Posted on 12/09/2005 11:08:23 AM PST by ml/nj
ATLANTA - Transit police handcuffed and cited a man who sold a $1.75 subway token to another rider who was having trouble with a token vending machine.
Transit authority spokeswoman Jocelyn Baker said Friday that the officer "acted within the law" after he spotted Donald Pirone, 42, selling the token Nov. 30 inside the West End subway station
Instead of giving Pirone a warning, the officer decided to handcuff him and give him the misdemeanor citation under a 1992 state law that bars passengers from selling Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority tokens, she said.
"What you've got to keep in mind is that fare abuse is a chronic problem," Baker said. "It costs MARTA millions of dollars every year."
Baker acknowledged that Pirone sold the token at face value and did not make a profit. But the law is the law, she said.
"There are customer service phones for people who are having trouble getting tokens out of the machine," Baker said. "The fact is, our officer acted within the law."
As for the handcuffs, Baker said the officer felt they were necessary.
"Our officers do that for their own safety," Baker said.
There was no answer Friday at a phone listed to a Donald V. Pirone in Atlanta. Pirone told WSB Radio that he was just trying to help a fellow passenger out who was having trouble with a token machine.
"I gave him a token and, I guess out of his generosity, he gave me the money for it," Pirone said. "But I didn't ask him for money."
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Copyright © 2005 ABC News Internet Ventures
At the most, this poor victim should have been issued something no worse then a parking ticket, but a warning that it was not legal for him to help someone would have been more then enough.
7 Port Authority Police Officers and 23 NYPD officers died on 9/11 trying to save people's lives.
Never did. Read my post again. I called the cop involved in this incident a jackass. I was merely defending the police that put their lives on the line everyday for people they don't even know.
I posted the original article, and then the only comment I made on this thread previous to this, was the one to you where I said:
All of the people who are involded with this action should be firedNotice I didn't say all police everywhere, or even all police in Atlanta.
It would appear that at least part of your screenname is well chosen.
ML/NJ
Since you jumped into the conversation I didn't realize you weren't the the one who made the original dumb comment...for that I apologize.
Notice they did not release the name of the cop. These cops sure are not embarrassed to sign their name on the back of their publicly funded pay checks are they.
The sad thing is this cop is on his way to a publicly funded pension also.
I am sure we can rehire just as good people, not hard to get better than this fool, who aren't in a union, to do the job for less money.
Why lump them all together? Because they lumped themselves together when their union defends this goon.
Maybe the guy should have dropped it {token} on the ground and said, Hey buddy is this yours?
They lump themselves together with their union. Their union will defend this guy. They are about milking the public.
Get a clue...this is not an "Atlanta" problem but a government and police problem. Stories like this are posted daily here on FR about police harassing citizens. It happens in big cities and it happens in small cities.
Everyone else in this thread got the point. Police are no longer our friends. While many are nice people, too many are either incompetent or just bullies.
It's Friday, that must be what's affecting my sense of humor. Anyway, I guess subway tokens are the other thing that is illegal to sell but perfectly free to give away...
Actually I do something similar myself. It's illegal to resell (even at face) tickets someplace. I frequently have extra tickets for events because I usually buy more than I need to accomodate friends who might want to go (to the Belmont Stakes for example) but don't want to plan as far ahead as I might. So when I offer the tickets to strangers and they ask how much, I tell them they can just have the tickets and buy me a beer sometime if they feel like it. The only reason I want to "sell" the tickets is because I frequently go to events without tickets and I how I would feel if people just let the tickets go to waste like the pols want you to. (Last year I was someplace without tickets with a friend. I was able to purchase a pair and when I gave one of the tickets to my friend some affirmative action hire wanted to arrest me. I made it clear to her that she wouldn't have a job for long if she detained me.)
ML/NJ
... goes unpunished.
Yup. thats fer sure.
Doesn't this start with the ridiculous law that made token selling illegal. That didn't come from the police but comes from elected idiots in office in Atlanta.
Yes, the police are harassing the public but the lawmakers gave them the tools. The country wide problem wouldn't go away overnight, but boycotts and awareness one city, one incident at a time is where I tend to start.
Then you'll going to be boycotting 99% of the country - probably even the place you currently live has some silly laws.
The token law in this story isn't a bad law on its face. Another poster explained the rationale for the law earlier in this thread.
In this case, the police were the ones that went over the line in applying the law. A thread is posted here on FR almost everyday about the police applying a law in a nonsensical way.
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