Last week I had to take the San Francisco Muni bus because of the rain and on the way back from the office happened to pick up a newspaper laying on one of the empty seats. After I was done with the paper I tried to find somewhere to place it without littering. I was being watched by a Chinese man who sat two rows behind me that he asked for the paper which I gladly passed along.
I immediately noticed the Chinese man was talking very loudly about something so I looked back at him that he began verbally attacking me with nonsense. I responded with "I gave you the paper, what's the problem?". This made the man even angrier and as he grew louder I sarcastically responded "It's time for your medication!" which clearly wasn't the right thing to say.
When I finally discerned the situation that he was just a very ill person, he moved up one more row in a strategic move like a chess game. He kept rambling on loudly in an imaginary conversation with me about current events. He went on about what was wrong with the city that the newspaper I had handed to him apparently triggered he was blaming me for. At one point he even said "look what you did to this city supporting Willie Brown!"
When I finally discerned the situation that he was just a very ill person, he moved up one more row in a strategic move like a chess game. He kept rambling on loudly in an imaginary conversation with me about current events. He went on about what was wrong with the city that the newspaper I had handed to him apparently triggered he was blaming me for. At one point he even said "look what you did to this city supporting Willie Brown!"
At some point I recognized this man was using me as target for his hate simply because I handed him a newspaper, that he was very disturbed and crazy. This is because I had both visual and auditory cues to let me know this man was just looking for any opportunity to vent and I had nothing to do with his problem.
As the man continued to loudly ramble on in his accusations against me, I began ignoring him while noting someone from the back of the bus went up to the man and said "Shut the hell up! Shut up man!" that had attracted the attention of the African American Muni bus driver who got out of his seat to say "you stay out of it! Let those two deal with it themselves! In other words, it was clear the bus driver believed I had perpetrated this dispute I was participating in and likely deserved it so no one should intervene on my behalf. The fact was I said very few words, about 12 in total and was ignoring the man's imaginary conversations with me.
As the man continued to loudly ramble on in his accusations against me, I began ignoring him while noting someone from the back of the bus went up to the man and said "Shut the hell up! Shut up man!" that had attracted the attention of the African American Muni bus driver who got out of his seat to say "you stay out of it! Let those two deal with it themselves! In other words, it was clear the bus driver believed I had perpetrated this dispute I was participating in and likely deserved it so no one should intervene on my behalf. The fact was I said very few words, about 12 in total and was ignoring the man's imaginary conversations with me.
Thus my lesson for the day was this - my simply handing a newspaper to a crazy person caused him to focus on me as a target associating me with the problems of the city. All I did was respond "I handed you a paper!" and "time for your medication" thinking he was accusing me of being rude. When I realized he was far out and disturbed I began ignoring him, but a little bridge was made by another bystander that brought in a fourth person, the bus driver to accuse me of being involved of perpetrating the alleged dispute. I could only imagine had this issue on the bus escalated to some physical violence by the third party in the back, I would have likely been accused of causing the disruption by the bus driver as witness.
As the disturbed Chinese man continued to speak loudly with much hatred, he said "I'm calling the police!" completely oblivious that he was the problem on the bus, not the other way around. He took the cue from the Muni bus driver's direction to the other man that he was a victim. A few blocks later when he got off the bus I said, "Jesus loves you very much" to make sure everyone knew I had no ill will toward him since the man was still mad over city politics that even spittle was coming off his lips. Observers might have interpreted this man's rants that I was somehow responsible for victimizing him that his anger resulted in some valid condemnation.
I had a similar problem with an African American five time evicted roommate evicted from the Progress Foundation I had the misfortune of having as a roommate 15 years ago in 1999 that the police sided with. As a 3.5 years tenant of the lease they made me out to be the perpetrator answering her every whim phone call so she could acquire a lease to the best deal in San Francisco.
This is how the crazies operate to get their way that the court system and police sadistically enjoy tormenting the innocent using crazy people like this because they know you have to pay an attorney that therefore brings money into their legal industry.
