Breaking Up (In Public) Is Hard To Do

We here at LAist applaud Los Angeles' many diverse people, activities, restaurants, history, cultural icons, art, music, entertainment and much much more. We enjoy the quirkiness of a town where people appear to work less than in any other city. We enjoy the drama, the celebrity and the chaos.

But there is one thing that is starting to get on our nerves.

Over the course of the last month, while out and about at a variety of public establishments, LAist has been privy to over 14 public break-ups. Some have involved screaming while others have involved crying. Some have involved pushing, shaking and the knocking of cell phones out of the breakee's hands. Others have been in the middle of a busy walkway (i.e. The Grove), at the edge of an alleyway and in the middle of a restaurant (which includes the spilling of drinks, usually on someone else's lap).

What LAist would like to know is -- People, why can't you just take it inside?

L.A. is a hard enough place to succeed in without your whining and slapping and pleading. Most of us have our blinders on just so we can reach our goals -- we don't need to start thinking that in addition to the uphill battle we face on a daily basis, that YOU (ergo, US) will also probably never be able to hold onto a relationship in this town either because, well, it just isn't possible.

Which is why the Public Break-up is something that must be clamped down upon. Hey, people get tickets for jay walking, littering, being drunk in public, being too loud and shouting obscenities...why is it that the emotionally-scarring experience of watching a couple break-up in public should receive any special treatment?

We know you are hurt and we know you are sad. We know you are fed-up with the joyless relationships you're about to end in the middle of dinner at Chin Chin. We know that you figure by doing it in public it will make it feel "less real", "less painful" and give you "less chance of changing your mind." But really, you are not just harming your soon-to-be Ex, but you are ruining everyone else's psyche.

So please. Stop. Stop the kind of conversations (like this one), heard at Chin Chin on Sunset Boulevard:

Him: It's just not working.
Her: What's just not working?
Him: This.
Her: This?
Him: Yeah, this.
Her: You're seriously not telling me this here.
Him: What do you mean?
Her: We're in a restaurant.
Him: So.
Her: The restaurant where we met.
Him: So?
Her: You're breaking up with me in the restaurant where we met.
Him: Sort of like bookends the whole thing, ya know?

She shoves her glass over, it hits his, which falls over -- and water goes everywhere.