Woman Ticketed For Sitting On Park Bench With No Kids

[TechBrute]

http://www.nbc5i.com/news/5029825/detail.html

Woman Ticketed For Sitting On Park Bench With No Kids
Ticket Could Bring $1,000 Fine, 90 Days In Jail

POSTED: 8:06 am CDT September 28, 2005

NEW YORK -- It's an only in New York story. A woman was given a ticket for sitting on a park bench because she doesn't have children.

The Rivington Playground on Manhattan's East Side has a small sign at the entrance that says adults are prohibited unless they are accompanied by a child. Sandra Catena, 47, said she didn't see the sign when she sat down to wait for an arts festival to start.

Two New York City police officers asked her if she was with a child. When she said no, they gave her a ticket that could bring a $1,000 fine and 90 days in jail.

The city parks department said the rule is designed to keep pedophiles out of city parks, but a parks spokesman told the Daily News that the department hoped police would use some common sense when enforcing the rule.

The spokesman told the paper that ticketing a woman in the park in the middle of the day is not the way you want to enforce the rule.

From the land of no guns comes this heartwrenching story of failed police expectations... sigh...

 

[mons meg]

Uh...

<shakes head>

 

[Henry Bowman]

Wasn't it Lincoln who said that the best way to get a law changed was to enforce it without discretion?


Warning: There may be more to the story than reported.

 

[UberPhLuBB]

Is the law supposed to protect children from kidnappers and rapists?

Here's a better idea: Why don't parents watch their dang kids?

 

[markdaniel]

Parents watch their own kids

Come on parents watching their kids that requires personal accountability this happened in New York the land of liberals who dont believe in that.

 

[3rdpig]

I see this kind of stuff and I just shake my head and wonder. With the cops bent on saving park benches from marauding middle aged women with no kids, how can we expect them to save us from the real threats? Oh wait, I forgot, the cops aren't supposed to protect us from anything, it's why we have guns. But folks in the Big Apple can't have guns!

Terrorists around the world must be laughing at how easy we'll be to kill. Just don't sit on the benches unless you kidnap some kids first!

 

[Standing Wolf]

...a parks spokesman told the Daily News that the department hoped police would use some common sense when enforcing the rule.

Idiotic rules fly in the face of common sense.

 

[1 old 0311]

Did Hillary sponser this bill? Sounds like she was trying to keep Bill away from interns

Kevin

 

[longeyes]

Two New York City police officers asked her if she was with a child. When she said no, they gave her a ticket that could bring a $1,000 fine and 90 days in jail.

Probably heavier punishment than beginning pedophiles get in many liberal jurisdictions.

 

[dolanp]

<Morpheus>A one thousand dollar fine for every possible pedophile in the city park. That sounds exactly like the thinking of a Leftist to me.</Morpheus>

 

[thorn726]

not that suprising for NY. up until i tihkn it was 89 or 90, Tompkins square park was pretty much the only city park in all of NATO that had no curfew.

then they cleaned it up, kicked out tent city, and had a riot.

the next move = 9 ft fences and no one allowed in without a child or a dog.

eventually they did some renovations and let regular (read=homeless, etc) people back in, but the curfew stands, there's no more sleeping.

admittedly , things were pretty crazy around the park before they cleaned it up,
but these ridiculous laws aimed at one group that screw with everyone, really heavy handed govt action.

 

[rick_reno]

The city can use the bucks.

 

[ACORN]

The story neglected to tell that she had an empty coffee can with her.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Personally, I think the woman should be ticketed for being stupid. She had to pass 1, maybe 2 signs to get to the bench that stipulated park rules as established by the city. If she can't follow ordnances posted just a few feet from her, then she needs the ticket...sort of like illegal parking next to the no parking sign.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

Here's a better idea: Why don't parents watch their dang kids?

How could you possibly understand? You live in California.

In New York City, parents don't care for their kids. They hire illegal aliens to watch the kids. Take a walk around some of the parks in NY at mid-day. You'll see what I mean. NY City parents probably have their neat yuppie lives all carefully laid out, with a 37-minute interlude scheduled for "quality time" with the kids before beddie-bye every evening. As soon as the kids are old enough they get shipped off to a prep school somewhere and Mumsie and Daddy only see Junior and Muffie on homecoming weekend and during Christmas break.

 

[TechBrute]

Personally, I think the woman should be ticketed for being stupid. She had to pass 1, maybe 2 signs to get to the bench that stipulated park rules as established by the city. If she can't follow ordnances posted just a few feet from her, then she needs the ticket...sort of like illegal parking next to the no parking sign.

I guess a Doctorate isn't what it used to be. You don't know where the signs are, how big they are, how many there are, but you know enough to say that she's stupid. So if there's 3 foot tall signs that are every 3 feet, what if she's illiterate or a foreigner? She's probably not, based on the article, but I have the foolish notion that laws should have some sort of common sense* to them.

My basic premise is that the law is stupid, and the people that made the law stupidly thought that the police could be trusted to do something like make common sense decisions. The woman is not stupid for seeking support from a structure that her tax dollars built.

