Couple handcuffed, jailed for dancing on subway platform: lawsuit

[MattTrain]

I don't know what to make of this, dancing on the platform is kinda dangerous on the platform so I understand why the police had to intervene there, but just reading this I thought they were a bit too aggressive. Anyways there's probably more to this than we know by now.

[MottAvenueMan]

Gotta be more than just getting your boogie on? Were they being rude? Were they stripping their clothes off? Then again, it's hard for people to believe that there are cops that don't like ANYBODY to have a good time. Mainly because their own lives are in the toilet. So it can be purely because the cop wanted to break someone's balls. Credit cards are not really valid pieces of ID so they get a tour of the station house for a little while.

 

You'd figure with all the shootings and rapists running around the place, the cops would have better things to do.

[Fan Railer]

You'd figure with all the shootings and rapists running around the place, the cops would have better things to do.

 

 

Yea right? Like stopping REAL crime like they're supposed to do.

[realizm]

Oh so now it's ok to jump to conclusions based on one side of the story and without the full facts?

 

 

Deleted.(Dupe.)

[realizm]

Oh so now it's ok to jump to conclusions based on one side of the story and without the full facts?

 

 

Well sometimes the news can be biased too. We all know that. That being said I guess we will never know what really happened. Either the cops getting carried way or the straphangers in question really getting out of hand. I was'nt there. But again I can't trust whatever nonsense that may be published out there. (Like the NY Post, with the way it reads, at a third grade reading level)

[FamousNYLover]

How can dancing be annoying?

When people dance or sing, it helped past time when subway or train comes when trains are slow.

I have been dancing on subway platform or singing into soda fountain/water bottle as microphone as well.

There are lots of flashmob do dances on some train stations, and airports in USA.

 

I have seen non-MTA Performing Art dancing on subway platform.

 

Professional dancers are always be careful.

Just like illegal breakdancers during stunts in crowded subway car, but making sure they don't hit the people.

[Y2Julio]

Yea right? Like stopping REAL crime like they're supposed to do.

 

Crime is crime but none the less it's not like the guys who work homicides or narcotics are out there giving disorderly conduct tickets so all crime is being taken care of. They have different departments for that reason.

[FriedChikkin]

From what I understand it is technically illegal to not have identification with you in public. NOBODY on this forum was there so I can only see a situation like this getting out of hand with an even-tempered officer if the man, who had no legal form of identification, became belligerent with the officer who unfortunately has the right to detain you until legal identification of said person can be verified. Ignorance of the law isn't an excuse from obeying it, right?

 

On the other hand, perhaps the officer's a sourpuss who had a sourpuss day and the last straw was hearing the music. The officer wouldn't have been able to molest them beyond issuing a summons for whatever reason that could have been fought had he remembered to leave his house with legal identification–no, your picture and signature on a credit card issued by a bank is not legal identification, although another officer might've let it slide.

 

Plan for that crap to hit the fan fast and hard. Plan–even if you're going out to Lincoln Center for a good time... you could avoid a lot of crap splatter.

 

Remember that the presence of a Police force is ultimately to protect the wealthy.

[363029]

First smoking, then soda — now there’s no dancing in New York City.

 

Caroline Stern, 55, and her boyfriend George Hess, 54, claim they were handcuffed for having happy feet on the platform of the Columbus Circle subway station — and spent 23 hours in custody as a result.

 

“I’m a dentist, and I’m 55, and I got arrested for dancing,” Stern told The Post. “It was absolutely ridiculous that this happened.”

 

It was nearly midnight when Stern and Hess, a film-industry prop master, headed home last July from Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Midsummer Night’s Swing. As they waited for the train, a musician started playing steel drums on the nearly empty platform and Stern and Hess began to feel the beat.

 

“We were doing the Charleston,” Stern said. That’s when two police officers approached and pulled a “Footloose.”

 

“They said, ‘What are you doing?’ and we said, ‘We’re dancing,’ ” she recalled. “And they said, ‘You can’t do that on the platform.’ ”

 

The cops asked for ID, but when Stern could only produce a credit card, the officers ordered the couple to go with them — even though the credit card had the dentist’s picture and signature.

 

When Hess began trying to film the encounter, things got ugly, Stern said.

 

Read more: http://www.nypost.co...K#ixzz20FsM0EsG

 

 

 

NY`s FINEST should be referred to NY`s Dumbest.

[363029]

From what I understand it is technically illegal to not have identification with you in public. NOBODY on this forum was there so I can only see a situation like this getting out of hand with an even-tempered officer if the man, who had no legal form of identification, became belligerent with the officer who unfortunately has the right to detain you until legal identification of said person can be verified. Ignorance of the law isn't an excuse from obeying it, right?

 

On the other hand, perhaps the officer's a sourpuss who had a sourpuss day and the last straw was hearing the music. The officer wouldn't have been able to molest them beyond issuing a summons for whatever reason that could have been fought had he remembered to leave his house with legal identification–no, your picture and signature on a credit card issued by a bank is not legal identification, although another officer might've let it slide.

 

Plan for that crap to hit the fan fast and hard. Plan–even if you're going out to Lincoln Center for a good time... you could avoid a lot of crap splatter.

 

Remember that the presence of a Police force is ultimately to protect the wealthy.

 

 

The Officer had no probable cause to ask for identification! So much for the Stop and Frisk program which is subject to a ACLU Civil Rights lawsuit because most people are not unaware of their rights.

[FriedChikkin]

The Officer had no probable cause to ask for identification! So much for the Stop and Frisk program which is subject to a ACLU Civil Rights lawsuit because most people are not unaware of their rights.

 

Here's a scenario; Officer sees said couple dancing. Officer smells distinct scent of controlled substance and notices said couple appears to be the source. Any person found under the influence of a substance other than alcohol in public who is endangering themselves and others is guilty of New York State Penal Code. To clarify his suspicions officer approaches and engages couple whom appear to be dancing towards the edge of platform... probable cause established.

 

There's rarely such a situation which is clearly black and white, you weren't there, I wasn't there but I know I try to PLAN to avoid being caught up in situations like that in the first place or any place. I'd rather not spend a night in jail or bother suing anyone and I'm not going to read a newspaper article and think I know how any event played out. I've had people smoking weed in my position and I've asked them to go to the next car or extinguish it especially if there are children around. If they get belligerent? I immediately radio Control Center with a description of the individual, their actions, refusal to comply and my beginning to feel nauseated by the smoke. There's a human element that most responders aren't considering, the other side of the story and nigh no attempt to consider how many ways this one event actually played out besides what The Daily News states as fact.

[Jamaica Line]

 

 

Yea right? Like stopping REAL crime like they're supposed to do.

 

 

Cops are usually ASSIGNED to specific duties. The rookies are usually the ones you see out there on foot surveilling at a street corner or in the subway...

[CenSin]

Cops are usually ASSIGNED to specific duties. The rookies are usually the ones you see out there on foot surveilling at a street corner or in the subway...

 

…assigned to duties such as nabbing dancers.

[Fan Railer]

Cops are usually ASSIGNED to specific duties. The rookies are usually the ones you see out there on foot surveilling at a street corner or in the subway...

 

Which would explain a lot of why we get so much trouble from them. I feel that it is safe to say that a sizable number of rooks thing they're the authority in the land once they get their badge, and hence, will harrass people for the most minor or misconceived issue.

[TriboroughBridge]

I have one thing to say to this; It takes two to tango.