[Drunken Revival]

Friday
7pm – Get a call on my cell. Detective Mark from the 78 (precinct) needs to see me. Nothing pressing he says. I tell him fine. 3pm tomorrow.

Saturday
3pm – I’m at the 78. I’m told my ex girlfriend, whom I haven’t even seen in over a month has filed a complaint against me. We were calling and emailing each other, but that is beside the point. A complaint is a complaint – and a complaint really isn’t that big of a deal. Standard procedure here is a DAT (desk appearance ticket) to happen in a month or so… I’d see a judge and he would evaluate the complaint and issue a verdict. I’ll skip the legal eagle stuff here and say the complaint was called ridiculous by the judge I did see (on Monday morning - 44 hours later).

3:30pm – turns out I have an outstanding warrant for riding my bicycle on the sidewalk in 2005.
3:31pm – turns out I’m under arrest on that warrant.

3:45pm – Mark (the detective), who is a very nice guy tells me how it’s going to be: I’ll be photographed and printed at the 78 and then transported to central booking to see my court appointed attorney and the judge. I should be done in a few hours.
3:46pm – I’m freaking out. Complaints, warrants, arrested, fingerprinted, put in a holding cell… I get to make a call or two. I have an attorney friend come down to see me…he basically says “it sucks you should be out in a few hours – just cooperate and chill out”. Response: Fine

4:30pm – I’ve been printed, photographed, and treated quite nicely at the 78… as nice as nice can be inside and 8x8 cell.

5:45pm – Time to be transported to Central Booking….but “wait”, they say as we (my handcuffed self and two good cops) are walking out the door, “Central booking is a mess…people are waiting outside (cuffed with their cop escorts). Best wait here till that clears up.”

6:30pm – Getting gloomy in my cell. Central booking isn’t open and my only way home is through central booking – see an attorney – see the judge. It’s ok though; Central booking is open all night and they have night court till 1am.

7:30 – cell – I get a chicken sandwich from the sympathetic detective.
8:30 – cell – find out there are “computer problems” at central.
9pm – Central booking closed. I’m crushed. I’ll be spending the night at the 78th precinct. They should have it fixed in the morning. I’m told to be thankful I’m at the 78th. It’s the Ritz compared to Central.

11:30 pm -- 8am Sunday morning – rolling around on a 1 x 5 foot wooden bench in an 8x8 cell. No blanket, no pillow, no nothing. Getting sore.

Sunday –
8am – screamed at the top of my lungs for someone to take me to the bathroom. 30 minutes later someone came (she said she couldn’t hear me). I piss, I have a glass of water (note: start the clock)

9am or so – Mark’s (my arresting dicks) partner brings be a half bagel and coffee. Tells me they will take me down to central booking soon.

10am – nothing, nobody, I piss in the coffee cup – nobody can hear me yelling.

11am – nothing. I juggle the trio of napkins I rolled up from breakfast.

12pm – nothing… I beg officers going by (I can hear them, I can’t see them) for some water. They tell me they will get someone.

1pm – nothing. No water since 8am. No food since my half bagel. No word on central booking.
12 straight hours in an 8x8.

2pm – 6pm – nothing. At 6 I get one slice of pizza and a soda. I don’t drink soda…. I have a sip.

7pm – Myself and two other guys are finally taken to central booking… handcuffed

8pm – there are hundreds of people there. I’m handcuffed to strangers and dying of thirst while being taken through the process. More photos, searched again and again, “inspected” by a medical person, and finally brought to a cell with 25 or 30 other guys not very much like me. To our right is a similar 20 x 20 cell – same to the left, front and back…. Central booking.

10pm?? – my name gets called along with 15 others. We are cuffed together and taken to another floor to another cell … this is progress.

11pm – nothing
11:30pm – taken to anther room… the final room before freedom. There are cups in this room. Dirty cups. One of those office sized water bottles is just sitting mouth up in the middle of the floor about a quarter full. Is it 24 or 72 hours before you suffer adversely from dehydration? I forget. I have a drink…tasted metallic.

You wait here till a court attorney calls your name from behind a glass divider. They have your case, whatever your case may be, and will be representing you when you see the judge. Night court ends at 1am. My name doesn’t get called in time. I’m taken back upstairs to spend the night.

Monday morning.
1am - A room, 50 x 50 perhaps, benches line the walls, the central floor is open. Milk containers and old PB&J sandwiches are crammed under the benches to make room for the 40 or 50 guys that are spending the night. It stinks. It stinks bad. I smuggled in some chapstick and shoved some gobs up my nose to try to deal. I find a spot on the grimy cement and lay some claim… moving a foot any direction is not possible due to the body next to me. I settle. I overhear some amusing stories…
2am – we begin to fade into the night.
2:01am – Music starts blasting. Deep trance, heavy base, no lyrics…. Terrible music, torturous music. I suppose the guard on duty could have played some ironic bluesy stuff. This was just sadistic. In 18 hours I’ve had one glass of poison water, half a bagel, and one slice of pizza…been handcuffed, photographed and transported. Now on the vibrating hard floor I just hope not have to spend another night.

