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Wednesday night a few Russian women were ticketed $250 a piece for swimming past 6 p.m. at Brighton Beach. The Parks security allegedly threatened to jail them and check up on their immigration statuses. While the Parks Dept. told us that "New York State law does not allow you to swim at your own risk," the swimmers (and eyewitnesses) say that the lifeguards never alerted them that the beach was closing, and simply clocked out without getting anyone out of the water.
One of the women fined, Irina Kovaneva, told us her side of the story, which you can read below:
"We came to the U.S. to escape the Communism regime, the regime when every step is watched and controlled by the government. What I am facing with this incident is a liberal fascism, when government interferes in your personal life and tells you what you should do, how, and when. You feel like you are not responsible for your life any more. Somebody else is. Where is freedom?"Continue reading after the jump, where Kovaneva brings up a good point about paying lifeguards to stay on duty an extra hour or two during the summer.
"I am adult I know what I am doing. I happened to finish my workday early, so there was a chance for me to swim a little bit in the ocean on the hot August day. I do not have that many chances. I work, I can’t swim from 10 to 6, I only can swim after work. So I went to enjoy swimming. Instead I got yelled at, harassed and abused as many other people every day there. I wonder why instead of paying these extremely rude Parks Securities to go along the beach on the hot summer days yelling and abusing people, the city does not pay the lifeguards to stay until 7 or 8 on duty and let working people swim in the warm water and enjoy the long summer days. Does not it make sense?How rude and abusive these people are—is another story. They do not treat you as a human being, they treat you like you are a low level something. And they are getting paid with taxpayers’ money, with my money to abuse me and many others like me. Again instead of paying them why not pay lifeguards?
The man who called himself sergeant refused to talk to me and explain anything. He stated he does not have to. Another one refused to give me his name. He rudely yelled at me with a furious face. At the moment when I came out of water he requested the ID from me and threatened to take me to jail for not having one. Do you know anybody who swims with his ID?
In response to your article the Parks Department is referring to New York State law, I would love to see it. I asked the one who issued me summons about it and he refused to give me the information. Regarding the signs on the boardwalk, I never noticed them.
Yes, it is very upsetting. But how it does not happen again? It happens every day during the summer there. You feel like you are in prison or in the mental hospital, not in New York—New York! It is upsetting, but more then upsetting it is super ridiculous! What is going on, people?"
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"You feel like you are in prison or in the mental hospital, not in New York..."
She obviously hasn't lived in New York very long.
she makes excellent points and i suggest she runs for office. good luck to you, my sweet babushka.
I pretty much feel like living in NYC is equivalent to living in a mental asylum. The question is who's running it, the inmates or the guards?
She should've moved to Europe if she wanted to be free.
right. like, free enough to check out some exhibits at the louvre or prado in the nude. [please refer to posts regarding the faux "artist" that is photographing naked women in public places.]
Well said, well ut together, and in a tasteful she just called bullshit on all those asses, unfortunately, like with most communist regimes, her cries of outrage will fall on deaf ears, and my paycheck will continue to fund the abuse, GREEEEAAAAT.
I really wish we did have a voice and i wish these jerk offs had to be strapped with a camera like cops with dash-cams, so we could catch all their pathetic moves and have proof to back it up.
She is totally right. Day-to-day life in NYC feels pretty oppressive compared to the Soviet Union of the 1970s and the 1980s. You could walk your dog on or off leash, swim whenever and wherever you wanted, and have a picnic/cookout in the park, no problem. And you still can do all of those things in Russia today. Life in the US may be more "free" in some ways, but not when it comes to enjoying public parks and beaches.
The Parks security is on alert with the hurricane situation and recent deaths in the Rockaways.
Brighton is less likely to have riptides since there are barriers like Breezy Point, or so it seems to me.
I'd like to swim after 6 also, but I'd rather not if there are no lifeguards.
It would be nice if a few locations at Brighton were open a little later. On the weekends I see folks swimming after 6.
PEP are awful. They are always hassling people over nothing in parks all over the city. They are fascist wannabes.
They need to ticket people for the money--that's what it comes down to.
PEPs are extreme unprofessional to say the least. You can count on them to escalate any situation and write a ticket.
Nice rant, and I mean that in a good way. Well said from Kovaneva.
i just turned on my out of office thingy and i'm checking out of the asylum for a week. later bitches.
ps i hate the greenies. glad there aren't any where i'm headed!
This is so stupid. I wish they would go after graffiti vandals with the same gusto.
Welcome to the nanny state. Every dictatorship starts out taking away individual liberties "for your own good." And if they can make a bundle handing out tickets doing it, so much the better. Quite a racket.
"liberal fascism"?
Riiiigggghhhtttt.....
She wants to be free to swim whenever....yet if she had drowned after 6:00pm her family would have sued the city.
With those Bikini figures they should only swim in the dark.
I'm sure you're quite the looker... let's see your bikini shots so we can all have a good laugh.
The women may have been treated disrespectfully, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were. It's not a generalization to say that when many people are given a modicum of authority, it goes to their heads.
However, they're going too far by comparing this to a communist or fascist society. Even the most freedom-minded countries in the world don't allow unlimited liberty to do whatever you want. Everybody has laws. Should she complain that we're not free to run red lights, have unleashed dogs in public, serve ourselves at hot dog carts, etc.? They didn't see the signs? Ignorance is not an excuse. As for what they were violating, I'm guessing it's covered on the Parks and Recreation website. Under ยง1-05 Regulated Uses,
Basically, if the commissioner wants to close the beach after 6, he gets to do it. They're lucky they only got $250 tickets. Violation of Parks policies can net up to 90 days in jail and up to $1000 fine.I want to see John Waters make a movie about this incident, and the ensuing PR and legal battles. Maybe we could even have a Babushka march down Brighton Beach Avenue!
My God you can swim any time you want in any of the 49 states at any time of the year with or without a lifeguard and be safe to drown at your own risk without anyone being able to sue anyone. In the rest of the country the Corps of Engineers or similarly named organizations own the beaches up to 20-30 feet of high tide or high water levels of rivers and navigable streams and if you drown in their waters tough luck. For some reason here in the city the city and park officials and commissioner think they should regulate every aspect of the place. Just how far out into the Atlantic does the city regulate anyway? How far out do you have to be to swim without the city nazis and their ticketing money making machine fleecing you for cash?
City Pools are open until 7pm, I think it's reasonable that the beaches be manned until then as well.
Russkaya plag.
Maybe the city wouldn't have to do this if everyone wouldn't sue them for their own stupidity. If these ladies got hurt I am sure they would sue the city for not having lifeguards or protection on the beaches.
I didn't sue the city. Please provide a reference to this "everyone" who keeps suing the city. How much money did the city have to pay to the suing "everyone"? I think around 0 is probably pretty close. How about people suing when they fall off the sidewalk? Maybe we shouldn't have sidewalks anymore? Your comments are as ridiculous as ticketing people for bullshit like swimming at a beach.
I feel sad that americans thinks this is freedom -