups of young men (I don't know how many) who like to come onto subway trains, announce loudly "it's showtime," turn on music, and do a break-dancing routine, then ask for donations. I don't much care for them: they play the music loud enough to be heard easily over the subway noise, which is loud enough to be uncomfortable. But I've gotten used to trying to ignore them and keep reading my book or doing my puzzle.

Coming home from the gym this evening, I was trying to do that when one of them misjudged his movement and kicked my left knee. My reaction was to yell "Watch it, asshole!"

I'm not sure what I expected from there, but it wasn't a demand that I not call him that or he would spit in my face. Only after that did he say something about "accident." I knew it was an accident: that's not the point, or not most of the point. It didn't help any that one of the other guys there kept saying "It's okay" to me, rather than ever asking me whether I was okay. (To him, I said "tell your friend, he's the one who's threatening me.")

I can't tell from how he handled this whether he just doesn't care about strangers (and hasn't figured out that harming the audience isn't good busking technique) or whether his reaction came from "this is normal, I kick subway riders all the time." Near the end of the routine, he bounced off one wall of the subway car, hand above another woman's head in a way that he clearly did control, so it's not just incompetence. If it was incompetence, I would hope his friends would make him practice, or leave him home. (Mediocre musicians on the subway are merely annoying; breakdancing in a crowded space requires a higher level of skill.)

I iced my knee when I got home, but it's half an hour or so from Columbus Circle to my couch, so I suspect it wasn't in time to prevent a bruise.

( the workout itself was good )