Whoops: Park Rangers Make Up Snowboarding Ban in Brooklyn

Snowboarding is not a crime.

Park Rangers have a great habit of shutting people down and kicking them out of parks for things that are totally legal. My favorite was the time a Ranger forced me out of the park on Kent Ave in Williamsburg for taking a photo of my friend. Apparently cameras are not allowed in parks without a permit. Yes, he was serious. Threatened to call the cops if I didn't leave. Wouldn't want people to be having fun for free in NYC, now would we?

To which he said "oh yeah, that is the rule" and gave me a ticket anyway, because he had "already started writing."

While it seems moronic, I'm pretty sure the "already started writing" concept is there to combat bribes and other ways of weaseling out of a ticket. Either that or I'm just making it up.

Agreed. He told me to just fight it and I wouldn't end up paying anything.

Way to foster respect for the law.

When they don't know the law they just make them up.

A cop in a subway gave me a ticket last week claiming that dogs were not allowed on the subway at all. He insisted. I said "I'm pretty sure the police department is being sued for having this argument with a woman who did not control her temper as well as I am. The rule is that it must be contained (which mine was), but they are allowed on the subway." To which he said "oh yeah, that is the rule" and gave me a ticket anyway, because he had "already started writing."

In all fairness, it took him a while to remember his alphabet.

...yet.

I can understand the rangers asking that the boarders not use the trash cans as that is not how they are meant to be used, but to say the boarders can't make a snow ramp is like saying the parks dept. owns the snow.

Complete idiocy

PARENTS BEWARE: A 35 year old "man" is down in the park teaching your kids to snowboard.

It's not like there's a toe rope, moving carpet, or chair lifts in Ft Greene Park, right?

So you'd go down the hill, then have to climb up it right?

Next snow day, I'm gonna bike to Ft Greene with my Snowboard on my backpack. Ultimate Hipster.

"Ultimate Hipster."

Wait... has the definition of "hipster" now been expanded enough to include the kids in that video?

Kudos to Brian Paupaw and what he's doing. He should also be given a medal for restraint, those rangers were real prix. I remember the Fort Greene park of yesteryear, it was pretty gritty back then.. but weekend greenmarkets for the yuppies ain't the answer.

Here's a longtime local resident making a change for the better. I'll happily join his cause, he makes a really valid point. The "condo's going up in the community but nothing for the people" comment is a great way to illustrate the diff between urban renewal and gentrification.

Go after the dog owners who let their dogs shit all over the parks early in the morning...

You want to get rid of dogs in parks? You'll get a lot more muggers and hoodlums.

Oh they do. In our local park the rangers have another made-up rule - no dogs on the "ball fields" (= the largest open space, which just happens to have two decrepit diamonds in the corners.) Never mind that such a rule is not posted anywhere. As in this story they insist it's true but don't actually give tickets.

I don't know how it is in your neighborhood, but here the dog people pick up after their animals. We also use the park every damn day, even now in the winter - often you won't see another soul out there.

Well in Kew Gardens the dog owners treat the ball fields in the early morning like a dog run. Which is great for the dogs. However the owners use the time as a gab session, ignore where their dogs are defecating, never clean it up and waltz away all giddy. Disgusting...

"this is the kind of stuff we gotta stop in the community, because there's so many developments, so many buildings, and condos going up, but nothing for the people."

oh shut the hell up. i'm pretty sure the rangers offer a lot of free public programs, i.e. canoeing in the summer, free day camps for kids, nature walks, etc.

you're lucky your service to the community didn't send one of those kids into a tree without a helmet. self-righteous douchebag.

It SHOULD be illegal. When one of these morons Natasha Richardsons himself into a tree, or even just breaks a leg or tears an ACL, we're the ones who are going to pay the settlement.

No more sledding! Golfing! Kite-flying! Rollerblading! Breathing!

"When one of these morons Natasha Richardsons himself into a tree, or even just breaks a leg or tears an ACL, we're the ones who are going to pay the settlement."

Kids have been hitting trees on sleds since the invention of snow. But the rangers said the sleds were OK.

For that matter, kids fall and get hurt when they're just running. Are you going to ban running in parks?

Natasha Richardson is probably not the best example, since she died of bizarre complications to a very minor injury. how about Sonny Bono? he actually did hit a tree.

They have the proper equipment and experience to slide down a slight incline in the snow. You should be worried about every other dumbass who wears slick shoes or is visiting from Alabama and has never seen snow before.

Or more worried about the sedentary people *in general* dragging down our countries through obesity. We should all be out there, with a few injuries from time to time being part of leading better lives.

You're thinking of skiers.

Park Rangers...

People who want a power trip but are too fat and/or stupid for the police exam.

man, they really seemed to enjoy shutting them down.

I know where I'll be at the next big snowfall.

More folks with badges abusing their authority.