Ignorance of the law is not a defense, but this is pretty absurd. Peter Shankman, a rich person with a bunch of titles, was running in Central Park at 4:30 in the morning, even though it is apparently illegal to be in Central Park between 1:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. A cop with a tight-ass boss saw Shankman and wrote him up for breaking the 1:00 a.m. curfew.
From Shankman's Facebook post on Thursday:
At 4:30 this morning in Central Park, at mile 2 of my ten mile run, I was stopped by the police and given a summons for exercising in the park "before it opened."
...
To answer the question of why I was running so early - I needed to do ten miles today as part of Ironman training. If I didn't start that early, I wouldn't be done before my first meeting of the day.
A "hey, buddy, the park doesn't open until six, you need to run on the sidewalk outside" from the police officer wouldn't have sufficed? Apparently not, since he made it clear that his boss was in the car with him, so he had to write me up.
Shankman said he plans on fighting the ticket when he is due in court in May. Which means he will pay the ticket some time in May when he calms down and realizes that would be a colossal waste of his time.
Photo credit: Getty Images
CEO Ticketed For Running In Central Park Too Early [Gothamist]