Posted on 07/29/2004 10:00:47 AM PDT by Doctor Wu
Woman Arrested For Chewing Candy Bar In D.C. Metro Station
Woman Handcuffed, Held For Three Hours
POSTED: 7:21 am EDT July 29, 2004
WASHINGTON -- You can't eat and ride in the nation's capital.
A Maryland woman said a transit officer in Washington, D.C., handcuffed and held her for three hours after she finished a candy bar at a Metro station.
Stephanie Willett told The Washington Post she was heading into a station while eating a PayDay bar when a transit officer told her to finish it before entering.
They both agree that she put the last bit in her mouth -- but she says the officer followed her inside the station. After she made a comment, Willett said the officer searched, handcuffed and arrested her.
Willett was released several hours later after paying a $10 fine. A Metro spokeswoman said the woman was arrested for ignoring a warning.
The WMATA police department has always been fairly draconian in its treatment of these types of infractions because it is trying to keep a clean, orderly subway.
Challenges the cops have to put up with are many, but I can list the top three here:
1. Lowlifes breaking the rules and whining. Usually this involves hamburgers or candy, or putting their feet where they don't belong.
2. Federal government types, such as congressional staffers, breaking the rules and whining. Usually this involves hamburgers or candy, but occasionally escalates to turnstile-jumping, because Mr. Important is in a hurry to get to a meeting and forgot his fare card.
3. The third challenge is internal and requires a history lesson to fully understand. The last time I checked, the WMATA cops wore a brown uniform, and offenders (usually the Mr. Important types) would get an attitude that the cops are Rent-a-Cops, and could be safely ignored. This attitude problem caused situations to escalate into "resisting arrest" with all the attendant nasty consequences. The department brought this on itself because most or all of the founding members in the 1970s were retired "brown-shoe" Army Military Police veterans. They modeled the uniform after the old "Pinks & Greens" Army uniform of the 1940s & 1950s. My late uncle, one of the design committee, warned the rest of the guys about this, but obviously was overrruled. They should have listened to my uncle and gotten a BLUE uniform. The badge design is nice -- my uncle did it.
http://www.wmata.com/images/mptd_badge.jpg
Anybody know if they still wear a brown uniform?
I would've shoved the nut-bar up the nut's...
My brother works for the metro police force...believe me...he's not a "real" cop. He works for a transportation partnership, that is funded by various entities and jurisdictions. He's more of a "security guard" than a cop, and has no authority beyond the metro. They actually hire ex-security guards for these posts. Metro in metropolitan Washington, runs across borders through Maryland, DC and Virginia....it's not owned or managed by any one of these states or jurisdictions. It's run under an albeit lefty board of directors as an independant transit system.
I and my kids rode the Metro last month. At one station, the tickets didn't work in the exit turnstile (you have to use the ticket to get in and get out, for those unfamiliar.)
I went over to the slouch in the kiosk, who shouted something unintelligible over the loudspeaker rather than opening the door(this was midmorning and the station was virtually deserted.)
Since whatever he was saying was gibberish, I went to the door and told him the tickets weren't working. He jumped up ugly like we had committed crimes and began accusing my daughter of somehow getting on the train illegally. Unfortunately I was in no mood, advised him I was aware the system was corrupt and faulty, and he would do better to check out the station we had departed from rather than to make false accusations.
Incredibly, he did so, and we were allowed to proceed with only a few last words from the flunkie. I found this attitude, that the citizen is the problem, pervasive among the municipal talent in DC, including some of the many who don't speak English.
Because he could.
Again for the stupid, she was eating on the escalator that puts her in the station.
Is it a habit to make personal attacks in your responses? If you have knowledge of how the station is laid out and what constitutes entering the station, by all means, share this knowledge. From the article, I equated it with being on a sidewalk outside of a store - just because I'm at the entrance does not mean I'm actually in the store.
If I'm wrong and being on the stairs/escalator means one is in the station, then I'm uninformed, not "stupid".
This is what happens when your on the way to a POLICE STATE. How much longer will it take?
Your uncle's advice has been followed. Metro Police now wear blue uniforms. Your have to read the badge or shoulder patch to distinguish them from the other local police.
Your assessment is very much as I remember it. Thanks. When people talk about the cleanliness of the DC subway, they sometimes don't realize the effort that it takes to keep it that way.
Thanks for the feedback about the current WMATA Transit Police uniform. The old brown uniform was nice looking, but caused too much confusion. My uncle was one of the brown-shoe Army MPs, but he had the foresight to envision what would happen with "real" cops wearing a brown uniform.
That being said, I have nothing against private security forces. The ones I deal with daily where I work are extremely efficient. And they wear blue uniforms.
Even the station architecture was specifically designed to thwart grafitti. The founders of the system (whatever its faults may be today) wanted to keep the DC Metro from looking like the worst of the New York subway system.
My experience on the New York subway system goes back to the 1970s, and it seemed to me that, grafitti aside, and considering the large crowds, the riders of the system behaved well once they were inside the cars. The subway being new to DC at the time, many people didn't understand the etiquette of riding a subway. For example, no feet on the seat in front of you, fold the newspaper to a small size, etc.
It's important to keep public transportation civilized, but not everybody wants to do it.
I was a student in city planning when it was built and got a benind-the-scenes tour before it opened. What you say is correct. The curved walls was to prevent spray paint from reaching it. The only thing that I didn't like about the design is the drabness. We were told that it was designed for the people using it to give it its color, not the station itself. While I like the theory--a lot--I never thought it particularly worked well. But it remains amazingly clean and I appreciate that when I return to visit.
I was following what Salgak said in post #53 in this thread, and what various news agencies had said, that she hadn't crossed over into their jurisdiction. Apparently she had, my apologies :
Salgak post #53 in this thread :
It has previously been established, in law, that Metro Police and their jurisdiction is on the trains and in the station. You do not legally enter the station until you cross the fare line, i.e. insert your MetroCard or flash your SmartTrip card at the sensor, and go in the gate that opens.
She had been finishing the candy bar, admitted taking the last of it out of the wrapper and throwing it in the trash bin, and eating the last bite, SO IT WOULD HAVE BEEN EATEN WHEN SHE ENTERED THE STATION, when Barney-Fife-of-Metro accosted her. Outside of his/her jurisdiction.
While the iron-fisted law'n'order types may secretly applaud the way this blatant offender was taken down, those of use who frown on misuse of police power will say what a waste of resources and rights this episode was.
Bush could work this into the stump speeches:
"If you eat a candy bar in the wrong place, the terrorists win."
God knows we don't have any legitimate worries... gotta focus on silly nonsense like this. We're doomed at this rate.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
