New Yorkers jailed for putting their feet up on the subway
According to a NY Times article, New Yorkers are routinely jailed for not sitting properly on subway seats:
It is perhaps the most minor crime New Yorkers are routinely arrested for: sitting improperly on a subway seat. Seven years ago, rule 1050(7)(J) of the city’s transit code criminalized what was once simply bad etiquette: passengers putting their feet on a subway seat. They also cannot take up more than one seat if it interferes with other passengers’ comfort, nor can they block movement on a subway by doing something like standing too close to the doors.Police officers handed out more than 6,000 tickets for these violations in 2011. But a $50 ticket would have been welcome compared with the trouble many passengers found themselves in; roughly 1,600 people like Mr. Peppers were arrested, sometimes waiting more than a day to be brought before a judge and released, according to statistics from district attorneys’ offices.
An NYPD spokesman says that the crackdown on minor offenses like putting your feet up or smoking on platforms has made the subways much safer, because it gives police an excuse to check for warrants and apprehend armed or wanted felons.
This has nothing to do with anything in South Carolina, where Subway is known only as the restaurant where they make sub sandwiches, but come on, is this true? Do we live in a country where the police arrest citizens and put them in cages because they put their feet up on a train or light a smoke in the wrong place?
