NYC police, eliminating evil from the world one chess player at a time.
NYC's finest
Sort:
The article is clear, they did there job and people are upset, if they didn't do there job, people would be upset. They are in a no win situation here. But aren't we all glad they are there protecting all of us no matter what the situation. Chess may not be the problem, but the players of the game were. The law may seem to be stupid to some, not stupid to others. It was an area off limit to adults without kids under 12, pure and simple. Sorry they enforced a law that people asked them to enforce, but ya know, they did their jobs............ Most likely, they will all get off with a warning in the court, lets hope we didn't give pedophiles a way to get into all parks by being one of those nice chess players and hurting a child in the process. Then we would wonder why they didn't do their job better when the story came out..............
I believe the uproar isn't over whether or not they were doing their jobs, but how it was done. They would still be doing their jobs by telling all involved, "You guys can't be in here without a kid, it's against the law." "Hey, officer we talked to the park ranger he said it was cool." "The park ranger is not a police officer. If we catch you guys in here again we're going to ticket all of you. Beat it." Something like that would be what I would expect out of the situation. I believe it to be an abuse of power to ticket all involved off the bat.
I say those cops are chickens..
They are afraid to get hurt or shot so they go after the weak.
kobe-bryant wrote:
this would make a good curb your enthusiasm episode. Like larry would have to borrow a kid to go play chess. I see some comedic plot lines that could be exploited. you could rent a kid to play chess in the park. Kids and parents would charg like 20 bucks to say your a relative.
Curb your enthusiasms makes me mad, they took away a good show so they can show that series instead.
They were enforcing the law, the fact that it happened to chess players is moot. If chess players or nicely dressed men were exempt then that's a ridiculous loophole for criminals to use.
Should they have had a warning or a ticket? That's up the police. I think it was harsh but they were only doing their job. This is a pretty trivial thing to get upset over.
I've come to terms that the cops, indeed made the correct choice..
why? because alot of chess players are PERVERTED.. dont believe me? Go to a thread on here where theres a picture of a girl.
SerbianChessStar wrote:
I've come to terms that the cops, indeed made the correct choice..
why? because alot of chess players are PERVERTED.. dont believe me? Go to a thread on here where theres a picture of a girl.
This is a valid point.
Just another thing that keeps this California girl away from the big apple >.< jk jk I'm sure NY is great for many reasons but the police departments all over can use some improvements! And so could the laws.
Well, neither of the articles mentioned if they were or were not pedophiles/drug dealers. I'd like that to be cleared up.
the old secret bishop under the table trick
lordcratos wrote:
SerbianChessStar wrote:
I've come to terms that the cops, indeed made the correct choice..
why? because alot of chess players are PERVERTED.. dont believe me? Go to a thread on here where theres a picture of a girl.
This is a valid point.
No it´s not. We men are programmed by nature and nurture to like girls. If (excuse me) getting horny or all manlike over a girl with tits on her chest and hair between her legs is something pervert or to be ashamed of, 95% of the men are pervs. Hell, if we wouldn't get all horny over girls, we - as human race - would become extinct very soon.
The age discrimination factor here concerns me. Is that any less offensive that a rule saying that a certain ethnic group is known to have a large number of criminals, so therefore this ethnic group is banned from the park? How far removed, then, is that from the segregation we saw and, for the most part, rejected as a society? Yes, there are jerks, and pedophiles, and rapists. So ban them. Arrest them. Do what you will with them. But to ban an entire group defined by age, only because some small number of this group causes problems? That does not seem right.
I suppose you have a valid point. But even so -- and not to get all religious and dogmatic, or to provoke others to do so -- but what is the crime? Is it the desire for abuse (or sexual molestation), or the actual carrying out of that desire? If an adult is a pedophile, but does not act on these impulses, let's even say that he's in the park playing chess just to be near kids he can fantasize about -- and that is all he does -- then is that a crime? I mean, not somebody I would want to hang out with, but the point is that the line can be drawn not at the potential for crime but rather at the crime itself.
