That type of stuff generally happens because people allow it to happen.. not that I would recommend this cause you have to be ready to escalate, but, I was gett

That type of stuff generally happens because people allow it to happen.. not that I would recommend this cause you have to be ready to escalate, but, I was getting gas in SF and as I lift the nozzle a hobo gets between me and the car and aggressively asks for money. Me, in my non-fake Russian accent: "Fuck off, vermin." He just sags and walks away. Then he walks over to some other guy who is standing around waiting for his tank to be full, and proceeds to literally chase the guy around the car as the latter tries repeatedly to disengage politely. At some point it looked almost like full-on assault; if the guy took out a gun and put that hobo down I'd volunteer to stick around to be a friendly witness for him. I don't understand why American society tolerates this kind of stuff. Watching movies like Easy Rider, you can see the opposite extreme of the society/the law treating any strangers and outsiders poorly, but I wonder if the current attitudes swung /too/ far in the opposite direction. Regardless, given that's how most people are socialized, I am not surprised they don't like public services that are disproportionately used by the poor (I think most poor are totally fine, but they are more likely to be dysfunctional, and public transit in particular also selects for the dysfunctional).