*I'm considering striking the term "common sense" from my vocabulary in favor of using "good sense." Seems that sense isn't all that common these days.

 

[cuchulainn]

Hawkmoon: NY City parents probably have their neat yuppie lives all carefully laid out, with a 37-minute interlude scheduled for "quality time" with the kids before beddie-bye every evening. As soon as the kids are old enough they get shipped off to a prep school somewhere and Mumsie and Daddy only see Junior and Muffie on homecoming weekend and during Christmas break.

Painting eggshells with a mop are you?

I haven't been to NYC in 30 years -- and I have little use for the political views there -- but I know that's a gross over generalization. NYC is a city of 7 million people running the range from filthy rich to abject poverty. I doubt if even 20% can afford nannies and fancy prep schools.

On the point of the thread -- silly law, silly cop, silly woman for sitting there.

 

[Rockstar]

REALLY silly cop. Probably limpwrists his G19, too.

 

[buzzcut]

I don't have an opinion about this thread, but.....

Wise man once say:

"I'm considering striking the term "common sense" from my vocabulary in favor of using "good sense." Seems that sense isn't all that common these days."

^
+1


.

 

[David W. Gay]

"Signs, Signs, every where there' signs!

Tell me can't you read the signs!"
How many people REALLY read signs at a park enterance, in the middle of the day??

I'm completely dumb founded at the thought of such a law.

Oh well, one more reason I'm glad I don't live there.

Carry on.

 

[Vitamin G]

but a parks spokesman told the Daily News that the department hoped police would use some common sense when enforcing the rule.

Like maybe when the subway department (or whoever is in charge) hoped the police would use common sense when they arrested the 9 year old for eating a french fry on the subway?

Police enforce laws. Thats what they do. Stupid laws are not the fault of the police, its the people who passed them.

 

[oneslowgun]

Lets see.. No child = sex offender = citation for being a POSSIBLE pedophile.

Nice.

OSG

 

[c_yeager]

The city parks department said the rule is designed to keep pedophiles out of city parks, but a parks spokesman told the Daily News that the department hoped police would use some common sense when enforcing the rule.

Only in America do we pass laws with the assumption that our police wont enforce them.

they gave her a ticket that could bring a $1,000 fine and 90 days in jail.

hmmmmm.

According to my journalist-to-English dictionary this statement actually translates like this:

"The ticket has a $5 dollar fine, unless the woman chooses not to show up, commits a felony in the meantime, and spits on the judge, then it is $1,000 and 90 days in jail. I choose to imply that the fine is automatically $1,000 because without that implication my article is entirely pointless. I assume that i will get away with this because i have a low opinion of humanity and assume that noone will actually read all the words in this sentance."

 

[Jeff White]

I bet someone voted for the people who passed that ordinance. I bet someone was there at the city council meeting when it was discussed and never spoke up about it.

We end up with things like this as law because we're too lazy to pay much attention to what our elected employees are doing in our name.....

Jeff

 

[MasterPiece Arms.com]

Wasn't it Lincoln who said that the best way to get a law changed was to enforce it without discretion?

+ infinity

Only in America do we pass laws with the assumption that our police wont enforce them.

+ infinity + 1

Cops are at the end of things where the idiotic "intent" of law doesn't even come into play. They are hired to DISPENSE FORCE AND THAT'S IT.

Tyranny is universal, it's just a matter of degrees and timing. Last night on the "news" a guy got a ticket for honking his horn. He was driving past an anti war demonstration ORGANIZED BY THE SLC MAYOR and his wife had urged him to honk in support. The cop said to the "criminal" that the officer "had given out dozens of these tickets" that day. The mayor (even though he's rabidly anti gun) is on the right side of this and will definitely follow up.

Thankfully the "news" cast brought up the question of "what about sporting events," and best of all "what about honk and waves that politicians do?!"

My blood is still boiling from what the police spokesman Dwayne Baird said. He kept repeating like he was the officer's attorney, how "necessary" it was for public safety. The logic went like this: honking caused a few people to previously go into the street to wave or something, and thus, him honking in support as he drove by constituted a threat to public safety because it could cause more people to come into the street. Nice.

I need to start keeping a vallium by the t.v. for when the police apologists speak because on the same "news" cast, we learned that a West Valley City cop was cleared (shhhhhocking) for shooting an unarmed man several times and killing him when he approached the officer and pulled out a "shiny" flashlight (yea yea, I know, not smart in the current climate of trigger happy cops, but summary execution wasn't necessary, especially since the cop hadn't accurately determined if there was even a threat to his preciousness). Is it just me or are cops trained now that THEIR safety is more important and held to a higher standard than anyone elses? Is it just me or are they trained to shoot first and ask questions later? They always trot out the tired old phrase that "The officer felt he feared for his safety." Have you noticed that officer Joe's "feelings" are now justification for making your kids fatherless? I wonder what would happen if someone with a carry permit said the same thing after killing someone holding a flashlight.