Judge tosses suit against Inwood Hill Park chess players
BY Kevin Deutsch
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, December 28th 2010, 12:57 PM
Checkmate! A judge has tossed out summonses against five men busted for playing chess at Inwood Hill Park.
The judge’s action Tuesday came after civil rights lawyer Norman Siegel agreed to take on the bizarre case, involving a total of six people charged with violating park rules.
“We won’t be satisfied until all of them have their cases dismissed,” said Siegel, former director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “There was no reason for the police to issue these summonses.”
The other two players opted for civil trials on Jan. 4 in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Charges against the five were dismissed on the condition they stay out of trouble for six months.
Cops in the 34th Precinct hit the six men with violations on Oct. 20 for using the stone chess tables inside a playground at Inwood Hill Park.
The area is off-limits to adults without minors with them under Parks Department rules. The summonses cited the men for failing to obey park regulation signs.
“We did nothing wrong, yet for simply playing chess we were treated like criminals,” said Yacahudah Harrison, 49, who will fight his summons at trial. “Nobody deserves that kind of treatment.”
The NYPD said cops were responding to complaints from the community about the park.
Source: http://www.nydailynews.com
What a bizarre regulation. I think this is simply an underhanded way of keeping the “riff-raff” from using those tables because they’re not married and have no kids, but such an overt discrimination wouldn’t be hard to pass.
America isn’t “free” and it has nothing to do with government. It has to do with fear.
Old men playing chess in a park…a matter of public concern. Call the police!
I think we’ve pretty much failed the “living as a community” thing.
Just unbelievable! The law may actually encourage someone to kidnap a kid to bring to the park to play chess. Absolutely unbelievable!! A true case of no commonsense, if you ask me.
“What a bizarre regulation. I think this is simply an underhanded way of keeping the “riff-raff” from using those tables because they’re not married and have no kids, but such an overt discrimination wouldn’t be hard to pass.”
Actually Anon, the regulation was made to keep the “riff-raff” from prematurely marrying the children who play there. Another concern is the constant odor of urine and taxicab driver in the vicinity. This needs to be addressed as chess gets a bad image every time a player has bad hygiene, regardless if they are a street bum or a visiting player from Europe.