The NYPD Is Still Overwhelmingly Ticketing People Of Color For Drinking In Public

To-go alcohol sales have been a lifeline for many bars and restaurants during the pandemic and for many New Yorkers, the ability to get a drink outdoors has been a small bright spot. But unless you're somewhere that has outdoor seating, drinking outdoors is still illegal.

Yet people across the five boroughs are drinking outside, as they do every summer. And with the COVID-19 pandemic continuing, having a drink in a park can feel like a safer option than going to an outdoor restaurant.

“These bars and these places, like, come on. You take a ruler, it's not six feet apart,” said public school teacher Jessica Baltazar, 32. “And that's where it becomes scary. In a park, I feel like it's less scary and like my anxiety is lower.”

But while New Yorkers of all stripes are enjoying wine, beer, and cocktails in parks and on piers and stoops, public data shows NYPD officers are disproportionately ticketing Black people and other people of color for drinking in public. Of the 1,250 criminal summonses for drinking in public that the NYPD has handed out since January, 48 percent were given to Black people, and about 43 percent went to Hispanic people. Only 7 percent were given to white people. Police gave out half as many summonses for public drinking as during the same period in 2019, but the racial proportions basically stayed the same.

Now some are calling for the state to do away with open container laws entirely.

For the full story, go to Gothamist.com.