Trials & Litigation
Brooklyn Resident Fights Ticket for Drinking on his Stoop
Posted Sep 8, 2008, 11:07 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Brooklyn resident Kimber VanRy says he’ll fight the $25 court summons he received a couple weeks ago for drinking beer on his stoop.
“In Brooklyn, the borough of the brownstone, few spaces are more sacred than the stoop, the place where the city goes to watch the city go by,” the New York Times reports in its story on VanRy’s plight. “Mr. VanRy’s summons, news of which has spread on Brooklyn blogs, message boards and in a community newspaper, The Brooklyn Paper, has stirred debate about the legal status of stoops and stoop drinkers.”
New York’s open container law bars the drinking of alcohol “in any public place” except for bars or block parties sanctioned by a permit, the Times story says. The law defines public places as areas “to which the public or a substantial group of persons has access.” The definition says it includes but is not limited to sidewalks, streets and parks.
VanRy contends his stoop is not a public place within the meaning of the law.
Columbia law professor Richard Briffault told the Times the case illustrates the thin line between private and public property. “It’s quite possible to be on private property and in public at the same time,” he said.
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