Woman handcuffed for eating candy at subway

[UpInArms]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001992652_sweet30.html

WASHINGTON — Eating en route to or while riding the city's subway is a no- no.

Stephanie Willett, a government employee, found out the hard way recently. Finishing a candy bar on her way into a downtown Metro station, she was arrested, handcuffed and detained for three hours.

Willett, 45, said she was eating a PayDay bar on an escalator descending into a station July 16 when a transit policeman warned her to finish it before entering the station. Willett and police agree that she nodded and put the last bit into her mouth before throwing the wrapper into a trash can.

The Environmental Protection Agency scientist told radio station WTOP that the officer then followed her into the station.

<snip>

"If she had stopped eating, it would have been the end of it and if she had just stopped for the issuance of a citation, she never would have been locked up," Transit Police Chief Polly Hanson said yesterday.

...more...

:wtf:

[Spinzonner]

1. I feel so much safer now

No telling what nefarious terrorist acts that Candy Eaters might be planning.

[theHandpuppet]

4. Yeah, why take the arsenals off the streets of DC...

... when there's the real threat of a Baby Ruth lurking on the subways! What's next? Zagnuts running amok on Pennsylvania Avenue?

[Spinzonner]

5. Wrong Washington, I think

article was from the Seattle Times

But those candy terrorists are everywhere ...

[theHandpuppet]

9. The article referred to the CITY of Washington...

... which I assume is DC, and I do know that DC has laws against eating on the Metro and at its transit stations. Nevertheless, the Seattle paper needs to be clearer in its reporting.

[HuckleB]

20. It's an Associated Press story.

Washington is the usual location line for Washington DC. It would be Seattle if the story was in Seattle, etc...

[HuckleB]

13. No subway in Seattle; this story is about DC.

[R Hickey]

2. Thank God they don't have fart police on elevators.

The war on jay-walking is also going to be one of Ashcroft's top priorities in the future.

[Rockholm]

3. I coulda used a fart cop this morning.

The chick in front of me exiting the subway was seriously having some issues.

[saigon68]

7. ban the sale of CHILI-DOGS

seriuosly !!!!

[0007]

10. Were the farts audible or was the aroma

a quality that could be perceived by the olfactory sense?

[Rockholm]

22. Only Aroma. The sound would have made me laugh.

[Voice_of_Europe]

6. REAL STORY!! (war on jay-walking)

Last week in Geneva a police officer snapped!

He saw a person walk over the street where he shouldn't.
The officer called to the person but that person didn't hear him or ignored him and continued crossing the street (not a 6 lane highway but a mere inner city street with not very much traffic).

The officer called out again.The person continued.

The officer DREW HIS GUN and fired in the air.
(In Switzerland a police officer actually uses his gun maybe once or twice in his career, this is absolutely outrageous!)

Of course the person (and everybody else!) was scared to hell and ran for cover.

The officer of course saw the person running and started to aim shoot after him ("I was aiming for his legs") and hit a passing car.


End of story:
Thank God, noone injured. One police officer in closed mental care.
I hope they strapped him to the bed and threw away the key to the padlocks.

[HuckleB]

14. Link?

[mhr]

8. What's Next Toenail Terrorists?

eom

[Lexiemae]

11. Should Have Been More Than $10

I live in DC and I do not want people eating and drinking in the subway. It is enough with the idiots that leave their newspapers behind and take up 2 seats (feet on seats). Unbearable talk from youth!!!!! The woman told the officer to tend to more pressing matters, in effect telling the person that he/she was of little value because of her/his job. If I had not seen her on TV I would have thought she was a republican.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

16. Oh, please. The situation was handled badly because of the rush...

...to hire security people after 911 with little or no experience in working with people. IMHO, most of these folks enjoy pushing people around.

This is not an isolated incident involving security people and/or police...this kind of incident has been popping up all over the country.

[Jack_DeLeon]

57. So we should ban eating in public?

There is plenty of littering all around the world, why should subways be special?

Why should there be a ban on food in them?

If people want subways and stations to be clean well then just hire some people to clean it up.

[Ilsa]

12. ticketing the disabled ...

"Metrorail has been criticized in the past for heavy-handed enforcement of the eating ban. A police officer handcuffed a 12-year-old girl in 2000 for eating a French fry on a platform. Another officer ticketed a wheelchair-bound cerebral-palsy patient in 2002 for cursing when he was unable to find a working elevator to leave a station. Unflattering publicity led police to void the ticket."

