Crime & Safety

Should Stoops Be Excluded From The Open-Container Law?

A Boerum Hill resident is fighting back after receiving a summons for drinking on July 4th.


While many of his neighbors were celebrating their independence on July 4th, Boerum Hill resident Andrew Rausa and three friends spent much of the day reacting to summonses they'd received for drinking beer on his stoop, reported an article in The New York Times on Tuesday.

Rausa told the Times that an unmarked police car pulled up to his home during the afternoon while he and his friends were escaping the indoor heat.

“You’re all getting summonses for drinking in public,” Mr. Rausa recalled one of the officers announcing from the other side of the wrought-iron gate in front of the brownstone, on Douglass Street. 

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Mr. Sausa told the Times he was initially stunned. But as a third-year Brooklyn Law School student, he also instinctively searched on his iPhone to study the New York administrative code, which defines a public place as one “to which the public or a substantial group of persons has access, including, but not limited to,” a park, sidewalk or beach. Exceptions include drinking at a block party or “similar function for which a permit has been obtained” or places with liquor licenses. 

Seeing as the group was sitting on private property behind a gate, Sausa was certain the summonses did not apply. But when he approached the officer with his iPhone and attempted to correct him, the officer responded: “I don’t care what the law says, you’re getting a summons,” the Times article reported.

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As a previous case involving Kimber VanRy, a Prospect Heights resident who was issued a summons for drinking on his stoop in 2008, brought attention to the ambiguousness of the open-container law, Rausa and his friends intend to plead not guilty in court.

In the meantime, it would appear that summonses are issued at the discretion of the officer. Many cases get thrown out on technicalities, as it's all very, very grey.

All of this begs the question, should gated stoops be excluded from the open-container law? And should NYPD officers be receptive when corrected on a law?


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