The Los Angeles Metro, trying to deter homeless people from bothering others on the subway system, is playing classical music at a downtown subway station, eliciting calls of “torture” from critics.
The Metro’s operations and security team worked with law enforcement to play symphonies, concertos, and piano sonatas by composers such as Beethoven, Mozart, and Vivaldi, in the Westlake/MacArthur Park Metro station starting in January. The rough weather plaguing the city in recent weeks catalyzed homeless people to find refuge in the subway system.
But critics complain that the music is too loud and promotes an elitist atmosphere. A recent L.A. Metro citizen-public-safety committee meeting featured a member calling the music a “psychological torture chamber,” The Daily Mail reported.
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