'Police. Step Away From the Chess Table'

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/police-step-away-from-the-chess-table/?src=twr

by J3L2404 • 16 years ago

67 49 16 years ago

cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com

jhrobert• 16 years ago

Sad story

epochwolf2• 16 years ago

> The tables are behind the gates of the park’s Emerson Playground, which the signs in question state is off limits to adults unaccompanied by minors.

I keep rolling this around in my mind. It makes sense but at the some time it doesn't make sense at all. I'm sure it's intended to keep people from kidnapping kids or adults from destroying equipment but I fail to see how it would even be remotely effective at that.

saucetenuto• 16 years ago

In some places, such laws were enacted to keep drug addicts and other such delinquents from hanging out there after hours. No idea whether that was the motivation here.

potatolicious• 16 years ago

> "I'm sure it's intended to keep people from kidnapping kids"

Not a good job at that - the vast majority of kidnappings (or hell, cases of child abuse in general) are done by people known to the family.

The creepy stranger who will swoop in when you turn your back and kidnap your child is 99% a figment of one's imagination.

epochwolf2• 16 years ago

> The creepy stranger who will swoop in when you turn your back and kidnap your child is 99% a figment of one's imagination.

Exactly. I just didn't say it in those terms because I don't have a source for it handy.

ojbyrne3• 16 years ago

Just another form of security theater.

jim_h2• 16 years ago

If you're at the playground with your kid, you should not be playing chess. You should be paying attention to your kid.

The only people who really should be playing chess are those who aren't there with kids.

TamDenholm2• 16 years ago

Or the ones playing chess with their kids i suppose.

oiuyhgtfryhuj8• 16 years ago

Should we really be encouraging children to play chess?

Not only is it terribly violent it is rather anti-american. The monarchy, church and knights all in charge capturing and crushing the pawns to gain territory, not to mention that it pitches black against white.

TamDenholm2• 16 years ago

Personally it never even occurred to me to read that far into chess, so i honestly doubt a child would do it either, to me its just a game and probably an educational one.

ojbyrne3• 16 years ago

Which part of that is anti-american?

patio112• 16 years ago

If I were a gambling man, I would bet on the chess players being homeless. reads article I win.

gridspy• 16 years ago

The article only specifies that one player is homeless. I don't see why that is relevant, beyond society pushing those at the brink further over it.

oiuyhgtfryhuj8• 16 years ago

They should think themselves lucky - in the UK they would now have a lifetime on the sex offenders register.

Being in a playground while adult and male!

jrockway• 16 years ago

I honestly don't think this law is related to sex offenses. I think it's related to the fact that adults can easily push children away, and then the taxpayer's money is not being used for the intended purpose. Adults have plenty of places they can go. Kids, not so much.

(Similarly, if you're 40 years old, you can't go to the public kindergarten. It's because the program is designed to educate 5-year-olds, not 40-year-olds. Nothing to do with sex, it's merely practicality.)

oiuyhgtfryhuj8• 16 years ago

So you think the "no unaccompanied adults" rule in playgrounds is because the swings are too small for them?

ugh3• 16 years ago

Playgrounds shouldn’t have chessboards if they also have rules prohibiting adults without kids. Stupid planning is responsible for this ridiculous outcome.

almost2• 16 years ago

Really? I lived in the UK and I quite often take a shortcut through a playground when going for a walk near my parents place. It has never occurred to me that this might be a problem and I've never had so much as a nasty look for doing it. I'm male and apparently also an adult :)

oiuyhgtfryhuj8• 16 years ago

Try being in public with a camera, or even holding a phone up to read the screen as if you might be using it as a camera.

British Airways recently had to admit they had a secret policy of moving men seated next to other's children on flights. It only came up when they moved Boris Johnson from sitting next to his own kids, they didn't realise they were his own children - presumably they looked human (although you have to wonder if the kids were secretly relieved)

teilo• 16 years ago

Here's a novel idea: Instead of a summons, how about the police calmly but firmly explain the law to them and ask them to leave? If they won't leave, THEN issue them a summons.

alphaoverlord• 16 years ago

Somehow I think thats probably what happened. My guess is the plaintiff in question made a scene, "What? I'm just playing chess." and then a summons was written.

