Ticketing cyclists in prospect park today

stella

ringrunner said:

I think this is crazy.

Tomorrow the cops will be gone and nobody will stop at the lights. People who only go into the park on weekdays will don't even know that the traffic lights mean anything.

That's not true. I ride in the park on weekday afternoons and I've been warned by a cop about not stopping at the red lights. (I didn't know. I thought the lights were for the cars.)

drano

“It was literally three seconds,” Steve Galiczynski said of his short sidewalk ride to his parking spot on the Upper West Side, witnessed by a police officer. He said he had already spent a day cleaning up trash in Times Square. “This whole thing is nuts. It’s like I’m in a Russian novel — a crazy Russian novel."

Tell me you can't picture this twerp.

Anyhow, since we are sorta talking good use of the police for ticketing purposes, I will give my usual suggestion that a polica car traverse Coney Island Avenue 24 hours a day and ticket double-parked cars. There are plenty of random idiots that basically turn that quite busy stretch into a one-lane road, but the worst are the businesses (car washes, car services, car mechanics and oh so many more) that essentially use that inner lane as part of their "shop". It would be so easy, it would do some good, and it would pay for itself within a few months. In fact, the only reason I can think of that it isn't being done is that these businesses pay some other sort of...fee...for the privilige.

kosherdave

It's funny to me that anyone who is not a cyclist thinks cyclists want to be Lance Armstrong.

Anyone who IS a cyclist (typically) dislikes Lance Armstrong (and calls him a doping cheat).

But what's definitely amusing is that everyone (walkers, runners, rollerbladers, cyclists, stroller pushers, picnic goers, homeless tent dwellers and that wild dog) using the park seems to feel they are entitled to it, and everyone else should move around them. Ahh NYC.

whynot_31

The dog has been caught.

prodigalson

The law is the law and must be respected by all. However, in my days in Brooklyn (and nowadays here in Minnesota) the complaint from certain people is that the law is enforced on a selective basis by the police. This selective enforcement often based on the race/ethnicity and gender of the alleged violator. As usual, the complaint being that if one is a Black or Latino male the cops will enforce it. But if the violator happens to be an attractive White female (esp if she is a blonde) the cops either look away or only give a verbal warning. Several independent news reports confirm these allegations but for some reason the local news media are hesitant to report it on the nightly news. I hope that is not the problem today in Prospect Park.

ringrunner

this is not about racial profiling, it is about low hanging fruit.

prodigalson said:

The law is the law and must be respected by all. However, in my days in Brooklyn (and nowadays here in Minnesota) the complaint from certain people is that the law is enforced on a selective basis by the police. This selective enforcement often based on the race/ethnicity and gender of the alleged violator. As usual, the complaint being that if one is a Black or Latino male the cops will enforce it. But if the violator happens to be an attractive White female (esp if she is a blonde) the cops either look away or only give a verbal warning. Several independent news reports confirm these allegations but for some reason the local news media are hesitant to report it on the nightly news. I hope that is not the problem today in Prospect Park.

prodigalson

Aha. Well, I move out of God's Country over 25 years ago. I guess things have changed there after all.