- WASHINGTON (AP) - A government
scientist finishing a candy bar on her way into a subway station where
eating is prohibited was arrested, handcuffed and detained for three hours
by transit police.
- Stephanie Willett said she was eating a PayDay bar on
an escalator descending into a station July 16 when an officer warned her
to finish it before entering the station. Both Willett and police agree
that she nodded and put the last bit into her mouth before throwing the
wrapper into a trash can.
-
- Willett, a 45-year-old Environmental Protection Agency
scientist, told radio station WTOP that the officer then followed her into
the station, one of several in downtown Washington.
-
- "Don't you have some other crimes you have to take
care of?'' Willett said she told the officer.
-
- Washington has been under heightened security because
of the continuing threat of terrorism. And last week, police declared a
citywide crime emergency over rising juvenile crime.
-
- The transit police officer asked for Willett's identification,
but Willett kept walking. She said she was then frisked and handcuffed.
-
- "If she had stopped eating, it would have been the
end of it and if she had just stopped for the issuance of a citation, she
never would have been locked up,'' Transit Police Chief Polly Hanson said
Thursday.
-
- Metrorail has been criticized in the past for heavy-handed
enforcement of the eating ban. In 2000, a police officer handcuffed a 12-year-old
girl for eating a french fry on a subway platform.
-
- In 2002, one of their officers ticketed a wheelchair-bound
cerebral palsy patient for cursing when he was unable to find a working
elevator to leave a station. Unflattering publicity eventually led the
police to void the ticket.
-
- Willett was the second person arrested this year for
eating or drinking, Hanson said. In addition, police have issued 58 tickets
and given more than 300 written warnings.
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- On the Net:
- Metro: http://www.wmata.com
-
- http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/07/293631.shtml
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