vincentnyc

once again...nypd harassing and abusing their powers

https://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/inve...d_and_the_NYPD

Stacy

The New York Civil Liberties Union should get in on this.

Avatar

The punishment does not fit the crime. What justice is there?

Bacciagalupe

Oh, whatever.

The guy drew a couple of short straws in a row. If he had his wallet -- or any ID on him -- he wouldn't have gotten arrested. If his wife had a NY phone number, or if he remembered the phone number of his job, his family wouldn't have freaked out.

I do feel bad for the guy and his family, and it does sound like the NYPD might have been rude. But it's a little hard to know for sure -- the wife was most likely (and understandably) hysterical, and I don't automatically trust anyone in that state of mind to have perfect recall.

I don't know how long you are required to wait before filing a missing person's report in NYC, so I'm not sure if the cops were or weren't doing their job right.

pgoat

bull

Bander

Wow, talk about bad police work. Apparently NYPD policies no longer allow officers to use common sense.

jyossarian

They allow the individual officers to use their discretion. These officers just wanted to **** the guy over by holding him while they looked for a crime to charge him with. We either need more violent crimes so these guys have something better to do or fewer violent and malevolent cops.

roadiejorge 

Sure we should all carry ID with us at all times but does someone deserve to go through all of that when all of the information they required could have been obtained by just letting him get in contact with someone? He had a cell phone to make his call so it seems like a silly policy to not let people get in touch with their family members just because they have out of state area codes.

pgoat

precisely. The guy was not prepared - but this could happen to anyone. With the laziness caused by cell phones, Idk everyone's # off the top of my head anymore, and it took me some time to memorize my current work number, etc. If these people just moved here recently, no wonder he didn't know them.

If he had walked into a bank with a loaded gun, ok , i could see their concern. But all this, because he broke a sidewalk cycling law? Excuse me while I throw up.

This morning I rolled through a red (not all the way, just rolled up to see if cars were coming) and a cop car car next to me asked me if I knew where a street was - was I being profiled? Are they that idle that they can take time out to worry about me and my bike commute?

KitN

The guy shouldn't have been riding on the sidewalk so he earned the ticket. But since he didn't have any ID on him the cops are allowed to take him into custody until they can verify his identity. At this point, the sidewalk surfing bike rider is 100% at fault on TWO fronts: First, riding on the sidewalk which is indeed against the law and, second, not having any I.D. But after that, everything just goes way wrong.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE RIGHT TO ONE PHONE CALL?!? Riding on the sidewalk or not the guy is entitled to a phone call to get someone to come down with his ID. This is where the cops screwed up. Out of state phone number or not they should have let him make the call or actually did some police work (fancy that) and called up the Tennis Court that this guy worked at -- a local call-- to have someone come down to verify his identity or at least get in contact with his family to do the verifying.

The guy screwed up on a number of occasions during this incident (no ID, not remembering local work number, etc) so it's not like he's innocent but the cops did a very poor job on this one.

jeebusaurousrex

Wait, it's a crime to not have an ID on you?

pgoat

no ID = possible terrorist threat

Kevrob

Technically, no. Practically, yes.

The cops don't even need to ticket you. They can just stop you and ask you questions. If you refuse to answer, they can arrest you.

Larry Dudley Hiibel thought this was wrong, and took his case all the way to SCOTUS.

He lost.

https://www.reason.com/news/show/32830.html

Hiibel in his own words.


https://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0628/p09s01-coop.html

Kevin {Note: IANAL}

alhedges

They can't just stop you and ask you questions; they have to have a reasonable suspicion that you are involved in criminal activity. And the only question you are required to answer is who you are. None of which is particularly relevant to this case, though.

pgoat

I am not 100% sure (pls correct me if you know) but once he was stopped for riding on the sidewalk (which he did not appear to deny doing) he needed to show ID. Had he done so, he would not have been arrested at all, but merely been given a summons.

As KitN wrote, the cops were going by the book up till that point; the stuff in the precinct thereafter was just total BS, period.

Kevrob

I have no doubt that, if a cop wanted to exercise a "Terry stop" on me, he could recall some alleged miscreant whose description I resembled closely enough to justify it. That might be a case of testalying, but a word to the wise is sufficient.

I expect that asking said occifer Excuse me, but are you asking that under the Terry Stop doctrine, and, if so, on what basis are you exercising your discretion? might result with my being introduced to a close-up view of the pavement, if not a mouthful of Maglite.

Kevin

Doohickie

26 hrs? Meh. Whatever. I read it 26 yrs. the first time!

jeebusaurousrex

Jeebus christmas, good to know this stuff, thanks for the links.

Stacy

Agreed. The whole point in detaining people without ID is so the police can verify their identity - not to run them through the system. It's interesting that the judge sentenced him to time served. That seems to be what happens with a lot of Quality of Life violations. I'm sure whatever amount these officers billed the city for all the overtime involved in this collar amounted to more than the cost of a long distance telephone call.

gearhead.ny

It's this kind of crap that is causing people to become (for lack of a better term) angry at the police. I myself hate cops because of stories like this but I have the intelligence to know that this is only a few bad cops. Unfortunately these few bad cops are hurting the reputation of the rest of them such as the good cops which are the ones who use common sense instead of this 0 policy sh**.

sorry for the vent

TiberiusBTkirk

I believe at the end he mentions now he has a record.
of course, he's in the system now.

KitN

The judge probably told him not to do anything stupid for 6 months and if he doesn't, after 6 months, he can get the infraction expunged from his record. (That's what normally happens with a 1st time minor offense.)

TiberiusBTkirk

but wouldn't he need to answer truthfully on job applications that ask Were you Ever arrested?
or for any government related background check applications. the government is a stickler on these things.

GuitarWizard

Yeah, he would need to put it down on a job application...."I got arrested for riding my bike on the sidewalk".....

Now there's a real threat to society; someone better think twice about hiring THAT guy.

Bacciagalupe

It doesn't exist.

Not on the federal level, at least. You have a Constitutional right to an attorney, not to contact your family. The ability to make a call when you're arrested is granted by the State you're arrested in, not Federal law.

NY State law might grant that right. However, that doesn't obligate the police to help you track down any phone numbers.


Uh... Did you not live here when Giuliani was Mayor? The cops were gunning down unarmed and/or innocent civilians back in those days. Getting sent to Central Booking for half a day is a cake-walk in comparison.


"I hope you know this will go down on your permanent record..."

Not if the offense gets expunged. That's pretty much the whole point behind the procedure.