04 Apr Law Student Handcuffed for Questioning Cops’ Illegal Parking

I guess we’ve all done things in our school days that in hindsight were very much in the “what was I thinking?” category. For a Cardozo first year law student (I’ll spare him further name recognition), that moment may have been last December. Apparently two NYC cops were parked illegally at a Brooklyn food truck taking a lunch break. The student decided to question them about the illegal parking. When he persisted in his questioning after they tried to dissuade him, they handcuffed him. They also charged him with disorderly conduct, but according to the ABA Journal, the charges were dismissed because they weren’t prosecuted.

But the student is suing now because he worries the incident could affect his ability to be admitted to the bar when he (hopefully) graduates in a few years. Could that be the second questionable decision he made? You may be the judge of that, pun intended.

This kind of gets to two issues. First, if you do something that could set in place events that could jeopardize your becoming a lawyer, maybe considering not doing that thing. But it also gets into the balance we apply as a society between supporting, encouraging and appreciating our public servants and wanting them also to comply with the law like everyone else. Frankly, I think there’s a difference between parking and, say, reckless driving through red lights when there’s no particular emergency. So maybe on both sides, let’s try to have as much common sense as humans are capable of mustering.