Uncivil liberties
Having been labeled everything from rude to insensitive, New Yorkers are becoming models of civility, if only because their local government is requiring it. Faced with residents who “boo” the mayor at parades, baseball fans who become unhinged while watching the Mets play the Yankees and dogs that bark endlessly into the night, New York City has been arresting some residents for rude behavior and even using some of its “finest” to throw its rowdiest into the hoosegow.
Restricting public behavior is nothing new, but most legislation focuses on obvious offenses, such as public drunkenness. Seattle enacted “Street Civility Laws” in the early 1990s that forbid such things as defecating in public places, and San Francisco has passed about a dozen “Quality of Life” laws aimed at discouraging prostitution, selling drugs and panhandling.
Standards of behavior change, and laws evolve with them. More than 80 years ago, New York’s organ grinders and their monkeys were as ubiquitous as today’s street vendors selling hot dogs. I’m not sure if it was the noise or having to step over the monkey poo that caused New York’s Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia to ban them in 1936. Eventually, though, they were replaced by people who need to be reminded that public spaces aren’t their exclusive playpins.
In 2003, the city imposed a $50 fine on those who insist on using their cell phone during a movie, play or concert. The next year, the city made it illegal to interfere with professional sporting events, and last year, the Queens Borough Council added penalties for fans who throw objects on the field or, worse, spit at team members. So far, charges have been brought against 11 people, all of whom were attending Yankees and Mets games. One man was fined $2,000 and served nine weekends in jail. The same council also is sending unruly parents who have been ejected from Little League games to anger management classes.
Possibly because New York’s crime rate has decreased every year since 1991 — and now has the lowest crime rate of any major American city — its current city government has the luxury of attacking the less serious offenses, if not the minor annoyances of everyday life. Obnoxious sports fans and inconsiderate cell phone users aren’t the only targets either.
Three years ago, armed with about 1,000 daily noise complaints tracked through the city’s 311 call center, Mayor Bloomberg pushed through new codes that affected nightclub music, ice cream trucks and barking dogs. His smoking ban in 2003 affected every restaurant and gin joint in town, and buried another classic New York City image, the smoke-filled back rooms of Tammany Hall.
Not many people are complaining about the crackdown on antisocial behavior, including New York’s American Civil Liberties Union. But why should they? Civil liberties are not at stake when you stop someone from taking liberties with our civilities.
Those who complain say that the new rules take the fun out of “Fun City.” Are they saying that a few inconsiderate jerks are what makes New York one of the greatest cities in the world? Get outta here.
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