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had a really scary encounter on the bus today with a man that was screaming, threatening to kill people if they stopped the bus, and hitting the railing behind my head. he seemed to be targeting me and the bus driver, screaming right behind my head, and being violent. this ain’t my first rodeo, i’ve lived here for years and typically know how to handle these people, but was genuinely frightened for the first time because i had no visual on him and everyone else was staying perfectly still. didn’t feel like i could move to pull the cord without agitating him more (he was yelling at the bus driver to run red lights and not pick up people even) or try to make a dash for the door without certainty it would open right away and he wouldn’t follow me onto the street. eventually some young man came up to me and asked me if i wanted to get off the bus now and had to physically stand between this man and me so he couldn’t follow me.

usually in these situations i would just get off the subway at the next stop or switch cars if i felt like i needed to put some distance between me and the unhinged person, but on the bus there’s nowhere to go, less people around (bus and street were pretty empty), and more time between buses. what would you have done in this situation? how do you deal with these sorts of people on a bus?