Oh I don’t know. The cigarette taxes are ridiculous and I remember being able to buy “loosies” in stores years ago (only in the ghetto though, that was not a thing in middle or upper class areas), but this really seems a stretch.
There’s plenty of petty crimes the guy could have been committing that would have attracted police attention and it would have ended in the same sad way.
Don’t resist arrest, ESPECIALLY if you are just doing a bs “crime”.
Last Saturday, I brought my son to his activities at Flushing, NY ( Queens Borough ).
My car is a White Tooyta Camry and it was parked in a side street.
We went to a Food Court to have dinner and were just about to leave when I told my son to sit at the back of the car because we had lots of shopping baskets I placed in the front passenger seat.
Guess what? Two cops came over and blocked my car from leaving.
They asked who the person on the back seat was ( I responded very politely that he is my son ), and asked for my driver’s license.
After double checking with HQ, they let me go and told me politely to have a safe drive home. I asked them what on earth was wrong.
They told me they were looking for illegal Livery Cab drivers and my car fit the profile.
I left thinking to myself, why is there a law preventing someone from making money by providing a personal service to someone else simply because the city wants to protect the Taxi franchise?
These cops are being diverted towards harassing law abiding folks like me when they should be looking for criminals.
Now people like me are potential criminals.