Chew on this: Gothamist points us to a blog post by an Ulster County man who was visiting New York this weekend. John Kuhner complains about the way he was treated by the cops at 5:30 a.m. in the morning when he and six other passengers were ticketed for various disorderly conduct violations. Kuhner’s violation? He had his feet on the seats which is a clear no-no under NYC Transit regulations. In the rambling post, Kuhner claims that the cops did not ticket a woman who had bags on the seat next to her, but that’s not a violation unless the bags “interfere or tend to interfere with the operation of the Authority’s transit system or the comfort of other passengers.” C’est la vie.
In the end, I wonder about the rules. I wonder how many people bother to read notices posted in stations concerning Transit’s Rules of Conduct. I wonder how many other random sweeps the cops conduct to catch those putting feet up on the seat. I’m not really sympathetic to Kuhner’s plot. You break the rules; you pay price. Plus, I don’t march up to Claryville, NY to put my feet on his furniture; why should he be allowed to put his feet up on the subway? The cops might not catch everyone, but that’s life. The rules are out there. Learn ’em.
12 comments
I wish the cops would finally stick up for the “Engage in unauthorized
commercial activity” rule.
Especially going after the 30-something year old creeps selling candy while pretending to be in high school or selling it for “basketball”
Eric, I guess you’ve never seen the “honest” subway vendor on the 3 train. “My name is… and I’m selling candy… not for no charity, not for no sports team. I’m selling it for myself to make me some money and keep me out of trouble.”
That “kid” cracks me up every time.
As far as I can tell, they all simultaneously switched to that line a few summers ago. It was cute the first time …
5:30 am after a “rooftop party”. Was he drunk? That might have had something to do with the officers’ reaction.
Little unfair to assume that, no?
The rules are out there. Learn ‘em.
I’m surprised at you, Ben. Since when does this site blindly assume that if it’s a rule, it must be correct?
Remember when Washington police handcuffed and arrested an 8-year-old girl for eating a single french fry in the subway? Yeah, technically the law was on their side. That didn’t mean it made sense. (This particular rule was later changed.)
If indeed all this guy did was put his feet on the seat in a near-empty subway car, then the police response was not appropriate. Either we can save money by getting rid of police we don’t need, or they’re spending their time on the wrong problems. At some point, common sense needs to come into play.
FYI: The rule on eating in the DC subway has not changed and they do still arrest people for eating or drinking.
I like the rules, though I had an amusing situation where I almost got in trouble. A few years ago, I arranged to meet someone selling a bike at a Brooklyn subway station. I thought we would meet on the corner aboveground, so after waiting for a long time, I went back down and found him on the concourse with the bike. To see if it fit, I straddled the bike, and lo and behold, a cop was standing nearby and told me this wasn’t allowed. I said I wasn’t riding it but he pointed to the new rules (conveniently posted right behind me) that prohibit straddling a bike. I immediately apologized and headed upstairs with the bike (and its seller) and avoided a ticket.
At that hour, the train must have been mostly deserted, so why bother with super-enforcement of rules against people putting their feet up on the seats? Those rules were presumably intended to prevent people from taking up more than one seat when that means that other passengers will have to stand.
It might also be about keeping the seats clean.
[…] The background for today’s word comes from a recent blog post by John Kuhner. Mr Kuhner was recently fined $50 by the Transit Police for resting his feet up against a seat on the train early in the morning. His post was picked up in an article in the Gothamist. Go to both sites, but in particular, read the comments on the Gothamist. Many, starting with the first, are the embodiment of the word vitriol, which I can only best define as a depth of hatred but not necessarily a depth of thought. The word was the first that came to mind to both John and me when reading them. BTW, A less biting discussion occurs at the subway blog Second Avenue Sagas. […]
[…] http://bkabak.wpengine.com/200.....derground/ Post a comment — Trackback URI RSS 2.0 feed for these comments This entry (permalink) was posted on Wednesday, July 29, 2009, at 3:56 pm by jbkuhner. Filed in Dumb Stuff, Political Comments and tagged F Train, Gothamist, John Kuhner, Subway. […]