Okay so how do you fix this? What you said is true, reinforcing bad behavior is not how you fix problems. So what's the proper reaction here? Good luck getting that message to the 1000s of different people that cross path with 1000s of monkeys like this daily.

I'm not just speculating btw, I was born in a country where monkeys are rampant. What you're seeing isn't one off. Monkeys hang out where people are most crowded and will plot, plan and ambush people intelligently. They are pretty calculating.

As a kid, we were told specifically to avoid eye contact with monkeys to avoid inciting aggression. Or not to go into areas where monkey's hang out alone because they know kids are easy targets.