[Scairp]

34. They didn't learn did they? n/t

[lottie244]

15. You must live in DC to understand this entire issue.

The media will make it more than it should be. The rules are clear and posted all over the Metro of which most people in the area are very proud. It is clean and well kept. The loss of respect for rules and authority is one thing that is weakening us in many ways in the DC area. A trashy subway system is both unseemly and DANGEROUS. I have seen many people who totally disregard the postings and who enter the Metro rail area eating and tossing trash on the ground and the track. Lately many people who regularly use the Metro have complained that the city is allowing the subway to deteriorate. This woman was not only breaking the rule but after two warnings became verbally abusive to the subway guard. It only takes a few people to make it bad for everyone. Multiply this woman by 20 at every stop and the people whose job it is to keep the Metro safe and clean become ineffective. All this woman had to do was stop eating after the second warning, put her food in her bag and nothing would have happened. You have to live here to understand the context of the event.

[el_gato]

17. Yeah, she deserves 20 years to life

Hell maybe she even deserves the death penalty

WOULD SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK ABOUT THE CHILDREN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[HuckleB]

18. Except that the officer had already done her job.

Willett made sure the bar was inside her body before going inside the station. Instead of moving on, the officer went overboard by pressing the issue since she hadn't yet swallowed the food. This is ridiculous.

Granted, Willett was just as ridiculous in her responses to the officer once the officer chose to go overboard. However, there was no reason for the matter to have continued.

Nevermind that it sounds like the real problem is not eating but littering. People eat all sorts of food as well as drink coffee, juice, water and soda on the Max and the buses in Portland every day, yet the stations, the trains and the buses are clean because people throw away their trash. It sounds like the focus of enforcement is a bit skewed in DC. Upping the fine for littering and enforcing it seriously sounds like a better way to go.

[Maeve]

19. Seriously! The food was in her mouth, the wrapper in the trash

Are we going to see officers checking mouths next--"Don't tell me that's gum! I'll be the judge of that!"

[TahitiNut]

36. Put someone in a uniform and they OD on the "power."

Such jobs tend to attract people with power-adoring inclinations and, if not carefully screened (as responsible police departments do), can result in both overt abuse of authority and financial liabilities for the employing organization.

Any halfway rational person (a mental facility impeded by a uniform) would comprehend the purpose of such a rule/law: reduction or elimination of litter and garbage.

Since the litter was already deposited in a receptacle and the food was completing the first stage of digestion (mastication), the objective of the rule/law was not threatened - despite hyper-autocratic parsing and interpretation of the prose.

Such behavior of a public employee disserves the public interest in general, and harms Ms. Willet specifically. If a first offense, MTP Officer Cherrail Curry-Hagler should receive a suspension and counseling. If there's a history, she should be fired for cause. She's a "loose cannon."

Our obsession with writing laws to impose control over human behavior which itself is not, per se, harmful but which (allegedly) leads to some other behavior (i.e. littering) which we already prohibit is noxious. It's authoritarianism running amok. It's the strange "logic" of: "when laws don't work then pass more laws."

Problem: Trash and garbage litters the facility.
Choice-1: Hire adequate custodial personnel and solicit cooperation.
Choice-2: Criminalize littering and hire police.
"Solution": #2
Result: Unsatisfactory. Litter continues and costs go up.
Escalation: Criminalize eating and drinking, increase penalites, and hire more police.
Result: Unsatisfactory. Litter continues and costs go up.
Escalation: Criminalize "chewing", increase penalites, and hire more police.
... and so on and so on.

[Baltimoreboy]

40. Except of course you are entirely wrong about DC

Metro is clean and kept that way. There are very few lawbreakers. This woman was one of them. She broke the law and then mouthed off afterwards. So she was charged.

And it's police policy to handcuff ALL suspects for officer safety. That wasn't his call whatsoever. Had he failed to do so, he'd be up on charges.

[Maeve]

66. If that woman is a "lawbreaker" then the law is an ass

She wasn't littering, she wasn't spitting, she was chewing and swallowing the last bite--the officer saw the trash thrown away and the food disappear BEFORE following and hassling her.

Could have let it go--most normal, sane people would have realized there was no intent to break a law, no harm, no foul and WOULD have let it go. And he'll probably be up on charges, anyway,(at least a reprimand) with a lawsuit to boot.

[Thor_MN]

54. Welcome to Singapore, please get rid of your gum or face caning.

[0007]

21. Is gum chewing allowed?

[TahitiNut]

23. God forbid that anyone would be hired to keep it clean!

After all, employing Americans to clean up after Americans is... uhhh... "unAmerican."

