From the cover of a magazine this year, the actor Alec Baldwin threatened to leave New York City. The place has changed, he said.

As he discovered on Tuesday, for instance, some police officers no longer recognize him. Or if the two young officers did, it did not deter them from writing him up for riding his bicycle the wrong way on Fifth Avenue near 16th Street, or from taking him to the precinct station house when he could not provide identification.

The police said Mr. Baldwin became belligerent with the officers, who soon placed him in handcuffs and charged him with disorderly conduct. At the 13th Precinct station house, the commander confirmed his identity, the police said, based on Mr. Baldwin’s “prior police contacts.”

Indeed, the entire episode played into the melodrama that periodically swirls around the actor when he steps outside, from altercations with paparazzi to being kicked off an airplane for refusing to shut off his smartphone.