Anti Federalist
02-28-2013, 10:14 PM
Free Country.
Land of the Free.
Don't tell me "you've got nothing to hide".
When the noose finally slips tight, when the pincers finally snap shut, millions of people are going to die.
1 million outstanding warrants in New York City
From open alcohol containers to littering, one-eigth of the city's population face arrest for unresolved summonses
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/1-million-outstanding-warrantsin-nyc-article-1.1271823#ixzz2MG3XP2v7
A single beer put Patrick Lamson-Hall behind bars for 27 hours.
In October 2011, the New York University grad student was slapped with a summons and a court date for drinking a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon on a West Village stoop.
He forgot about both until a pair of cops stopped him - months later - for riding his bike on a Brooklyn sidewalk.
Within minutes, Lamson-Hall was placed in handcuffs, tossed into a squad car and taken to the 79th Precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant - busted on a bench warrant over his failure to appear in court.
“I assumed they’'d have me pay a ticket for the open container,” said the 25-year-old Oregon native. “It didn’t occur to me that I was going to spend the night in jail.”
As many as one-in-eight New Yorkers faces a similar fate, as unresolved summonses - from littering to walking a dog without a leash - surge to staggering highs across the city.
There are now more than 1 million open bench warrants against loiterers, boozers and other petty scofflaws in New York, court records show. And while it’s unclear how many offenders are deceased or carry multiple offenses, the number of outlaws here nearly matches the population of Dallas.
Many may never get pinched for a forgotten or ignored pink slip. But a legal nightmare looms uncomfortably close for countless others.
“Even if you feel that you were in the right, even if you feel that the summons is ridiculous, you need to come to court to resolve it because there are real consequences if you don’t,” said David Bookstaver, a spokesman for the court system.
Lamson-Hall soon found that out. He spent the night in a solitary jail cell with no windows, no water and a broken toilet. Cops refused to let him make a phone call before vanishing for hours.
“I was completely terrified,” he said. “At one point, I started screaming.”
Eventually, Lamson-Hall was transferred to Manhattan and brought before a judge, who dismissed the summons. By the time he left court at about 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 30, 2012, he had been locked up for 27 hours.
Still, such threats don't seem to deter hordes of New Yorkers. There were 299,555 open bench warrants in Manhattan alone and another 245,000 in the Bronx at the beginning of May 2012, the latest available tally shows. Brooklyn and Queens had 237,000 and 218,000 respectively, while a mere 30,500 warrants hover above the heads of petty criminals on Staten Island.
The idea of locking so many people up is preposterous to some.
“All of this is a tremendous amount of city resources being spent chasing people for conduct that a reasonable person would hardly view as criminal,” said Stephen Banks, the chief attorney for the Legal Aid Society. “It would make more sense to review the outstanding warrants and clear them - particularly when the underlying alleged conduct is hardly a threat to public safety.”
The NYPD disagrees.
“The Warrant Division pursues individuals wanted for crimes and will arrest a person wanted on a bench warrant during the course of an investigation,” a department spokeswoman said.
“Clearly, we see the police department doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” said Bookstaver. “They’re following up on warrants and having people get their day in court. It’s a civics lesson. A good civics lesson.”
That lesson, however, may have been lost on Lamson-Hall.
“Is my civics lesson that the NYPD is arbitrary and brutal or that I should never trust a cop in New York again?” he asked.
Well, maybe not entirely.
“To be fair, I’ve paid every single ticket I’ve received since then. Promptly.”
Land of the Free.
Don't tell me "you've got nothing to hide".
When the noose finally slips tight, when the pincers finally snap shut, millions of people are going to die.
1 million outstanding warrants in New York City
From open alcohol containers to littering, one-eigth of the city's population face arrest for unresolved summonses
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/1-million-outstanding-warrantsin-nyc-article-1.1271823#ixzz2MG3XP2v7
A single beer put Patrick Lamson-Hall behind bars for 27 hours.
In October 2011, the New York University grad student was slapped with a summons and a court date for drinking a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon on a West Village stoop.
He forgot about both until a pair of cops stopped him - months later - for riding his bike on a Brooklyn sidewalk.
Within minutes, Lamson-Hall was placed in handcuffs, tossed into a squad car and taken to the 79th Precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant - busted on a bench warrant over his failure to appear in court.
“I assumed they’'d have me pay a ticket for the open container,” said the 25-year-old Oregon native. “It didn’t occur to me that I was going to spend the night in jail.”
As many as one-in-eight New Yorkers faces a similar fate, as unresolved summonses - from littering to walking a dog without a leash - surge to staggering highs across the city.
There are now more than 1 million open bench warrants against loiterers, boozers and other petty scofflaws in New York, court records show. And while it’s unclear how many offenders are deceased or carry multiple offenses, the number of outlaws here nearly matches the population of Dallas.
Many may never get pinched for a forgotten or ignored pink slip. But a legal nightmare looms uncomfortably close for countless others.
“Even if you feel that you were in the right, even if you feel that the summons is ridiculous, you need to come to court to resolve it because there are real consequences if you don’t,” said David Bookstaver, a spokesman for the court system.
Lamson-Hall soon found that out. He spent the night in a solitary jail cell with no windows, no water and a broken toilet. Cops refused to let him make a phone call before vanishing for hours.
“I was completely terrified,” he said. “At one point, I started screaming.”
Eventually, Lamson-Hall was transferred to Manhattan and brought before a judge, who dismissed the summons. By the time he left court at about 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 30, 2012, he had been locked up for 27 hours.
Still, such threats don't seem to deter hordes of New Yorkers. There were 299,555 open bench warrants in Manhattan alone and another 245,000 in the Bronx at the beginning of May 2012, the latest available tally shows. Brooklyn and Queens had 237,000 and 218,000 respectively, while a mere 30,500 warrants hover above the heads of petty criminals on Staten Island.
The idea of locking so many people up is preposterous to some.
“All of this is a tremendous amount of city resources being spent chasing people for conduct that a reasonable person would hardly view as criminal,” said Stephen Banks, the chief attorney for the Legal Aid Society. “It would make more sense to review the outstanding warrants and clear them - particularly when the underlying alleged conduct is hardly a threat to public safety.”
The NYPD disagrees.
“The Warrant Division pursues individuals wanted for crimes and will arrest a person wanted on a bench warrant during the course of an investigation,” a department spokeswoman said.
“Clearly, we see the police department doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” said Bookstaver. “They’re following up on warrants and having people get their day in court. It’s a civics lesson. A good civics lesson.”
That lesson, however, may have been lost on Lamson-Hall.
“Is my civics lesson that the NYPD is arbitrary and brutal or that I should never trust a cop in New York again?” he asked.
Well, maybe not entirely.
“To be fair, I’ve paid every single ticket I’ve received since then. Promptly.”