The other day in Paris, after a long flight, a hopped on the metro to to go home. i was hungry so i whipped out a sandwhich. i was in the middle of chowing down when a police office stepped onto the train. i forgot where i was for a moment and tried desperately to stuff the sandwich in the pouch of my backpack. i destroyed the sandwich in the effort and part of it ended up on the floor. i knew i was totally busted so i looked up at the officer with a smile, prepared to tell a big one. all he said was, "oh la, la, messr! allez s'il vous plait!" with a motion to clean up the little mess; it was not until he opened his mouth that i realized i was back in paris (where, of course, their petty fascism manifest itself in quite different ways).
chris niles the new abolitionist
>Messsage du 18/11/2000 17:29
>De : <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
>A : <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
>Copie à : <M-Fem at csf.colorado.edu>
>Objet : Zero Tolerance: Metro Snack Patrol Puts Girl in Cuffs
>
> Time to watch Jean Vigo's _Zéro de conduite [Zero for Conduct]_
> (1933) again.... Yoshie
>
> ***** Metro Snack Patrol Puts Girl in Cuffs
>
> Ansche Hedgepeth had practically never been in trouble, let alone
> arrested. Then the officer clicked the metal cuffs on the
> 12-year-old's wrists and pulled the laces out of her tennis shoes.
>
> She had been eating French fries in a Metro station, and now she was
> questioned, searched and taken away.
>
> "We really do believe in zero tolerance," said Metro Transit Police
> Chief Barry J. McDevitt, who is unapologetic for such arrests.
>
> Commuter complaints about unlawful eating on Metro cars and in
> stations led McDevitt to mount a week-long undercover crackdown on
> violators last month, and a dozen plainclothes officers cited or
> arrested 35 people, 13 of them juveniles. Only one adult was
> arrested.
>
> Had Ansche and the other juveniles been adults, they simply would
> have received citations for fines up to $300. But, McDevitt pointed
> out, juveniles charged with criminal offenses in the District must be
> taken into custody.
>
> And, he said, it is department policy to handcuff anyone who is
> arrested, no matter the age. "Anyone taken into custody has to be
> handcuffed for officer safety," McDevitt said. Youngsters "can kill
> you, too."
>
> Ansche well remembers Oct. 23, the first day of the crackdown.
>
> The seventh-grader at Deal Junior High School said the Tenleytown-AU
> station, where she was nabbed, is "just a place where a lot of kids
> go. There's a hot dog stand and Cafe Med, where I bought my fries.
>
> "She said she took the elevator to the station with a friend. As
> the pair passed the station kiosk, a man stepped in front of Ansche.
>
> "He said: 'Put down your fries. Put down your book bag,'" Ansche
> said. "They searched my book bag and searched me. They asked me if
> I have any drugs or alcohol."
>
> Ansche, who keeps her science fair trophy next to her bed, said she
> has never been asked those questions or searched like that before.
>
> "I was embarrassed. I told my friend to call my mom, but I didn't
> tell anybody else," she said. She said she never talked to the
> officer, although Metro police insist that she was asked whether she
> knew eating was against the law and that she said she did. They said
> anyone who doesn't know about the law usually is given a warning
> first.
>
> The youths were all taken to the detention center, where they were
> checked in, fingerprinted and held for their parents to pick them up,
> McDevitt said.
>
> Ansche now must perform community service and undergo counseling at
> the Boys and Girls Club, one of the sentences Metro has chosen for
> underage snacking scofflaws. "I can't believe there isn't a better
> way to teach kids a lesson," said Ansche's mother, Tracey Hedgepeth.
> "The police treated her like a criminal."
>
> She wrote a letter complaining about the incident, and McDevitt
> replied: "While I am sorry that it was necessary to take your
> daughter into custody, I hope you also understand the important
> responsibility we have to keep public transportation safe and
> clean."...
>
> [To view the entire article, go to
> <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28074-2000Nov15.html>]
> *****
>