Blasting music and watching TV without headphones on a train or bus isn’t just annoying — it’s an unspoken act of aggression backed by the threat of violence — and everyone nearby knows it.
That’s the conclusion of one crime expert after a commuter was knifed in the chest on the Metro-North earlier this month for asking a fellow passenger to turn down his music.
And straphangers agree, telling The Post that nuisance noises are a major irritation — but they’re too scared of nasty blowback if they so much as look at the offender wrong.
“How those people are behaving is pretty stark and clear. They understand that they’re misbehaving,” Manhattan Institute fellow Rafael A. Mangual explained.
Mangual studies policing and has become particularly interested in the alarming state of NYC’s subway system.
“They are satiating some kind of psychological desire for power by engaging in that kind of behavior in public spaces,” he told The Post.
“Because when they do that and they’re not challenged, it confirms to them that there is fear in the room, which is something that they’re trying to create. And that I think feeds their self-identity as a tough guy.
“All of this kind of behavior is ultimately backed by the credible threat of violence.”
The Metro-North attack is a perfect example, Mangual said.
In that case, 46-year-old Abdul Malik Little was blasting music from his phone when a 31-year-old man asked him to turn it off. Little refused and became enraged, stabbing the man twice in the chest as the train pulled into Grand Central Station, according to cops.
The victim was left with non-life threatening injuries and was able to identify his attacker, who was quickly arrested by police patrolling their train platform.
That outcome is exactly what many straphangers are thinking of when somebody starts blasting their phone on the subway these days — and they’re often too scared to say anything for fear they might be next.
“I hear it often, too much,” said 40-year-old nanny Geta Ramkissoon. “I hear rap music, curse words, putting women down, calling them bitches — disgusting.
“They stand at the door, looking around, you know, like they are waiting for someone to tell them turn it down so they can start their nonsense — you know, looking for trouble.”
Just the other day on the L train, Ramkissoon said trouble almost started when somebody merely looked at a music-blaster the wrong way.
“The music was really loud. Somebody looked at him, I didn’t see who, I only heard him say, ‘What the f**k you looking at?’”
The situation eventually cooled after another straphanger desperately pointed out that there were kids around — but the man didn’t turn his music off.
“I would never say a word to them. They are looking for trouble and I want to go home to my children,” said Ramkissoon, a mother of two.
Joseph Miller, a 25-year-old graduate student from Brooklyn, says he sees people blaring music and movies from their phones — and that while it drives him nuts, nobody ever speaks up.
“Nowadays you don’t get involved because you never know what will happen. You might end up in the hospital or in a body bag. It’s not worth it so I try to ignore it,” he said.
Listening to music or watching videos out loud on the transit system is prohibited by the MTA, and is punishable by fines up to $50.
Nevertheless, no straphangers The Post spoke with said they’d ever seen that rule being enforced.
Such a lack of enforcement of such basic “social norms” as being polite on the subway is a slippery slope to a dangerous city, Mangual said, and that it won’t change unless the city steps up.
“Right now the city’s sending the opposite message,” Mangual said. “In places where disorder is allowed to fester, more serious crime is going to follow because that disorder is a sign that those places are falling to a state of vulnerability.”
Straphangers across the city have been particularly on edge following a spate of horrifying and high profile attacks — including a sleeping woman being burned to death by a deranged rider on an F train in December, and man being shoved directly in front of an oncoming 1 train days later.
Both assaults came on the heels of the Daniel Penny trial, in which a straphanger who fatally choked out an irate homeless man on an F train faced trial for manslaughter — in case that lasted more than a year.
There were 10 murders across the subway system in 2024 — a 25 year high — and a 579 felony assaults, an increase from 2023.
With all that top of mind, asking somebody to do something as seemingly simple as turning down their music has left many straphangers fearful they might be taking their lives in their hands.
“People are scared to say anything because they will go crazy and get physical,” said 53-year-old Frank Mancuso. “People are afraid.
“I keep my mouth shut.”
The MTA did not respond to requests for comment.
