I was threatened with arrest for dancing in public. I was, admittedly, quite drunk at the time. The thing is, this was in a college town on a Friday night. If simply being drunk was the full extent of what was necessary to be arrested in said town, a lot of people would be in a lot of trouble. Apparently some behaviors trigger irrational anger in some cops.
Which sounds more likely: Some NYC cop felt like fucking with random people and tackled a guy, or two drunk ass adults were causing a mess on a Subway platform, the cop asked for their ID, they couldn't provide, and then became belligerent when the cop asked them to come with him back to his post so he could run their info?
Now ask yourself, which one sells papers
They sound equally plausible to me, with the most likely explanation being a combination of both.
---------- Post added 2012-07-09 at 06:29 PM ----------
Here's an NBC source - http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local...161712065.html
That they were initially charged with resisting arrest but the charge was dropped almost immediately speaks volumes. This is a cop fucking with people, with near certainty.
It is standard and normal for an officer to charge someone they are arresting with every single offense they can, and it is also normal for the prosecutors to immediately remove almost all of them (or all of them entirely) afterwards. Obviously in this case no elected official is going to bother using funds and time prosecuting people for "dancing," whether they were belligerent and resisted arrest or not. It's not a smart use of your resources, and is likely to massively backfire.
I've had my share of run ins with the NYPD. Not for criminal activity, but just under circumstances that I had to deal with them. I found them to be lazy, to abuse their powers, and pretty much retarded.
Stories like this aren't making cops any more likeable to me. :P