Had a encounter with an aggressive vagrant in NYC and my ego hurts

Hi guys I had a very interesting encounter today on 73rd and Broadway and I’m beating myself up for it.

I saw this man about 5”9 skinny but strong build seemingly harass this older man outside of a bank. By the time I got close he was already walking away. I had gotten in front of him and turned around to him accosting an old woman. She must’ve been 85+ she was using a walker and hunched over completely moving at snail speed. He had his arm around her and kept saying “You got beer?! Give me beer! So I stepped in and put my hand in between them not touching him and said hey man just let her go she doesn’t have anything. In a very nice and calm way. For context I am also 5”9 (same height as this guy), 180lbs right now with muscle not fat and have trained Muay Thai for 3 years and BJJ for two. I’m not some UFC fighter but I can hold my own against the average person. Back to the story. After I stepped in and spoke to him he turned to me and said are you with her angrily. I said yeah I’m with her hoping that would deescalate the situation right away. He turns to her and asks her “is he with you?” and this damn lady says no! Like are you stupid I am trying to fucking help you. So then the guy turns to me and tells me to back the fuck away. I stood my ground and tried to talk him down until the old lady had gotten away and had some distance between us. He then gets in my face and is yelling “walk away bro I’m going to beat the shit out of you” etc etc. So I stood in his face for a couple seconds talking to him and my right hand was twitching I truly truly wanted to smash his face into the ground. But I said okay man you got it and walked away. He began to follow me for a couple blocks at a distance saying walk away man walk away I’m going to fuck you up. I would stop periodically and say you’re going to attack me for helping an old woman? You’re going to attack me on Broadway? But he continued to walk forward yelling so I walked away and called the cops. They told me that they can’t even do anything if they find him since he didn’t touch me. I said what would have happened if I hit him when he was in my face and they said I would have gone to jail. They said even if he hits you and you’re rolling around you’re both going to jail. They did say that realistically the court case would be open and shut since he’s a lunatic but I did the right thing for helping the lady and not fighting him. I feel like a pussy though. He was a bad guy and a bully and I wanted to show him why you shouldn’t bully anyone you see on the street. I was very scared of him having a weapon though and that also made me hesitant. I just feel like a baby and I should have taken into my own hands and not walked away. I feel terrible about this. What do you guys think? Did I do the right thing or should I have taken it to the next step?

Submitted June 11, 2026 at 10:11PM by Savage--Opress https://ift.tt/EjAw2UP