BY THE VILLAGE SUN | Talk about intersectionality.
A guy in just his skivvies and white socks popped a squat right in the middle of the intersection at W. Fourth Street and Sixth Avenue late Thursday afternoon.
Wave after wave of cars, buses, cyclists, e-bike deliverypersons and pedestrians all just streamed by him and around him. Miraculously, no one ran him over.
A “brief” eight-minute video about the street sitter. (Video by The Village Sun)
It was, literally, a “man on the street” story — or make that a “man in the street” story.
Sometimes he sat up. At another point, he lay on his back in a semi-spread eagle, arms outstretched to his sides.
If he had a specific protest agenda, it wasn’t clear.
Two medics with an ambulance from New York-Presbyterian Hospital, likely the one in Lower Manhattan, tried to talk to the underwear-clad individual, but he wouldn’t abandon his spot.
Firefighters rolled up in a fire engine and kept an eye on the situation for a few minutes. When a police car arrived, the fire truck drove off. As it did, the guy in the street looked toward the fire truck, put his fingers to his temple like a gun and shrugged.
Earlier, the possibly Hanes-wearing traffic hazard had twice stood up, spun around and heaved things — one time a can of Pepsi, the other time maybe a hot dog — at traffic heading uptown.
Passersby commented on the kooky scene.
“Ohhhhh! He bought a $5 bag of crack,” one man offered with a broad grin.
“The weekly event,” another quipped with a “seen everything” deadpan as he crossed Sixth Avenue while walking two dogs.
A bicycle delivery guy with an African accent who pulled up for a few seconds claimed to have seen the Fruit of the Loom loony toons pull this stunt a few times before.
“Same guy, man,” he said. “He do that all the time — say he want food. That’s the fourth time I saw him do that.”
A pair of police officers walked the briefs bro onto the sidewalk on the east side of Sixth Avenue, but of course he just hopped right back into the street, then stood leaning on an SUV.
That was it. Police arrested the knickers nincompoop and he was loaded into the ambulance.
Asked if the man was being treated as an E.D.P. — cop speak for “emotionally disturbed person” — an officer just nodded yes as he got back into his squad car.
Encountered tactic in the past. Drug user looking for initially concern and money.
If money not forthcoming — concern be damned.
The same guy did the same thing a month or 6 weeks ago at the corner of West 3rd and MacDougal. When I extended a hand and promised him a 5 dollar bill, he got up and traffic stopped honking and continued on its way.
The guy was experiencing genuine anguish. Here he looks like he may have gotten some kind of mood-elevation substance.
One thing he said to that stuck was, “I didn’t do anything wrong. I lost my home because I lost my job because of this whole pandemic.”
Let’s start a poll on how long before this person is back at the same place doing the same thing.
I suppose to some newsies it’s an amusing sight gag to show pics of a guy in his underwear sitting in the middle of a busy street. Otherwise, the language in this piece is simply cruel and insensitive in its depiction of an obviously deranged man and serves no legitimate journalistic purpose.
Very funny story about a classic NYC scene. Briefs bro! Knickers nincompoop! Fruit of the Loom loonie! Well done! I hope the guy gets the assistance he needs, whatever that might be.