LIRR Vigilante

I read this in the news today about a LIRR rider who got fed up with the noise of people chatting across the train car and on cellphones. He wound up cursing a man and then slapping the hand of woman who was chatting with another person across the aisle.

Details of the story are here:
http://gothamist.com/2008/04/09/lirr_etiquette_1.php

Yesterday was the trial and in the end he was acquitted of all charges.

I didn't quite know how to feel about this at first and I ran through some comments from other people in the gothamist article. Some people thought that it was great that he stood up for his personal space. Others bashed him for being stupid to think that on a crowded train he should be entitled to such peace and quiet.

There are times when I think people can get quite annoying with their chatter and their cellphones. Sometimes it's really an invasion of space. But I think I have to side with the comments that say he's a turd.

This guy has to realize that:

a) You're on a public train. You bought a ticket to ride the train from point A to point B.
b) Furthermore, your ticket is just a LIRR ticket. Not a first class LIRR ticket (which doesn't exist at all). The only privilege you have is the privilege to ride on the train. Not to noiseless cars, to quiet rooms, or even to a guaranteed seat!
c) You are riding during rush hour. Which means LOTS OF PEOPLE. Even if you are talking at a normal polite level, people will hear your conversation because everyone is so close to each other.
d) You could've done other things to isolate yourself from the noise. Um, noise isolation earphones anyone? Oh but you don't feel like you should be the one who has to change huh? Well perhaps you can say that the day you buy your own personal LIRR train car. Because you know what? You are still only one person out of many that rides the LIRR.
e) And who the hell carries a noise reader around measuring the decibels a train makes? That's like someone whipping out a chlorine monitor whenever they have to drink tap water at a restaurant.
f) And no one made you the LIRR noise police so stop acting like you are.
g) OK, people invaded your personal audio space but that gives you no right to touch someone else, let alone slap a part of their body.

I guess I did have an opinion on this after all.