Laws (and signs?) are cheap and it's far more "productive" to hire private gestapo "security" people to arrest and detain them darn scofflaws -- or anyone suspected of being one! Gawd yes!! Hire people with clubs, not brooms! Better still, pay a contractor (including profits for the owners) twice as much! (We sure don't want to deal with messy fairness issues, right?

Got a problem with corporations? Deregulate.
Got a problem with individual citizens? Pass a law and build prisons.

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[HuckleB]

25. So, because corporations get away with littering...

it should be ok for everyone to litter?

Sorry, I don't buy that.

[TahitiNut]

28. Welcome to Fallacy Fantasy Land! (Strawmen to the right.)

:eyes: :silly:

[HuckleB]

31. Do you know what a strawman is?

I didn't think so.

:eyes:

[TahitiNut]

39. Yes, I do. It's quite obvious you don't.

"There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion." - (Lord Acton)

[HuckleB]

68. Thanks for the giggle.

Oh me oh my. It is funny to run into folks who use buzzwords without knowing what they're talking about.

:eyes:

[TahitiNut]

33. (deleted)

(deleted)

[Mike Daniels]

30. Metro officers are real police officers assigned to work the metro line

not gestapo as you so nicely referred to them.

Also one was shot and killed a year or so ago while attempting to detain a fare jumper. Turned out that the shooter guy had an outstanding warrent or two on his ass and shot the officer because he wanted to avoid capture.

This officer over-reacted, true, but the metro officers aren't rent-a-cops and for the most part they aren't the jack booted thugs you imply.

[TahitiNut]

37. Do you know for a fact ...

... that they're given psychological screening to weed out the bullies and petty power-trippers? Do you know for a fact that they don't hire "temps"?

I researched the website for the WMATA and MTP and found no such protocols identified, even on the application for the position.

It has been my experience that the conditions I've identified are extant in such organizations.

[LSK]

26. it was a candybar !!!

That she had just finished eating on. Did you actually read the post? This kind of nonsense is how cops get a bad name.

[leQ]

27. i agree that rules are there and people should abide by them

by like others have pointed out already, this officer seems to have gone over the line. hence, the objectivity and caliber of people being hired to do these types of things makes one wonder is there really any progress in what is trying to be accomplished?

would you rather have 10 really smart people at the security gates in the airports, or 50 really stupid people there?

[1monster]

29. She merely put the last bite into her mouth and threw the wrapper away...

apparently in an appropriate trash receptical. Was the very act of having food in her mouth worth a citation? No. She did stop eating. Get real. If she had thrown the wrapper on the floor, then she would have been guilty of littering the subway and should have been issued a citation.

He told her to finish the candy before she entered the station and from the chronology of this story, that is apparently what she did. Respect for law enfocement is usually nullified by over reactions on the part of the enforcers.

This guy sounds like the kind of jerk I never want to have in a position of any kind of authority.

[Jack_DeLeon]

58. Calm down there Mussolini....

I bet you want the trains to run on time too. :eyes:

Geez if you want the train station to be particularily clean then just put some trashcans and hire some people to clean it up.

There you will have a clean subway and provide for some jobs.

[dennis4868]

24. That's funny....

my friend about 6 years ago was arrested for eating ice cream in the subway in Washington, DC....he had to go to court and had a trial....

[Tight_rope]

32. WTF....We are arresting people for eating candy bars....what is the world

coming to.

[TahitiNut]

35. Story appeared originally on Washington Post website - Jul 28, 2004

Mouthful Gets Metro Passenger Handcuffs and Jail
By Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 29, 2004; Page A01
Released JULY 28, 2004

<snip>

About 6:30 p.m. July 16, Willett was eating a PayDay candy bar while riding the escalator from 11th Street NW into the Metro Center Station. Metro Transit Police Officer Cherrail Curry-Hagler was riding up.

The police officer warned Willett to finish the candy before entering the station because eating or drinking in the Metro system is illegal.

Willett nodded, kept chewing the peanut-and-caramel bar and stuffed the last bit into her mouth before throwing the wrapper into the trash can near the station manager's kiosk, according to both Willett and Curry-Hagler.

Curry-Hagler turned around and followed Willett into the station. Moments after making a remark to the officer, Willett said, she was searched, handcuffed and arrested for chewing the last bite of her candy bar after she passed through the fare gates. She was released several hours later after paying a $10 fine, pending a hearing.

<snip>

"Next thing I knew, she pushed me into the cement wall, calls for backup and puts handcuffs on me," Willett said.

She said Curry-Hagler patted her down, running her hands around Willett's bust, under her bra and around her waist. Two other officers appeared, and the three took Willett to a waiting police cruiser.