5am – Breakfast. 8oz. milk container and small box of Rice Crispies. Yum.

8am – court opens.
9am – back downstairs (room where you see the attorney)
10am – I see an attorney. I beg her to get me out of here. She is confused by my case… a complaint, no physical contact, no threat of harm, no record, no nothing except the riding on the sidewalk ticket…. She calls the case ridiculous.

10:30 am – taken to court room
11am – judge throws out the bike ticket. Shakes his head at the complaint and finally give me that desk appearance ticket.

Quite a way to spend 44 hours. This happened three weeks ago. I'm just getting around to writing it because I have a job, I attend grad school, I volunteer, I play on multiple organized and disorganized sports teams...

An interesting thing here is, for some reason, I never did get angry at the ex. Strangely she never really entered my mind.

I'm a normal guy who had an abnormal experience. The only thing I want to point out is that for the other 300 - 500 people there it wasn't abnormal it was everday... and that might be the most sickening part of it for me.

[armchair_warrior]

wow that sucks, hey count your lucky stars, at least there was no butt secks.
_________________
Fight white guilt and injustice by going to a Native American casino and gamble your money away.
Smoke tax free guilt free from Native American Stores.

Company faces of evil: Apple, Facebook , and now Google.

[Redemption]

wow, that is just ridiculous

[Tex Antoine]

And we're supposed to care about you whining about this because...?

[Drunken Revival]

Tex, you know I've always liked you.

I'm sure everyone appreciates you representing their opinions on this board, however, I could care less what you choose to care about.

[bluecat]

What an amazing horrible story and well told too. You should write a memoir. I want to know more about your ex, the bike ticket and those jailhouse stories.

-blue

[Innocent X]

Cool story. Like Gogol's Diary of a Madman.

[Bergenites]

What an awful story. Something similar happened to my roomate in college in DC - she was observing a peaceable protest rally against the Wold Bank/IMF for a class and got caught up in the mass-arrest all all present. Her professor and even the university president went do where they (she was with about 4 others from her class) were being held and pleaded for them to be released, to no avail.

Be thankful you're out and had everything dropped! (Oh, and I'd stay away from that girlfriend if I were you...)

[BassPlaya]

[Drunken Revival]

Hey Bass playa,

Something to consider: There were AT LEAST 500 guys there for whom the situation was totally normal... they had been through it AT LEAST 10 times...one guy was over 150 times through the system.

Also, all they talked about was that as soon as they got out they were going to go back to doing exactly what got them there in the first place (drugs, dealing, smoking, stealing)....

Just a quick note on my ex -- she is a fine girl. Perhaps prone to overreaction. I don't care to entertain anymore discussions on her.. I only mention her to ensure the 100% accuracy of this story.

[stacey]

That really sucks DR. This has happened to three other people I know and one of them posts here, the other a good friend and the third my husband. I find it to be the biggest wast of taxpayer money. I wish the Police Department would allow you to pay the fine right then and there and take your desk ticket for the new offense. Otherwise you or wasting the courts time and the police department's time and it winds up costing the City more because once you see the Judge they dismiss the whole incident and you wind up not even paying the fine you were originally booked for (which has happened in all 3 cases that I have knowledge of and now to you).

[lmboogie]

why is everyone so sympathic to Drunken Revival's story when we don't even know what he did to his ex-girlfriend. for all we know, he could have deserved to be in jail.

[alafairnadia]

[daver]

[eatshoplocal]

i think we deserve to know what the complaint was about with your girlfriend - if you were telling this story to a friend they would get the whole scoop - since you were so forthcoming with your story you cant leave us all wondering.

[armchair_warrior]

now i'm all curious too on what the complaint is about.
_________________
Fight white guilt and injustice by going to a Native American casino and gamble your money away.
Smoke tax free guilt free from Native American Stores.

Company faces of evil: Apple, Facebook , and now Google.

[filmlover44]

I'm sorry. It sounds like an awful experience. I shall never ride my bike on a sidewalk again!

People get arrested or put into jail for no good reason fairly frequently, so I'll just assume that you're innocent until you're found guilty.
_________________
Ok, now I'm crazy. Another goal achieved.

[Mamacita]

Wow that sucks drunken guest.. opps.. I mean rivival.
Hope you at least put a complaint in.

[Drunken Revival]

I already said I don't wish to discuss the ex girlfriend... she really has little to do with this story... She is a fine woman and this doesn't change that.

I know that even mentioning that aspect of the story paints me a bad light and opens this up to questions... fact is I didn't do anything that would warrant a complaint. Seems like a few people on here are familiar with how fucking easy it is to file a complaint against someone.

I don't really care. I know what exactly what happened and so does she... I don't see how anyone on this board "deserves" to know anything.

