NYC quietly stops arresting people for peeing and drinking alcohol in public.
Though only in one borough, residents of Manhattan no longer need to fear drinking in public, peeing in public, littering, riding between subway cars and taking up more than one subway seat.
Well, you may still get a ticket with a summons and a fine, but you won't get arrested for it starting March 7, 2016.
Though no press release was put out by the mayor's office or the NYPD, they were part of the official statement, which was put out by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. He said “by ensuring courts are not unnecessarily bogged down with minor offenses committed by those who pose no threat to public safety, we help focus police and prosecutorial resources on those who commit serious crimes." Vance continued, "by giving cops the discretion to issue summonses instead of requiring them to make arrests, we ensure they do not spend hours processing cases as minor as littering, and we enable officers to get back to patrolling, investigating, and keeping our neighborhoods safe.”
NYC Mayor, Bill de Blasio was quoted as part of the official statement, saying“using summonses instead of arrests for low-level offenses is an intuitive and modern solution that will help make sure resources are focused on our main priority: addressing threats to public safety.” De Blasio went on to say that "today’s reforms allow our hardworking police officers to concentrate their efforts on the narrow group of individuals driving violent crime in New York City. This plan will also help safely prevent unnecessary jail time for low-level offenses.”
Laxing laws is a good idea if they are unenforceable and putting the police to the right task is and important part of managing a large city. When menial arrests can take an officer 3 hours, that's 3 hours he or she could be out doing some good, stopping violent crime.
It's also good for the citizens. The DA points out that if the person cited has a warrant out for the arrest, they will be taken in on that arrest, they will not be charged with a second arrest as they were before.
Guess it's time to celebrate.