At the D.C. police 1st District headquarters, Willett said, she was locked in a cell with another person. At 9:30 p.m., after she paid a $10 fine, Willett was released to her husband.

"It was humiliating," said Willett, who is to appear in court in October. "It was a complete waste of taxpayers' money and the officers' time as well as mine. It was just about her trying to retaliate against me because I made a comment about how insignificant I thought the matter was."

<snip>

---

The story has an accompanying photo of Ms. Willet.

[daleo]

53. I see what you mean about the photo

There could be a another aspect to the story. A photo of the officer in question would help to determine if there might be more to the story than just an over zealous officer.

[HereSince1628]

38. In the post-911 world trivial incidents often get overblown

In many circumstances we are empowering low level often insecure uniforms to use judgement that they clearly lack.

Ignoring the demand for the ID _might_ have been a behavior that dismissed what was seen by the civilian as being "hit on" or otherwise unnecessary harrassment by a public servant. In this case the public servant seems to have chosen to make a federal case of the matter.

Such over ambition might lead to this being his last "PayDay" or a high level appointment in the Ashcroft Justice Dept.

[theHandpuppet]

41. This is the same DC...

... which a couple of years ago had a twelve-year-old arrested and handcuffed for eating a French Fry on a Metro.

http://talkleft.com/new_archives/003934.html

http://www.skeptictank.org/gen1/gen00566.htm

[yellowcanine]

49. No one gets handcuffed and arrested for eating - they get

handcuffed and arrested for refusing to cooperate with an officer trying to issue a ticket - there is a difference.

[theHandpuppet]

62. Like hell...

This child was arrested for EATING A FRENCH FRY, not for non-cooperation! The officer, as reported in several of the news reporrts (including the one below) did not have the option of just issuing her a citation.

http://www.skeptictank.org/gen1/gen00566.htm

Metro spokesman Ray Feldman said on Thursday Hedgepeth was an unlucky victim of a weeklong crackdown at a Metro station in northwest Washington and policies that leave police with no middle ground between issuing a warning and arresting young food offenders. The girl was arrested on Oct. 23.

The Metro system, which carries commuters in Washington and its suburbs in Virginia and Maryland, bans eating food on its trains and in its stations.

``Unfortunately on the first day of this special one-week effort, our police officer happened to encounter Ms. Hedgepeth, who was eating french fries. When she was confronted, she admitted (that) ... she knew she shouldn't have been eating them,'' Feldman said.

``Not having the middle option of issuing a citation to her ... the officer took her into custody and took her back to the juvenile facility, called her mom, her mom came and got her and that was that.''

[Rex]

42. The officer forced a confrontation and should be fined or fired.

The woman complied with the order, the officer demanded identification because she asked him a question (not a nice one, but a valid question nonetheless). Here we have a clear failure in training of the officer or failure to perform the job to standard requirements.

Fire or fine.

[yellowcanine]

47. No she did not comply - she continued to eat - chewing is eating

while she walked into the station. She could have stopped and finished the candy bar outside of the station. These rules are well posted and have been in place from the beginning. There would have been no confrontation had the lady complied with the rule - or once having broken the rule, accepted her ticket quietly. The officers ask for ID when they are going to issue a ticket, just like a traffic cop. Try not giving your ID to a traffic cop and you will find yourself handcuffed and your ass on the way to jail as well.

[Rex]

55. So her intent was to spit the candy bar out

once she stepped foot into the station? Does anyone else see the idiocy here? This has to be the sadest case I've ever heard as far as abuse of power by a cop.

Fine or fire him, if you must then fine her too, but the cop really was out of line.

[Yavin4]

43. Bad Boys, Bad Boys, What You Gonna Chew?

What you gonna chew when they come for you!

[Sugarbleus]

69. ROFL!!! good one.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

44. Was it Candy Crowley? If so I don't object to her arrest!!!

[LiberalManiacfromOC]

45. Ok, that's just weird

and it makes no sense.

[yellowcanine]

46. Ok here is my 2 cents. I live in the D.C. area and have occasion

to use the subway sometimes. The rules about no eating or drinking in the system (stations or trains) has been in place from the beginning and are well publicized. The reason is simple - it keeps the system cleaner. I appreciate that. No sitting on greasy french fries or stepping in spilled Coke, etc. This lady is a government employee so is not a tourist and presumably knows the rules. She chose to try to stretch them a little and also got lippy with the cop. How hard would it have been for her to pause and finish the damn candy bar before she went into the station? No she was in too much of a hurry and she was too high and mighty to obey a simple rule that everyone else has to follow. Then she could have quietly accepted her ticket and apologized and that would have been that. But no she had to lip off and try to to walk away and avoid getting the ticket. Tough shit lady, I have no sympathy for you.

