Are people in New York more agitated than other places?

Or is it just due to the sheer number of people that I'm due to encounter more violent acts? The reason being that today while reading on a bench in Central Park, across the way from the softball fields on the Great Lawn, all mayhem broke loose. Because I had my iPod going, I didn't hear any dialogue, but there were some really pissed off people. People were holding this one guy back, who then broke free and then returned to the argument with an aluminum baseball bat raised and readied to strike. It was really quite freaky and thankfully this guy didn't due any swinging, but man was he pissed. Things cooled down after about fifteen minutes, but it left me reflecting that this hasn't been the first act of potential violence I've witnessed in the city, with several of them even being other softball conflicts.

I was down on the lower east side a couple of weeks ago early in the evening. I'd just walked out of the subway at 1st ave. and Houston and saw these two guys grappling in the middle of the crosswalk. One of the guys was the driver of an SUV stopped at the light who had apparently left his car to fight with a pedestrian. From what I gathered from passerbys was that the driver had nearly hit this guy in the crosswalk, so the guy smacked the car with his bag. The two really seemed on the verge of fists, complete with expletives and threats. The fight diffused when the cars behind the SUV began beeping, but the whole thing left me a little shaken. As I walked to where I was going, I couldn't help but ponder what I would do in a situation like that. By no means am I a fighting guy; thankfully, I've seemed to avoid situations in my life like that due to my tall stature and unconsciously cold look I always seem to have on my face. Regardless, I guess I just have to always beware of my surroundings and realize that there are a lot of crazies out there who like to look for fights and don't benefit from a zen-like calm that I do.