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Police Crack Down On Late Night Prospect Park Interlopers

032211ppark.jpg Prospect Park gets pretty rundown during the day, and the place needs its beauty sleep, so, like most other parks around town, the city closes it from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. This information is clearly posted on signs... inside the park, which an area man discovered only after getting a summons from four cops who watched him enter the park and—instead of warning him—issued him a summons.

Around 1:35 a.m. on Friday, local artist Daniel Goers (who created a colorful "bird town" in Fort Greene Park last year) entered the park with his Ecuadorean companion. Plog reports that the two were "quickly summoned by four police officers. Unsure of what he had done wrong, he repeatedly asked for an explanation only to be ordered to turn over his identification. He was finally handed a summons for entering the park after hours and told it would probably be dismissed when he appeared in court." His Ecuadorean friend was let off with a warning.

Geoffrey Croft at NYC Park Advocates tells us, "Posting park hours larger and in more locations is advisable. However, if Mr. Goers account is accurate he should have been issued a warning instead of a ticket. Issuing those types of summons is done at the discretion of the officers. With park crime up 24% city-wide I'm certain those city resources could have been used more productively." Goers plans to fight the summons, and says, "They could have just told me the park was closed but instead they let me walk right in." But at least this park-goer's learned his lesson, eh? [Via Plog]

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Comments [rss]

  • GM_NYPD uses ability, Harass, on target, Daniel_Goers.
    Daniel_Goers parries, receiving only 79 damage.
    GM_NYPD casts level 66 Summon on target Daniel_Goers.
    Daniel_Goers has been slain by target, GM_NYPD.

  • Hmm... I dunno about that (@diablofreak re: rapes in Prospect Park) I ride my bike and walk through Prospect Park all the time and I can safely (pun intended) say that I have not been raped.

    Check out these stats and note the trends:

    http://nyc.gov/html/nypd/downl...

  • diablofreak

    I'm redacting my comments because "Jenn" did as well.
    I'll leave this alone though:

    Again, a little common sense can go a long way.

  • By posting under your FaceBook, not only are you asking to get raped, but you deserve it! After all, you posted on a blog with your real name.

    I say to rapists everywhere, Come at me bro!

  • ITT: We ninja edit posts and make other people look like they're responding to ghosts.

    "My" original post was in response to "diablofreak" claiming that "Jenn" "Wong" would get raped (see: deserved/asking for it) because she posted using her real name.

    -"Kevin Nicholas Goers"

  • NlGGAZ

    It's called TWWW. Ticketed While Walking White. All these dumbass tickets are being given to white hipsters cause they are the only ones who can afford to pay them. Especially the bike ones. These cops realize that they can't stop black or hispanic people cause they just might shoot them in the face if they aren't careful or they'll get Al Sharpton on their asses and sue em. If they stop a white guy all they are going to get is some 165 lb skinny jeans whining about how they are going to write a stern letter to their local ombudsperson about how this is terrible and then they'll pay the fine. So if they ticket a white guy they can relax but if they ticket a black/hispanic guy they have to be on their toes unless they want hot lead or a knife in their guts. Racist as hell!!!!

  • WHAAAAAAT WHOOOOAAAAA what? Now i don't generally expect much from regular commenters on blogs that start with "G", but this idea that cops avoid harassing minorities because they might get "shot in the face" is arguably the least-informed thing i've ever heard. Unless i'm being trolled, in which case, lulz for you. The only other explanation is that God is trolling IRL by creating you.

  • for others, please note this resource for logging formal complaints in NYC http://www.nyc.gov/html/ccrb/h...

  • "ecuadoran friend" only had foreign papers. so i assume the cops are not able to write any type of ticket or summons that could be honored. this is probably why none was issued.

    i on the other hand, was simply looking for a chance to walk through the park with a friend that was briefly in town. i've lived next to the park for 4 years and did not know it was ever closed. this is my fault I admit (maybe diablofreak can comment on how dense and unobservant i am), but I feel bad for the newly arrived new yorker, or other tourists, harassed without explanation by the local police.

    and i am sorry that the safest bike route home at night (through the park) is off limits.

    i don't think i was being a dick. i actually said 'thank you' to the cop after being given the summons. basic polite reaction to authority figures that I sometimes regret....

  • Joey__Blow

    Dude.. it so does not say "friend" it says

    "entered the park with his Ecuadorean companion"

    and does the sign say closed or not? if not, don;t listen to the facists!! in fact don't ever listen to them..

    which is fine by me if you are a couple by it was just a bit strange in a police report...

  • diablofreak

    hey if i was too hard on you i apologize but still that doesn't excuse you from receiving the ticket. common sense is that you do not enter into a park after dark. a lot of playgrounds in NYC are actually closed "from dusk till dawn" this is a fact that is posted all over playgrounds near schools, but i doubt they actually will hire a groundskeeper at each park to shut it off from public access at night only to reopen it the next day.

    you break the law, however small a rule it is, you pay for it. be it in a form of warning, a summons, or jailtime.

    A park, especially one as big as Prospect park, is NOT safe at night. there's too many places to hide in the dark. Or are you too young to remember how many joggers were raped in Central Park?

  • Joey__Blow

    wait wait wait.... is he pointing to the sign with all the rules on it? and does the rules sign say "park closed at dusk" or not? I thought the point was that the signs that say stay out of the park are actually INSIDE the park and you can't see them until you have entered.. and so broken the adminstrative code. (not a law remember)

    if so he is NOT a dick!!

    unless it was to "his Ecuadorean companion" which seems like an odd thing to put in the middle of an article.

  • C_Right_THRU_U

    hipsters and bicyclists are making it very easy for cops to reach their monthly quotas while doing nothing to help stop crime in NYC. It is disgraceful.

  • They need to keep Prospect Park closed so the neighborhood Satanists can dump off their bloodless animal sacrifices undetected.

  • Guest

    Yeah I mean that's the real shit going down late night prospect park. Goats chickens you name it.

  • Rocknrope

    Did the guy with the pooch in the background get ticketed also?

  • Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

  • Quotas in action. Thank Ray Kelly, Bloomberg...

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