Public Intoxication? No Problem Anymore in NYC.

There goes the neighborhood! The Powers That Be in the NYPD will no longer arrest most people who are caught drinking alcohol in public in Manhattan, the city announced today. 

You don’t have to hide your cheap, fortified bottle of wine in a bag anymore. 

Unless it’s “necessary for public safety reasons,” the city attorney announced that the NYPD will no longer arrest people for certain low-level offenses in Manhattan. Now, you get to do a whole lot of new things including:

- public consumption of alcohol

- public urination 

- littering 

- riding between subway cars 

- taking up more than one subway seat

(yes, the prisons have been bulging with convicts of those last two issues). 

In a major event, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. proudly announced the city will no longer prosecute those infractions. Offenders can still receive “summonses” for those offenses. 

“Using summonses instead of arrests for low-level offenses is an intuitive and modern solution that will help make sure resources are focused on our main priority: addressing threats to public safety,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement. “Today’s reforms allow our hardworking police officers to concentrate their efforts on the narrow group of individuals driving violent crime in New York City. This plan will also help safely prevent unnecessary jail time for low-level offenses.”

If there was but one thing that would drive regular, decent folks to seek out a good neighborhood bar, this would be it. 

Seriously, a dive bar would be a far more safe, comfortable and yes, a cleaner environment than streets that are allowed to fill up with urine, litter and passed-out public drunks. 

Hey, New York —- time to get on board with the American Bars app for your phone! 

And remember, the American Bars app also connects you with taxi service.