More Tickets for Stoop Drinkers

Despite, or maybe because of, the publicity generated by our post a couple of weeks ago and the subsequent NY Times article, tickets for drinking on stoops continue. A tipster sent us this note: “Tuesday night, Sept. 9th, myself and three friends were ticketed $45 each for drinking three beers (one of us was not actually drinking, and there were only three beers open) citing that we were visible from the street when the police drove by. Just wondering how much this has been happening lately. We all plan to contest the ruling, but wondering how much we would spend on court costs. The house on Quincy between Bedford and Nostrand [in the photo above] has a three to four foot overhang from the second floor deck, which we were under, definitely not a public place.” According to the Times piece, “The city’s open-container law prohibits anyone from drinking an alcoholic beverage, or possessing and intending to drink from an open container containing an alcoholic beverage, ‘in any public place.’ The law defines a public place as one ‘to which the public or a substantial group of persons has access, including, but not limited to,’ a sidewalk, street or park.” Access seems to be the gray word, here. A stoop is visible to the public, but accessible? What do you think? Should we fight for our right to party?