What happens when bureaucracy and reality collide

May 21, 2007 by
Filed under: Area 51 

I suspect I am not the only person who has wondered what would happen if there was an accident in the middle of the Pulaski Bridge. Would 108th Precinct (in Long Island City) handle it or would it be delegated to Greenpoint’s very own 94th? I have no fucking clue. But if the following tale from the March 4, 1906 edition of the New York Times is any indication, I don’t think I want to find out.

PRISONER NOBODY WANTS

New Order by Bingham Confuses the Hunter’s Point Police.

The police of the Hunter’s Point Precinct have a prisoner on their hands whom they cannot get rid of. The precinct was recently extended by Commissioner Bingham to take in all of the Newton Creek Bridge. The bridge extends to Manhattan Avenue and Ash Street, Greenpoint, and yesterday Patrolman Campbell on duty at the Greenpoint end of the bridge was called upon to arrest a young man who was flourishing a revolver.

The prisoner described himself as Robert Marcantino, 18 years old, of 479 Graham Avenue, Brooklyn. In the Long Island City Court Magistrate Connorton refused to consider the case as the arrest was made in Kings County. The policeman cannot go to Brooklyn with the prisoner without a special order from Commissioner Bingham, and in the meantime the prisoner is being deprived of his rights under the law, which states plainly he must be arraigned before the nearest magistrate.

Any Greenpointers out there who are contemplating committing crimes on the Pulaski Bridge consider yourself warned; not only will you be jailed in Queens, you may never come back!

Miss Heather

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