I arrive home from long afternoon/evening of eating cake, drinking Lebanese beer, and some library time. The phone rings and a friend of mine from school here is on the other line. She is in jail in NYC, no kidding. She was taking a cab from the airport to her hotel for a when the cab driver started going the wrong way, she’s been there a few times, so she knew where she was going. She told him, he ignored her, she told him to stop the car she got out, he got out, he grabbed her backpack, she tried to get it back, he shoved her grabbed her arm and started to drag her back into the cab, she maced him. My friend was arrested for assault, and carrying an illegal weapon, at least that is what she said. She was only slightly hysterical.
She feels she was assaulted by the cab driver, so right now she is totally confused as to what the heck the rules are.
She called me because Ethan lives in SoHo, and she couldn’t reach the people she was meeting at the seminar.
Now I lived there for several years and I know there is some restriction on where you have to buy it, but as far as I know it’s not even like D.C. where you have to register it with the Metro Police.
I’ll sit here for awhile waiting to see what happens with this. I think she may need a lawyer……
Cooper, I hope your friend gets out of jail this weekend.
Sucks. Baltimore City might have one of those strange laws too. I think I remember hearing about it or maybe the law is specific to how you use it.
She didn’t get out until this morning, I left around 1 in the morning to head to Bethany to surf early this morning, but talked to Ethan around 8 and she was supposed to be getting out, I received tm on my way home around 3:30. She was out and would call me later tonight when she got back to DC, so I’ll keep ya posted. Ethan send me a different TM saying “FREE ON BAIL”.
What a mess.
My wife is a lawyer and after consulting her I think your friend will need a lawyer. I hope it gets cleared up quickly. ;)
I wanted to comment on your no comment post.
I thought the same way as you after watching it a couple of times. I heard the pundits and thought they had is all wrong. Now looking at how America viewed it, it looks like the people agreed with us. This shows us how absolutely useless television and news journal analysis is. I’m happy to see that the public is no longer following most of these idiots analysis or being swayed by it.
Three cheers for the people for getting the media monkey off our back.
She has a lawyer now, and is free on bail, but as she is coming back to DC I’m not sure if she is really on bail or not. I just got in from a long few hours od driving ans surfing so I will find out the story soon enough.
reading that, i felt similarly assaulted. i’m so sorry this happened to your friend. i hope everything is sorted out. (please update us?)
when we were in college, it was almost mandatory for us to carry mace or pepper spray. none of us got to use it in the four years we went to uni, but still, we felt safe.
i missed you…and this space. i’m glad you haven’t been absent from the blogging world as i have. people need to hear your voice. xx.
xx illyria dear, no not absent ever it is too easy to post to this thing from everywhere it is the cigarette break for one who does not smoke.
I just heard the cab driver did not press charges it was the police who pressed charges after the cab driver called them so now it is up to her lawyer. You are not allowed to bring out of state pepper spray into NYC or something like that.I carried it all the time in NY so I guess I’m just lucky I neverhad to use it.
So now the charges are less and the lawyer has to do her job.
Great title :) I think mace is illegal as the nearest place I know you can buy it in is Philadelphia–think I actually bought mace to put on a key chain years ago
NY prides itself on its lack of any kind of weapons. A friend who watches all 3 CSI’s said the NY one shows the least amount of guns etc. He was very proud of that and I know it’s a weird measure but
That all said there have been cab drivers i would have liked to have maced and would have as sometimes when they take you wrong ways it’s very very scary–even for a native who no longer is young
Re your no comment post. I saw a poll by Michelle Malkin saying 80% of people who watched thought McCain “won”which directly contradicted every other poll and made me laugh
yea it was pretty funny, I wrote that the morning after, and see now most of the people saw what I saw.
A woman should be allowed to at least carry mace for her own protection. Your friend needs a lawyer ASAP. A nice friendly, inyourfaceaggressive lawyer who will make sure an assault charge is filed against the cabbie.
I have a crazy NYC cabbie story. Myself and a few women took a cab to the upper west side, 94th st or so. 3 of us in the backseat and cheesehead in the front. cheesehead is from WI and is a cute blonde. she likes chatting with people from different backgrounds and areas and was soon chatting away with the cabbie, an iranian who had more than a few negative things to say about the US. he talked pretty loud because his car was making a strange noise as we flew up the westside parkway.
As we were getting out, he leaned over to her and told her “it’s good you were nice to me because there’s a bomb under your seat.”
I had a few words for him but one thing I did not tell him was that his two right-side tires were nearly flat. the strange noise, I suppose.
Your friend did what she had to do. And that should be central to her defense. Might help if she files a complaint with the city’s hackney/carriage division about the cabbie attempting to run up the fare by going the scenic tour.
yea, I think if she gets out of this she is probably just never going back to New York. lol
I know there are a few cities where it is illegal even though it is legal in the state. It sounds like a big misunderstanding to me.
I think the formula runs get arrested=need lawyer.