You can get busted in Midtown

I agree that all they are is a members of the public with no powers of arrest and detention.

As a member of the public they can arrest you (as you can arrest them) - the point being that they have no more authority over you than you have over them.

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.

Agreed, it's fairly guaranteed that the police will side with the warden/security guard/'ranger' . . . regardless of the situation. That's why it is best to get your 'fuck off you jumped up little prick' in fairly early and then get on with your day.