7th Ave. & W. 42nd St. — Approximate Times Square Street Scene
Robert Burck, the 55-year-old street performer known as the Naked Cowboy, says he spent 30 minutes being harassed, followed and cursed at by a stranger in Times Square on Thursday, just three days after a random knife attack left a Bank of America executive dead nearby. Burck says the man brandished a scarf like a whip near his face and body, insulted him, and followed him from block to block as onlookers filmed the confrontation.
According to New York Post reporter Doree Lewak, the man wore shorts, a jacket and a backpack, and at one point told Burck, “you ain’t no gangster.” A bystander, alarmed by the man’s behavior, reportedly shouted “get your pills” at him. Burck says he sang love ballads in an attempt to calm the tense situation and told the man that “most people are not going to harm ya,” even as he admitted, “you just hope they don’t kill ya.”…