Tuesday, November 10, 2009

New York City Police...

The following video specifically deals with the rights of photographers but more generally illustrates a common problem between NYC residents and law enforcement (although this video takes place in LA- its the same ol' crap)...

Twice I've been detained by police officers for riding my bicycle a distance shorter than 15ft on the sidewalk. The first time I became quite frustrated and antagonistic and was eventually detained, frisked, and screamed at for a period of 25 minutes. I was written a court summons which caused me to miss a day from work and resulted in a $5 ticket.

The second time I knew the routine and chatted with the officers about filling their "summons quota." They warmed up a bit after a spell and offered me a cigarette which they explained would pay off a bit of the $5 ticket.

I don't know where I stand on this issue but I have heard 100's of stories like this and know now that just about anyone can be stopped for just about anything...

1 comment:

  1. Re: summons quota, in a perverse way, police officer's clients are the people they write tickets for/arrest.

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