'We were treated like child molesters': Fury of woman fined for sitting in playground without a child



After buying their coffee and donuts, they walked across the street to sit in the park and enjoy the June sunshine.

But just minutes later the three women and one man were swooped on by two cops who gave them a $50 fine - for not having a child with them.

They were told that they were sitting in a children’s play area and, as they were on their own, they had broken the law.

Fined $50: The adults had to wait with police for 20 minutes while they were issued with tickets

The two female friends and a girlfriend and her boyfriend now face having to go to court to ‘clear their name’ or pay the ‘ridiculous’ fine.

They have now spoken out to shame the New York Police Department after being ‘treated like child molesters’ for doing nothing more than sit on a park bench.

The incident happened in Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn, an area in which cops have been exposed for by the Village Voice newspaper for giving out tickets for very low-level offences just to meet quotas.

Irina Levin, 28, and a friend from Ohio were fined, as was Margaret Day and her boyfriend.

All four had gone to coffee shop Dough and crossed the street armed with a hot drink and a doughnut before being fined.

‘We were having fun watching the kids play around and we were having a conversation about having kids together in the future,’ Ms Day told the Wall St Journal.

‘And then we suddenly get treated like we were just some creepy child molesters."

Ms Levin, an anthropology student, told Gothamist: ‘As we were getting ready to move on, two officers approached us.

Then they asked us, ‘Are you here with a child?’ We told them no.

‘One of the cops moved on to the couple on a bench nearby (Ms Day and her boyfriend), also ostensibly childless, while the other one asked for our IDs.

‘We handed them over and soon we were being guarded by this cop as his partner took our IDs to their police car. My friend and I were confused.

‘We had seen parks with gates that had a sign clearly stating that adults without children were not allowed in. This park had no such sign.

Heavy-handed: The playground in the Bed-Stuy area of New York, where the issuing of tickets for low-level offences is said to be quite common

‘



When the cop that was guarding us asked if we had ever gotten summonses before, I asked him if he could show me the sign that alerted people to the fact that they were about to commit a violation by sitting on a bench.

‘We looked at the sign together. "That? I’m supposed to read that?" I asked. He said yes.

‘It was a list of about fifteen park regulations. You would have to be no more than three feet away from it in order to read it.’

While one cop guarded both couples to make sure they did not run off, his colleague went back to their car and issued the tickets.

The entire procedure took around 20 minutes, and left Ms Day fuming.

‘In the end, it is law that we shouldn't have been there and so yes, the cops are right on that account,’ she said.

‘However, it just seemed so ridiculous, such a blind application of the law. It was clear that they were just quota filling, which is not such a new story in this city.

‘They must have thought they hit the jackpot - they got four of us at once.

‘There is a need for outdoor public spaces, and not just spaces for children, and I shouldn't have to bike ten minutes to get to one of them just so I can eat my doughnut outdoors on a beautiful June morning.’

Dough owner Thierry Cabigeos, said that he thought the rule was ‘ridiculous’.

But he added: ‘I can't really say anything about the police. They're in my place every day’.