Well, yeah, I'm not saying that I like the idea, and it is reprehensible enough that the guy doing it should be ostracized. But we are talking about legal action, not social ostracizing. For that, it takes more than being a jerk, or a pervert. Because imagine if it didn't require this threshold. Then we are back in Salem, and the mere accusation, unsubstantiated though it may be, is enough to get someone crucified, lynched, or burned at the stake. We have a very ugly national history, and my guess is that other nations have similar histories too.
IMHO, the cops involved were probably horrid chess players, and acted out of jealousy toward some people whom clearly had the mental capacity for the game. :) I have some friends on this site whom I would love the chance to issue a ticket to, as a payback for all the butt whoopins Ive taken on the chessboard.
Drop that bishop and come out with your hands up!
A squad of cops in bulletproof vests swooped into an upper Manhattan park and charged seven men with the "crime" of playing chess in an area off-limits to adults unaccompanied by kids -- even though no youngsters were there.
"Is chess really something that should be considered a threat to the neighborhood?" Inwood resident and mom Joanne Johnson wrote Mayor Bloomberg, the City Council and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly after the raid.
"This incident is an embarrassment to the officers from the 34th Precinct who felt that it was necessary to use their badge and authority to issue such a random summons."
The knights in Kevlar armor gave all seven suspects desk-appearance tickets.
The chess tables where they were ticketed for "failure to comply with signs" are in a fenced-in area where posted notices read: "Adults allowed in playground areas only when accompanied by a child under the age of 12."
Police said the rule protects kids from pedophiles or others who might want to harm them.
A police source added, "It’s the broken windows theory . . . small things can turn into bigger things. Some citizens may see it as police harassment, but God forbid something happens to a child, people would be complaining, Why didn’t the police enforce these rules? That’s what they would be griping about."
Yacahuda "Y.A." Harrison, 49, one of those chess aficionados, said he saw those signs months ago and "asked the [Parks] ranger if we had permission to be there."
"The ranger said, 'Oh no, that's fine, that's only written for pedophiles.' "
Since then, he said, parents have welcomed him and the other players -- and even had their kids take chess lessons from them.
"The day we got picked up, there were no kids" in the playground, he said. "They treated us like drug dealers. All we were doing was playing chess."
Harrison, like the others, must appear in Manhattan Criminal Court on Dec. 28 for the Oct. 20 incident.
Another man ticketed that day, Inwood resident and artist Junior "Chiqui" Mendoza, 46, said that the police "should have given us a warning, and not a ticket."
Margaret Blachly, a teacher who took her students to the park yesterday, said, "There are often a lot of rules in this park that get broken, and no summonses are issued.
"If the tables are there to play chess, that's what they should be allowed to do."
But Parks Department First Deputy Commissioner Liam Kavanagh said the rule is "designed to protect children using our playgrounds and to deter inappropriate adult use of space designated specifically for children."
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said, "Police acted appropriately in issuing criminal summonses last month to men in a section of Inwood Hill Park restricted to children with their parents or other minders.
"The precinct conditions team responded to community complaints about drinking, drug use and other problems, including violations of Park Department regulations designed to protect children. One of men had priors for reckless endangerment, grand larceny, drug possession, and criminal mischief."
dan.mangan@nypost.com
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/kiddie_pawn_shock_KnKyQ0JfMITAIqGawRJf8J#ixzz15pKSAl4q
The NYPD yesterday stuck to its guns over the ticketing of seven chess players for pushing pawns in a Manhattan playground reserved for kids -- and revealed that two of the men had prior felony arrests.
A spokesman declined to name which chess players ticketed on Oct. 20 had criminal pasts.
"Police acted appropriately in issuing criminal summonses last month to men in a section of Inwood Hill Park restricted to children with their parents or other minders," said the spokesman, Paul Browne.
But Rich Jackson, a US National chess master, insisted that the police action was "wrong -- pure and simple."
"Wouldn't you rather have chess players in the park than drug dealers?" he asked. "I think the [US Chess Federation] should contact the Mayor's Office and let them know that us chess players are pretty nice."
Inwood resident Regina Christoforatos, whose young daughter and nephew enjoyed chatting with the chess players in the playground, agreed.
"This is so petty," she said. "I just don't get it."
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/cops_defend_chess_move_zDC2dac4KjGXX3JIZhxNpK#ixzz15pKq2n99