It's the case of the back seat driver gone bananas. Cops in the Big Apple say that 25-year-old Alicea Diaz (pictured on the left) didn't like the "pokey snail's pace" at which 60-year-old Jacqueline Benjamin drove the city bus and the "mind-numbing rides" that resulted. Diaz alleges that Benjamin drove the bus at five miles per hour and was "always making me late for work." And Diaz wasn't gonna take it any longer! That's when the attack began (allegedly) (link to full story at bottom).The incident allegedly started with a little verbal harangue. "I'm tired of you, bitch. You're always making me late for work!," Diaz allegedly shouted at Benjamin. Then things reportedly got physical, with Diaz allegedly clocking Benjamin right in the face "with a closed fist" (it would have been a legal blow if she'd just kept it open-handed). For good measure, Diaz then allegedly "unleashed a hail of blows" upon the person of the much older bus driver.
Once through with her alleged attack, Diaz -- sporting a Bill Belichick-like hoodie -- apparently settled down a bit and tried to go ahead and get off the bus at her regular stop. But bus driver Benjamin was reportedly having none of that, restraining Diaz by her hoodie until the cops could arrive (damn pesky superfluous hoods). Diaz now faces criminal charges that include assault and "menacing." And she could face hard time in the hoosegow, since attacking a Big Apple bus driver is a felony.
But Diaz is already working on her defense. She claims she gave Benjamin the beatdown only in "self-defense." Diaz says the friction started when she complained about Benjamin not helping a wheelchair passenger. Diaz says that Benjamin then drove the bus really slow to retaliate. Then, upon reaching Diaz's stop, Diaz says the bus driver called her a "dumb ho" and grabbed her hoodie, naturally giving Diaz little choice but to beat the living hell out of the bus driver.
But something tells me that story may not fly so well -- not with the three witnesses who back up the bus driver's account, leastways. Methinks Diaz may also need to work up some variation of the ol' "feathers" defense that's being utilized (as recently documented in this space) by the airline that allegedly served a lizard to a passenger for dinner. Nothing like a good Plan B, after all.
http://www.newyorkpost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/driven_to_bus_rage_a60RzWK2FU17XQR6smJPLO
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