Its my understanding that these chess players violated a “park rule” as opposed to a law. This may be a distinction without a difference but either way, the cops were out of line here.

My beef is really with the growing number of safety Nazi’s who seem to live life in quaking terror and compensate for it by inviting an ever-expanding incursion into others’ peaceful pursuits..

A primary role of government is indeed national and public security. But without limits like probable cause and presumption of innocence – codified in the Fourth Amendment – we end up with abuses like TSA scanning and pat downs of toddlers.

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

If Barney Fife wants to ticket chess players in the park, I guess it isn’t the fall of western civilization. But the slope seems a bit slippery to me, given other abuses already in progress.

The same kind of community that needs protection from butt-slapping middle-school boys, picture-taking dads, and black men (do we really need any links for this one).

Perhaps you’re right. Perhaps one of those chess players just happens to also be a mugger. Perhaps it is best to ticket all chess players in the park on the off chance that one might commit a crime.

But I don’t buy it. In a community, people know each other. I would think that if one of those chess-playing men was a mugger, he would be relatively easy to identify given that I’m quite sure a lot of the same families and a lot of the same chess players frequent that location. Usually criminals don’t like to know their victims personally, as it makes them easy to identify. But perhaps in Inwood, that’s not the case.

I think the more likely scenario, as perhaps you point out, is that the local cops aren’t members of the community. They have no appreciation for the long history of the park. They have no appreciation for the traditions of the chess-playing men. In fact, they probably resent getting out of their cars and would much rather go back to harassing motorists. As such, they’ve decided to crack down on miniscule offenses that have nothing to do with public safety, because they don’t really understand the local community or its residents.

Instead of defending the police for ticketing non-violent chess players, perhaps you should entreat Captain Navarro to have his officers spend more time in the community. Only by getting to know the history, traditions, and people of the community can an officer make a distinction between a chess player and a mugger.

To be fair, my post was clearly a “peanut gallery” response. I had not the time nor energy to delve into this deeper. But there is a history and philosophy behind my writing that you may better understand if you read more of what we write here at TLP.

The playground in question is way out of date and the chess tables are an old legacy. The chess community is welcome to press for relocated chess facilities. But in the meantime, we need safe playgrounds that, yes, do not have groups of single men hanging out in them.