Cool or Not Cool: Walking Away From Cops Who Tell You To Wait

Photo credit: Enid Alvarez/New York Daily NewsThis just in from a FIPS reader:

I was walking my dog through the Nethermead [last night] after 9PM, when they have off leash dog hours, and as I made my way past the Audubon House and up to center drive I was stopped by 3 police officers and asked to wait. "For what?" I asked. "You're in an area that is closed."  "Okay so why do I have to stop and talk to you."  "Just wait ma'am."  With no explanation as to WHY they were making me stop I tried to proceed on my late night dog walk. That's when they put me in cuffs and demanded my id. Since I didn't have an id I was put in the back of a cop car and my dog was taken from me. They were going to take me to a precinct and give me 30 min to have my id delivered, put my dog in ASPCA and arrest me if no id could be produced within 30 min. I said "this is insane. I leave my house for dog walks in the park without an id all the time. My dog is too old to take away from me, you cant do this. It's absurd."  They eventually took my name and looked it up on a computer, wrote me a Summons and I was on my way. When they took the cuffs off I asked why they were doing this. They said to keep the park safe. I did not feel safe at all with these thugs patrolling the park and treating people like this. I hope that they change their tactics because they are completely out of line.

So, yeah, it sounds like a very unpleasant experience for this person, but can you really expect to just ignore cops when they ask you to wait and not have them do something?