You can get busted in Midtown

Fair enough, point taken. But what do you mean by "a situation of conflict or antagonism which can easily escalate and then be enforced by someone with actual powers" ?

Bottom line is that if another member of the public (because that is all they are) starts to try and order you around I don't think it is unreasonable that they should expect to be told to fuck off fairly regularly.

I agree that all they are is a members of the public with no powers of arrest and detention. Doesn't stop them winding people up though.

And this is what gets me. the warden could try and fine someone for some trivial offence they believe they have seen committed. The best course of action is to ignore them and just go on your way. However, the warden may make it difficult for that to happen (e.g. stand in your way, make a bit of a scene and generally harass you) at that point with someone pissing you off it is natural to be annoyed. And this is the antagonism. Often people respond to this sort of thing with bad language, shouting and physical pushing and shoving. Whilst the warden has initiated this conflict by being irritating if there was a proper policeman around who then got involved it would be very likely that he would side with the warden and the person would not now only be facing a fine from the warden, but also perhaps arrest by a policeman for section 5 and maybe trumped up charges of assault.

So that is what I see by a situation of conflict and antagonism. And I know that it is unlikely that a proper policeman would be around but if fining is going on then it may be going on in partnership with the police who might be hanging around to see it all goes smoothly and to step in if it isn't.

hope that makes sense.