Crazy! NYC now arrests Chess players.

Riversider, it's NOT crazy at all and they were not arrested; they were given summonses.

"The tables are behind the gates of the park`s Emerson Playground, which the signs in question state is off limits to adults unaccompanied by minors."

As a parent, I support this law 100%.

Stuff like this makes the NYPD look so incredibly bad. Almost as ridiculous as ticketing subway riders for taking up two seats. Give me a break.

janejoey, you can have two seats if you can prove you paid twice as much as me to get into the subway.

When the subway is empty, does it really matter? It's ridiculous! I don't say parents can't bring their kids on airplanes! Parks are public spaces. Subways are public spaces too. I believe the statute reads its illegal to occupy more than one seat if it will disrupt subway operations.
NYPD also summoned an UES woman for not having her dogs rabies papers with her when she walked them. The rabies vaccine lasts 3 years and the tag said 2009!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=notETvv2ExM

More often than in years past the police ignore pan handlers, the parks department does nothing about dog owners not cleaning up after their pet, but at least the city is safe from violent chess offenders.

Riversider, yes, I am glad they are focusing on protecting our children.

janejoey, feel free to gather your supporters and get a law passed that will ban children from airplanes. Start with nycmatt.

That's just it Sunday, I never viewed the Chess players as a danger.

I think you're all a being bit extreme. It shouldn't be made into an either/or situation.

The kids should have a place to play that's safe, of course - that's paramount. Putting chess boards (a game that's played MOSTLY by older kids and adults) in a playground for younger children doesn't have a lot of internal logic. Issuing actual summons to these people before simply warning them (and THEN hitting them with a summons IF they repeatedly refuse to comply) seems a better solution. And why not just move the chess tables to a nearby location so that the older folk have a place to go and do something they enjoy that the younger kids can observe and might even learn something from?

The fact that the solution(s) are so simple and cost effective and that this should be a win-win for all involved annoys me when the city, the cops, and private individuals become so self righteous in their viewpoints.

I view them as potential threats when they are too close to kids. Seems like a perfect way for pedophiles to setup shop.

matsonjones, yes, you don't sound self righteous at all.

What did I wrote that's extreme?

It sounds like bad design on the part of the landscape architect.
Besides, the parks dept. gladly tickets kids for selling lemonade in parks when they can.

The parks were probably designed and tables were put in place before child molestation/abduction news got enough attention that parents and law makers decided to pass the new law.

it's also an easy way for drug dealers to hang out

Aren't parents present at the parks with their kids?
Maybe the sign went up to give the City a way to manage drug dealers/gang members?
Unless the chess players are on parole or are known to police for some reason, then I think a warning would be the way to go.
Stuff like that makes me say "Anarchy now."

not always. sometimes teens have access to the playgrounds (basketball, etc). plus, with a slightly older child you shouldn't be on their heels every second. sight lines often don't allow a parent to keep track of every movement, and this is healthy for the kids development. unaccompanied adults do not belong in children's playgrounds. sadly many of the chess tables are made of cement, I don't know how easy it would be to relocate them.

this law might sound unreasonable to people without children, but it's because you're not seeing things through the eyes of a parent. i can't tell you how many creeps i've seen lurking at various city playgrouds. anther place to spot a degenerate pedophile is outside of a venue that is hosting a children's event. like msg when the circus is there or dora live or something. really, you're not seeing them because you're not looking for them. i know a man who got one of these for sitting down on a playground bench to check his email. it sounds stupid, but these people are out there. whenever i spot one i always wonder if the point of this law is to protect children from these creatures, or to protect THEM from the parents who absolitely see them and know what they are.

it sounds like an annoying park. sometimes it's nice to sit at the chess table and read or enjoy the breeze.

janejoey, you're not a parent are you?

100% agree that they should be given warnings first, which is probably what usually happens and summonses given only to repeat offenders.

NYPD officers are not perfect and a few will lack common sense judgment, but you make it seem like we're better off without them.

we spotted one at diana ross playground once and watched him sitting there for a little while, watched him pull out a camera. then my husband approached him, quietly said something, and the guy packed up and left.

lol, no i'm not a parent.
i've dated a cop so maybe my personal experience clouds my judgment, or maybe it gives me more insight.
usually cops would do something like this and then laugh at the citizens who they did it to.
i was once yelled at by a cop for taking up two seats on a nearly empty subway at 9 pm on a sunday night. it was very silly.
obviously society needs cops for crime, but their ticket quotas and "everyone is a perp" mentality...no thanks.

janejoey, perhaps you dated (good thing not dating) the wrong cop.

