Results tagged “crackdown”

The holidays must be a lucrative time for drivers who lure passengers into their unlicensed taxis at airports, but the Port Authority is making it tough for them this year. Yesterday Queens DA Richard Brown announced [pdf] that a crackdown on unlicensed taxi drivers has resulted in 18 arrests at JFK and LaGuardia. The arrests come a month after Governor Paterson signed a bill increasing penalties for unlawfully soliciting ground transportation at an airport, making it a Class B misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail and/or a fine of up to $1,250.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that transit police have been cracking down on musicians and other performers busking in the subway system—even though the MTA's own rules permit low-volume performance under certain conditions. A number of musicians and a busker advocacy group tell amNY that "police harassment has grown to disturbing levels in recent months."

The real New York Post (not the far superior, global warming hoax edition) is reporting that the NYPD has cracked down on illegal bike rental vendors. Apparently, you need to be licensed to rent out bicycles, but some illicit pedal pushers have been running their businesses from the sidewalks around Central Park.

Round Two of the NYPD's smackdown on drivers using cell phones for phone calls, texting and emails fell short of the over 9,000 tickets that went out during March's one-day sting. But the city almost certainly cracked the seven-figure mark once again during Thursday's 24-hour ticket blitz, issuing 7,432 tickets at $130 a piece ($200 for cab drivers). Could a 15% drop mean that New Yorker drivers have begun to curb their cellphone usage? Or are they just paying closer attention when the NYPD publicly alerts them to the fact that thirteen times as many tickets will be given out that day? A Daily News writer gives a account of getting nailed for using her Blackberry while driving by Ground Zero on Thursday, taking us through the play-by-play of what getting a ticket is like: "I handed over my license and registration, sat patiently for a few minutes, then took my lumps without saying a word."

In March the NYPD conducted a 24-hour sting targeting drivers behind the wheel with their cell phones, issuing 9,016 tickets during the crackdown. By the end, New York motorists got the message and never used their cellphones while driving again. Kidding—of course it didn't make a damn bit of difference, though it did make some serious loot for the city government. So now it's back to the well, starting at midnight tonight, when cops will start slapping motormouth motorists with $130 fines—$10 more than last time! After 24 hours the crackdown will conclude, and everyone can go back to distractedly steering big hunks of metal through the street with one hand.

The NYPD recently released its summons counts for the seven most common "quality-of-life" violations, and for the past two years, the overall totals have been the highest on record, surpassing 500,000 "quality-of-life crimes" in '07 and '08. The Post reports that last year the number of summonses for drinking in public increased by more than 4,000 (from 66,885 cases to 70,948) from July 1st through December 31st, compared with the same period in 2007. And it doesn't take a conspiracy theorist to get why more people were also busted for public urination during the same time period, up from 3,888 to 4,161. More stats: disorderly conduct arrests during that time dropped from 47,730 to 43,018, marijuana possession busts declined from 4,775 to 4,107, and littering violations were down from 3,216 to 2,901. And the Post says you've got the Post to thank for a recent NYPD crackdown on "quality-of-life" crimes; the tabloid says cops turned up the heat on misdemeanors after the Post reported fewer summonses for minor offenses in 2008 than in 2007.

Take heed, Chatty Kathys, the police are about to start a crackdown on drivers using hand-held cell phones. Of course, the NYPD can't keep their mouths shut either, which is why a police source blabbed all about it to the Post, presumably via cell phone while driving at top speed up Sixth Avenue. The source was even kind enough to reveal the exact moment when the crackdown is set to commence: Starting at 12:01 a.m. Thursday there will be stepped-up enforcement, with more cops assigned to catch people chatting while driving. So you've got less than 48 hours to recklessly multitask; violators face a fine of $120 if caught. In 2008 the NYPD issued 195,579 summonses to drivers using hand-held cellphones, and last August the City Council and State Legislature talked about banning text messaging while driving, too. And once that passes, you know they're coming for your BrickBreaker!

Employees at FreshDirect’s Plant Operations warehouse voted overwhelmingly against unionization over the weekend. Given options of joining either the United Food & Commercial Workers, the Teamsters, or no union at all, 80 percent of the employees voted “no union.” The vote comes in the midst of an ongoing labor crisis at the warehouse; over one hundred undocumented workers were forced out earlier this month as FreshDirect announced an imminent inspection by Immigration and Customs Enforcement [I.C.E.].

Approximately 85 undocumented workers are being fired from the high-end grocery delivery company Fresh Direct on the on the eve of the holiday season because their status as U.S. residents is disputed. Dozens of workers filed out of the company's Queens warehouse. Fresh Direct blamed a federal probe for the axing of almost a hundred workers. According to the Daily News, "management insisted it carried out the purge under pressure from federal authorities to crack...