My final comment on this subject is as follows: Girls (and guys), next time you have a breakup with someone that you still really love don't allow your emotions to cloud your normally fine judgement. Don't file a complaint against someone because you can't deal with what is done.

Does that answer your questions? I certainly hope so.

[SouthSlopeSuit]

44 hours nothing. Now comes a trial before your peers... We'll have you wishing you were back peeing in a cup at the local precinct.

Pretty depressing story. Extremely depressing, actually.

Random thoughts:
1) Given that everybody is presumed innocent until proven guilty - that's a lot of innocent people being treated like dogs (apologies to Fido).
2) What a waste of resources...
3) Powerlessness.... few things suck more than powerlessness.

[WhyFi]

[Mamacita]

I take back my condolences.
How dare you ride a bike on the sidewalk!!

[lmboogie]

as a matter of fact, i did read the same thing you read, whyfi. thought i could get DR to tell us the entire scoop on the ex. didn't work, he's not telling. got your attention.[/quote]

[WhyFi]

[lmboogie]

what's your deal? still pissed about the pitbull posts? move on, will ya.

[bluecat]

Can some lawyer type explain how one gets arrested for riding a bike on the sidewalk. (Do I hear Arlo Guthrie strumming..) My only guess is he didn't pay a fine. Just one fine. Years back I didn't pay for a couple of parking tickets resulting in my car being impounded. Nobody ARRESTED me. What's the diff ?

[Livetotravel]

I don't know you, I don't know the circumstances of the 2005 warrant and I don't really know anything more about the domestic violence complaint than what you cared to share with a bunch of fucking strangers. I don't know why you chose this forum to air your grievance. Do you not have real world friends on whose shoulders you can cry?

Here's what I do know - some cops take domestic violence complaints very seriously and if there were women cops involved even more so. I simply can't believe there isn't more here than your willing to spill.

Why not file a complaint with the NYC Civilian Complaint Review Board...http://www.nyc.gov/html/ccrb/html/who.html

God knows the NYPD has a checkered history of abusing rude boys who ride bikes on the sidewalk.
_________________
But that's impossible.

http://unratedunfiltered.com/

[Putnam-denizen]

While the NYPD may have some discretion not to put someone through the system (i.e fingerprint them and release them with desk appearance ticket), the eixistence of a prior warrant (no matter for how small a case, such as failue to show up to court for riding on the sidenwalk, having an unlicensed dog, or stealing the election in Florida) tends to tip the scales towards being sent trhough central booking. OP has had his case adjourned to see if it will be dismissed or if he's offered a plea or if he will move towards trial - he didn't receive a DAT when he finally saw a judge, he got a new court date. OP can't/shouldn't talk about the facts of the case because (duh) he has an open criminal case.

[steve]

[bluecat]

[daver]

[dailyheights]

Aren't there a few cops who frequent these boards? No comments from them, yet.

[Drunken Revival]

Just a couple of quick comments:
- I was locked up because I didn't pay the bike ticket. I threw it in the garbage.
- I agree that riding on the sidewalk is ridiculous and dangerous for both pedestrians and bikers alike.
- I was riding on the sidewalk because I saw a police car speeding down the road and took the opportunity to get out of the way. These assholes slammed on their breaks, called me over the car, and wrote a ticket without even getting out of the car. Also, and this is 100% truth, they were grossly overweight and had open box of dunkin donuts resting on the console.

- And lastly, to all you nuts who think there just has to be "more for me to spill" please, please shut up. You've missed the point of the post.

Oh, and thanks to my supporters... factually and logistically you are pretty much right on target.

[armchair_warrior]

[steve]

[brooklynpotter]

i'm just going to remark on riding on sidewalks, not anything else.

i haven't been on a bike in like ten years. i've very seriously thought of getting one because it would be fun and excercise, etc. but because i haven't been on one, the thought of riding it down our crazy crowded streets, or worse in the park, terrifies me.
_________________
what would you tell me, if i could hear you speaking?--t.r.

[Jamzer]

[Livetotravel]

[Carmen]

[homeowner]

We have a nine year-old and I still make him ride on the sidewalk. When the family goes out together one of us is on the sidewalk with the little ones and the other is in the street. I will defend to the death my right to do so, especially since nine year-olds exhibit very little in the way of common sense. We learned this the hard way when we were returning from a ride to Ft. Green and allowed him to try riding in the streets. Coming down South Portland at Atlantic the light turns from green to yellow and the boy pedals furiously out into traffic. Fortunately no one was barreling down Atlantic and he made it to the other side without incident, but he will be on the sidewalk until his decision making ability is equal to his death wish.

[gooner]

That is the most ridiculous story I have read in weeks. That is completely obscene. Having said that, you should have used your 44 hours as an opportunity to start a full scale communist style revolt. that would have rocked.

Also, I am overjoyed to see my tax dollars being thus spent.

[daver]

[filmlover44]

[filmlover44]

[filmlover44]