Chess Players Ticketed by NYPD for Using Inwood Hill Park Chess Tables

[HuckleB]

Source: DNAinfo

A group of seven mild-mannered chess players are due in criminal court next month after police officers from the 34th Precinct issued them summonses for playing their favorite board game in Inwood Hill Park.

The men were ticketed on Oct. 20 for being inside of Emerson Playground, a children's play area off limits to adults unaccompanied by minors. But the men were in an area furnished with stone chess and backgammon tables — separated from the play area by a fence.

...

But Inwood residents expressed outrage that the NYPD would target the chess players in light of the men's history as caretakers and teachers for the next generation of Inwood chess players.

"This is a positive thing for our kids to see and do, it's a positive mental activity for them," said Regina Christoforatos, 38, whose 6-year-old daughter Zoe has been learning chess in the park.

...

Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/20101117/washington-heights-inwood/chess-players-ticketed-by-nypd-for-using-inwood-hill-park-chess-tables

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Perhaps we don't know the full story, but based on this information, something is not right with this police action. Anyway...

:toast:

[rfranklin]

1. Perhaps it was the fact that...

they were wearing no pants?

[HuckleB]

2. Aha! I knew there was more to this story!

;) :rofl:

[bluedigger]

3. "A group of seven mild-mannered chess players"

As opposed to your more typical rowdy and out of control chess players...:rofl:

[boppers]

4. Ahem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_boxing

We've been known to get rowdy, too.

[bluedigger]

5. "We" "boppers"?

Do go on!:rofl:

[boppers]

7. "We" chess players.... come from all walks of life, and play in strange ways

Seriously, aside from home, I've played in parks, coffee shops, while on the dance floor (magnetic board), during bar fights, in between combat sparring, etc....

Chess can be enjoyed in a variety of circumstances, we're not all quiet, docile, folks. Hence, inventions like chess boxing, and human chess (where the "pieces" actually engage in combat for a space).

[HuckleB]

10. I dunno.

A neighbor of mine decided he wanted to join me in my workouts, so he'd succumb to my peer pressure, uh, despite the fact that I offered none. After a couple weeks, he began trying to invite me in for a game of chess instead of going to work out. You know, uh, to exercise the brain. All good and well, but the truth was that he just didn't want to keep up with things on the exercise front. Later, I began joining him for chess after my solo workout.

[musette_sf]

6. Chess tables mounted into concrete/stone tables

have been in NYC parks FOREVER. Anyone who grew up there knows what I'm talking about.

I wonder if I smell some of that Park Slope Stokky Stroller gentrification....

[boppers]

8. "Park Slope Stokky Stroller"?

Whazzat?

Singed,
A confused left coaster.

[musette_sf]

11. Park Slope (gentrified Brooklyn) Career Momism

accessorized by the most damn expensive stroller money can buy.

http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/05/slope_stroller.php

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2008/01/04/park_slope_stroller_moms_on_second_thought_they_suck.php

http://gridskipper.com/archives/entries/063/63936.php

http://gawker.com/5009571/park-slope-hate-reaching-critical-mass

http://jamespoling.com/park-slope-the-stroller-mafia/

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=park+slope

and on the lighter side

http://williammullin.com/2010/04/22/strollerlane/

[Bozita]

19. Your links deserve a rec, but replies are ineligible receivers.

[musette_sf]

20. thanks

I lived in, and my family still lives in, a nearby Brooklyn neighborhood that has not quite succumbed to the 'Sters (Yup and Hip).

My peeps from the hood have choice words for the Slopers. Comments on a local message board to/about a newbie to the hood asking about the local grammar school, the one I went to as a kid:

"Let me Guess you moved here from Park Slope welcome. This is not a private school it is public school when you pay for school you might possibly get to choose a teacher. PS (XXX) is consistantly one to the best in the city, you are luck to be zoned for that school"

"Either there have been problems in the past (with either the child or other teachers) or the parent is of the tribe of Park Slopian parenting (i.e. entitled, coddling & annoying parenting)."

later in the thread...

"I apologize for assuming XXXXX might be from Park Slope. It's one of the worst things you can say about someone."

Comment on same board re "Stroller Mafia" hood vs. our sweet hood:

I lived in Park Slope for 3 years. I lived in Cobble Hill for 7 years before that. I know Stroller Mafias. You ladies are no Stroller Mafia :)

I have yet to encounter a mother pushing an SUV stroller while holding the hand of her child walking next to it, at his pace, and glaring at you when you try to get past. I have yet to be forced to walk in the street in an evening dress and heels because 2 dads must walk side by side next to their strollers while walking their dogs on long leashes. I have yet to be run over on the R train by an empty stroller pushed with one hand by a distracted mom.

What I have encountered are mostly pretty great kids who are being raised by mostly really nice people who don't have their heads up their asses and don't treat the rest of us like we're interlopers encroaching on their territory.

Comment on same board on (longest thread on board) "Things I Hate":

being asked to quiet down not once, but twice last nite during the Jackson Browne concert in propsect park!!!! give me a break!!!! f'ing park slope pretentious yuppies!

[starroute]

14. Sure, I remember seeing them when I was a kid

They add a real air of class to the places where they're located.

[musette_sf]

15. Yep, they always draw a crowd

of young/old and very multicultural. Usually men, but that's who plays street chess in NYC.

[rug]

17. Hell, yeah

[Yeahyeah]

9. Freaking eggheads anyway.

[garthranzz]

12. e4

[coti]

26. c5 nt

[regnaD kciN]

13. Good for the NYPD!

A look at chess players of the past (everyone from Paul Morphy to Bobby Fischer) makes it clear that people who play chess are dangerous, unbalanced individuals, who should be kept away from children at all costs!

:sarcasm:

[musette_sf]

18. I think it's due to snotty arriviste stroller-nazi gentrifiers

who think they're in fcvking Greenwich.

[lunasun]

16. Saw the pic in the article.... Looks like a classic case of PCWB

[rucky]

27. You called it.

[musette_sf]

21. Next thing you know they'll ticket the old bocce ball dudes

They gotta make bail before the Early Bird Special...

[Renew Deal]

22. It will be thrown out in court

But it's still a huge hassle.

[HuckleB]

23. I hope you're right about the former, and you are correct about the latter. -eom-

[Jack Rabbit]

24. Outrageous.

Somebody should beat those cops with a Knight-stick.

[Supply Side Jesus]

25. Prehaps someone lost a game

and decided to take petty vengeance on those who beat the snot of them on the checkered board!

that would be funny