Woman arrested, cuffed for eating candy bar in subway station

[CatoCooper13]

(07-29) 14:34 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --

Eating en route to or while riding the subway here is a no-no.

Stephanie Willett, a government employee, found that out the hard way recently. Finishing a candy bar on her way into a Metro station, she was arrested, handcuffed and detained for three hours.

Willett said she was eating a PayDay bar on an escalator descending into a station July 16 when a transit policeman 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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This is absurd! They should've attended to more serious crimes than THIS! :roll:

 

[TweetyBird]

what if some people are hungry or break time from work so eat snack..

 

[Fly Free]

i realize it does sound absurd -- i grew up in the area and that policy has been in place for YEARS even during my time when i used the transit services -- in a way it is good cuz it keeps our subway system clean of litter and graffiti altho i DO think this particular case is ridiculous cuz the woman had already eaten the last of the candy bar and disposed of the wrapper in a trash bin PRIOR to her being on the train itself even tho technically shes IN the station -- this kind of policy is also in place for the Metrobus service (in coordination with WMATA's subway system since it is under WMATA) as well as with the Montgomery County's (MD) Ride-On bus service --

as for the 12 year old girl from 2000, that happened at the Eastern Market station if i recall correctly and that girl had her FF's in the McD's bag and ate one fry -- there was an outcry over that case too cuz this was a child and for a very minor infraction of eating a fry was so small compared to other more serious infractions of spraying graffiti to making a bomb threat -- the girl's case has since been dropped if i recall right due to the publicity of the WMATA's handling of this particular case and plus this occurred before the 9/11 terrorist attacks