Then, I don't think its a coincidence that this is on the news. He probably kept complaining and got picked up by local news.

mjgoins• 16 years ago

The police in NYC have illegal quotas on summonses and tickets. They were a sort of quasi-secret until very recently. Perhaps these cops needed to meet theirs?

Natsu• 16 years ago

I'm certain that people will demand a citation for a claim like that. Therefore, I will provide a citation of that fact for you:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/nyregion/10quotas.html

alain94040• 16 years ago

Well, not trying to say what is right or wrong here, but the article describes a 40-year old homeless spending time at this playground. Sure, playing chess is harmless, but do you think it would intimidate 5-10 year old kids into not going to that playground? What if a larger group of homeless moved in?

Either the sign is legal, in which case it's good to enforce it (a warning I'm sure is enough for a first "offense"), or fight the legality of the sign.

archangel_one• 16 years ago

"And a police spokesman said that the summonses were part of a larger campaign to clean up the park, driven by complaints from residents about crime. “There’s been an effort over time to address these concerns, and a lot of it begins with very simple innocuous violations such as this,” the spokesman said."

Why couldn't this effort instead begin with addressing the crimes that residents were complaining about? If they're complaining about, say, drug dealing in this playground, why not deal with that first and leave the chess players until after the real problems have been fixed (or try removing the chessboards...).

oiuyhgtfryhuj8• 16 years ago

Erm go after the heavily armed drug dealers or the nerdy chess players ?

Give me a minute to do the tactical analysis scenario....

dkarl• 16 years ago

Or they could find some way to legalize the chess-playing so that it's no longer an infraction, no longer a broken window, hence no longer a prelude to more crime. They could redefine the "kid's park" to exclude the chess tables, for instance, so the rule did not apply there.

But honestly, I think the "broken window" reasoning has nothing to do with them breaking the rules and more to do with class. A lot of the chess players are poor, some of them are street people, and a lot of the ones who aren't poor look and dress like the ones who are. The parents look at them with a certain prejudiced eye and think, "These people are not a wholesome element, they are of the street." And the parents fear that criminals and junkies might look at the chess players with the same prejudiced eye and think, "These guys are of the street; they're poor and low-class like me. If they're welcome here, then me and my criminal behavior are welcome here too." So the theory is that parents will stop bringing their kids, and low-grade criminals will start hanging out. Because of the perception of the chess players as a "street" element, basically a conflation of class with criminality, their presence can turn a park sleazy through no fault of theirs, just through the prejudice of other people. And some instinctive, gut-feeling version of that theory is what resulted in the police being tasked to "clean up" the park by evicting the chess players.

That's unfair. Innocent people shouldn't be punished because of how they're perceived by other people, even if that perception is causing real harm.

pmr_• 16 years ago

I guess this is just a case of cognitive dissonance. The spokesperson realized that what the police did was wrong and instead of admitting it he will make up "reasons" to make everything look alright. This is probably enhanced by it being hard to say "My fellow coworkers made a mistake." and the being part of an institution that works solely on authority.

omarqureshi• 16 years ago

Wonder if there will be an underground chess playing movement, similar to street countdown - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R90QyIBJqrg

dholowiski• 16 years ago

If there is a park for 'children and their guardians' only, where is the park for 'single adults only'? I'm only half joking, but seriously what if a single adult wants to go play on a swing set to regain his youth - isn't he being discriminated against?

Obviously this was just a good excuse to kick the 'creepy looking' people out of the park. I'll bet $100 that none of the people they tried to kick out were clean cut businessmen wearing a suit and tie.

VladRussian• 16 years ago

people, unfortunately even in the US, give pretty unlimited power to the governments at all levels. The lower level of government, ie. the less visible they are, the more moronic laws they are coming with. Police is supposedly just enforcing the laws, whatever it be (of course there is a lot of discretion in the enforcement and prosecution, yet it would be a separate matter)

'Police. Step Away From the Chess Table'

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