Fighting for the Right to Drink Beer on His Stoop

Kimber VanRy was sitting on his stoop in the Prospect Heights section of Brooklyn, drinking a beer and sending e-mail messages on his BlackBerry, when a police car slowed to a stop on the street in front of him.

It had been a pleasant evening for Mr. VanRy, 39, who lives in a four-story, 20-unit co-op building with his wife and two children. He had watched Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s speech at the Democratic convention on television, helped put his sons to bed and washed the dishes.

The time was 11:52 p.m., the date was Aug. 27, and the beer, for the record, was a 12-ounce bottle of Sierra Nevada.

The police officer in the driver’s seat said something to Mr. VanRy. He left the stoop, walked to the car and, several minutes later, was handed a small pink slip — a $25 summons for drinking in public.

Mr. VanRy, who is the president of his building’s co-op board and whose last brush with the law was about 12 years ago, when he got a speeding ticket in Pennsylvania, was shocked to learn that drinking a beer on his stoop was unlawful. He said that he and his neighbors in the building have for years gathered on the short stoop, talking and drinking, without officers from the 77th Precinct ever showing up.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/08/nyregion/08stoop.html?em

not like that was anything else the police could have been doing:sarcasm:


:argh:

Can anybody support all of the Nanny State laws micromanaging Michael Bloomberg's foisted on NYC? He tries to destroy people having choices of how they live their lives. If he was a Democrat I'd like the Democrats less. He's such a petty dictator.

They need to check theyself before they wreck theyself.

For the record, I don't smoke cigarettes but I've read some cooperatives and condominiums, object to people smoking cigarettes in their own apartments.

I believe many of the American People have in large measure forgotten what freedom is all about in exchange for some illusory goal of keeping everyone safe from harm basically turning Benjamin Franklin's quote on it's head.

The corporations are behind much of it, mostly of the insurance type.

We have been and are continually trading freedom for security on one front or the other, it never ceases because the forces of oppression are motivated by greed and the human condition of avarice never ceases.

Thanks for the thread, The Straight Story.

as the economy worsens, we are seeing police, Code Enforcement, etc, step up their ticket writing. Our Sheriff Department recently raised Traffic Enforcement fees, and are running radar on almost every main highway. I saw three radar cars on the way to the grocery store yesterday.. a trip of about 2 miles. (A basic speeding ticket is now $210..) Getting caught doing 26 mph in a 25 will cost you dearly. I'm waiting to see debit card swipe machines installed right in the police car. Ka-Ching...