Since When Is Standing Around Considered A Crime?

Plenty of people get arrested for disorderly conduct every year, but what is so disorderly about standing around on a street corner? According to Officer Momen Attia, Matthew Jones committed a crime for hanging around with friends on the corner of 7th Ave and 42nd St, more commonly known as Times Square. Personally I think its a crime to be in Times Square in the first place, but I'm just a snobbish New Yorker that does not have time for dawdling tourists. But does that mean that Mr. Jones committed a crime?

My attitude about Times Square actually helps his case, because I know that people dawdle and stand around that area of the city. It is commonplace for people to be stopped and looking around because there is so much to see there. Flashing lights, naked cowboys and cowgirls, giant indoor ferris wheels, etc, etc. The place is ADD heaven.

Even though the first two courts denied Mr. Jones' appeal, it seems that he will finally be given a break. Thankfully in our judicial system, there is some last refuge of common sense on the bench.

From The New York Times:

“Isn’t that lawful conduct?” wondered Judge Robert S. Smith. Later he added, “Your conduct can’t be illegal just because an officer noticed it.”

His colleague Judge Eugene F. Pigott Jr. questioned what other violations might attract law enforcement attention.

“All I could think of was a bunch of lawyers from the New York City Bar Association standing around trying to figure out where to have lunch,” Judge Pigott said. (The association has offices a block and a half from Times Square.)

Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye seemed likewise nonplused. “This is at 2 a.m.?” she asked, wondering how many pedestrians it would have been possible to inconvenience at that hour. “I guess I’m not in Times Square at 2 a.m. very often.”

Plenty of people stand around and gab on the sidewalks of New York. Heck, I'm guilty of it too (just never in Times Sq.) when I talk outside with my friends. As for those that stand idly in that neck of the woods...its annoying to those that need to pass by, but in no way is it a crime. This sounds more like the ridiculous hubris of one officer and something that the NYPD needs to take care of.