"...usually cops would do something like this and then laugh at the citizens who they did it to."
I'm sure a few do, but I would like to believe that's not "usually" the case. Keep in mind also that people, including cops, exaggerate for comedic effect.

adults without children should not be in playgrounds

any intelligent, observant parent would agree with this---whether the adults are playing chess, or doing anyhting else or nothing--that's why this is a law

Playgrounds are clearly a top priority for the city.
Why aren't the kids wearing shoes? $100,000,000 to fix the mats!

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/are-playground-safety-mats-too-hot-to-handle/

Rubber safety mats have become a fixture of children’s playgrounds in New York City, buffering heads, hands and other body parts when children slip and fall. But two news accounts today — in The Daily News and in Metro New York — question whether the mats themselves pose a hazard: They can get so hot under the summer sun that they can burn bare feet.

The Daily News found that some of the mats could get as hot as 160 degrees. Two of the city’s burn centers evidently reported treating 10 cases of playground burns last year, and at least three lawsuits have been filed by parents over playground burns.

“Playgrounds should be designed with canopies,” Geoffrey Croft, the founder of the NYC Park Advocates, a parks watchdog group, said in a phone interview. “The city should be pressuring the manufacturers to come up with a solution.”

This afternoon, Betsy Gotbaum, the city’s public advocate and a former city parks commissioner, said in a statement:

It’s unacceptable that children suffer severe and completely avoidable injuries due to equipment installed and maintained by the city. How many burn cases will it take before the city wakes up and acts? Signs warning against bare feet on the playground are not sufficient to ensure children’s safety. The city needs to do more to protect children, and in the interim, ensure the signs are actually helpful in warning and informing parents of small children about these dangers.

“Those of us who are older grew up without any rubber safety surfaces,” Mr. Benepe said. “Prior to that, in the classic New York City playground, the ground surface was asphalt or concrete, and people suffered terrible injuries, particularly head injuries, from falls off play equipment, monkey bars, swings. At the very least, you skinned your knee or elbow badly.”

Replacing all of the rubber safety mats used in the city’s playgrounds could cost as much as $100 million, he estimated, and using mats with lighter colors would reduce surface temperatures only slightly.

“We will examine all new technologies to reduce the temperature, if possible,” he said. “We are constantly refining playground design and trying make them safe. In fact, we do it so much that we get complaints that our playgrounds are dull.”

“It’s not just the mats,” said Dr. Cronan, who has no involvement with New York City playground design. “I recommend to parents that their kids need to keep those shoes on. They’ll be climbing up rungs, monkey bars, jungle gyms. To take shoes off creates a slippery situation. And I always advise that children must wear shoes, not flip-flops: they’re cute and fun, but can slip off your feet easily. That’s a recipe for a fall.”

And last year, we had to protect our kids from eating brownies.
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YOU may have noticed that there are some people in the world who dislike brownies because they are not as healthy as carrots. Why, they ask, would you eat a lemon square when you could just as easily help yourself to a piece of delicious raw cauliflower? It’s a mystery.
Skip to next paragraph

What’s less of a mystery is the motivation behind the recently announced ban on most bake sales in New York City schools: when absurd things like this happen, it’s usually because the problem people are trying to solve — in this case, childhood obesity — seems too deep and complicated to take on. When I was a kid, we ran around outside because there wasn’t anything else to do. You could play board games or Barbies, but after a while it would make you nuts. You could watch TV, but what was on in the afternoon? Nothing. Eventually, even if you didn’t like to go outside, you’d have to go outside. There were fewer cars, so you could actually run around and play in the street.

It’s easier to ban bake sales than to get rid of half the cars in the city, or uninvent video games, or design broccoli that tastes like homemade chocolate chip cookies.

Are you referring to the kid who had a politician call the cops on him for his bake sell?
Be sure to not vote for the person!
My old neighborhood in Brooklyn (Ft. Greene, by Ft. Greene park) would organize entire blocks for simultaneous sidewalk sales. The kids would sell lemonade and cookies. These things make nice memories for neighborhoods.

NYC and the country are quite over-lawyered and over-policed. A policeman is a very expensive substitute parent. While I can sympathize with parents who want their kids healthy and free from sex-offenders, the fact is NYC police force costs us the Tax Payers considerable amounts of money. Kids will not die from consuming a fudge brownie and theyguys playing chess are harmless and interested in "playing chess", but if parents have these concerns they should watch their kids, make sure they get proper exercise and serve veggies for dinner.

And seriously, 1 less godddddammmm nuclear warhead would = all of nyc police force for a year. And wed' still have enough to blow the earth up 8x, instead of 8.00000000001x.

Yeah, fking teabaggers.... it's like nyc re "owners" clipping coupons for $.50 when their husbands/wives are gonna be working 20 extra years to work off their debt..... imbeciles.

I think I remember an article about a problem with pinworms being passed around via the NY playgrounds. (for parents who might benefits from this awareness).

Pinworms are rad.

Probably brought in by drug-dealing unaccompanied adults

lol!