[LoZoccolo]

48. They have to do this because of terrorism.

Someone spilled some guacamole somewhere in the Chicago subways and some people thought it was anthrax or something and the subway ended up getting shut down while they sent people to go check it out. This is nothing to fuck around with.

[yellowcanine]

50. The rules against eating have been in place from day one - has

to do with keeping the subway clean - and it works.

[LoZoccolo]

51. I found it; here's a story on it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/anthrax/story/0,1520,583438,00.html

[daleo]

52. Did the officer really think she would spit the food out in the station?

Honestly, to a reasonable person, once it is in your mouth it is in your body, which is the definition of eaten. My city has rules against taking food on buses or subways too, but most people here would think a transit officer who reacted like that was crazy.

As for terrorism, what next? Will they outlaw jaw breakers? - "you could break someone's jaw with that".

[squidbro]

56. The officer was still wrong.

The officer still should have let it pass.

It was not worth collecting a $10 fine for all of the negative publicity it is going to generate.

Is this what the D.C. taxpayers get with the money they spend? Officers who arrest people for having food in their mouths?

This is a little weak. If I were the lady, I would have been increduous too. What a waste of time, effort and money over what is obviously a trivial matter.

So do they arrest gum chewers? Gum obviously has much more potential for becoming litter than does the last bit of a candy bar.

Let's see, how many people spit out the last bit of a candy bar compared to how many spit out their gum.

I suppose D.C. needs to have their officers look into the mouths of all Metro riders to ensure that they have no gum. But wait a minute, people just might spit. I guess the people of D.C. need to vote in a resolution making everyone swallow a drying agent so that they cannot spit either.

It's a little ridiculous. The officer should have let the incident pass. It was not a matter worth pursuing. Really, it wasn't.

[Jack_DeLeon]

59. So what do you propose?

that we ban guacamole because some idiot might mistake it for anthrax?

[LoZoccolo]

63. "Don't eat in the subway station." n/t

[Swamp Rat]

60. We should arrest fat police officers who eat donuts on the job!

These guys should not be allowed to work in positions of authority ever again.

[Speed8098]

61. This is what we've become??

:wtf:
I can't believe there are people here who support this cop.

I'm sure that finishing a bite of a candybar that is already in your mouth isn't going to cause any litter.
After all, isn't that why there is a ban on food in the subway, to keep it clean and litter free?

So, if she threw the wrapper in a trash can, what was the justification for the $10.00 fine?

How much do the transit cops make in DC? I'd bet it's more than $10.00 an hour. What about the cost of the printing for the forms? Not to mention the salary of the jailer.

So the transit cops spent upward of $50.00(conservative figure)to
teach this otherwise law abiding citizen, what???
That some cops are just assh*les?
That DC needs to rethink it's law enforcement priorities?

What is the lesson? Not to litter? I think she already proved she knew not to litter.
What is it? We're not allowed to tell a cop he/she's wrong, when they are?
Somebody enlighten me. Is this the definition of a free society?
I think not.
Our forefathers are spinning in their graves.
Whats next? No tattoos displayed in public???
Are we going to ban facial hair?
How about banning yellow pants on Wednesdays?
Oh wait, here's one. No bad breath allowed on the trains. It might just offend someone.
:nuke:

[CreekDog]

64. If the offense warrants $10 fine, it doesn't warrant arrest, ok?!

What a waste of time.

And as for the little girl with the french fry, read the article and you find out the officer had the option of giving her a warning! The options were warning or arrest. Which do you think was appropriate?

Both officers should be disciplined for extremely poor judgement.

[fedsron2us]

65. This story encapsulates all the things about the USA....

that bemuses us in Europe. American corporations are some of the biggest polluters on God's earth. The US government will not ratify the Kyoto agreement on climate control. Firearms are widely available to members of the American public. Yet people who eat chocolate bars on the Metro are clapped in irons. I thought we Brits were supposed to be the most anally retentive race on the planet. It looks like our jobsworths can learn a thing or two from the Washington transit police.

[theHandpuppet]

67. "Leave No Child Behind"!

The DC Transit police must have thought Bush was referring to 12 year old Ansche Hedgepeth, who, a couple of years ago, was arrested, placed in handcuffs and taken to a juvenile detention facility by these same transit police for eating a French Fry on the Metro. Angie was subsequently ordered to perform community service following her arrest and to undergo counseling.

I know who should undergo counseling, and it sure as hell isn't Angie!

Don't y'all feel safer knowing that D.C. is safe from candy bar eaters and children with french fries?