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This Is What You Get for Picking Up Another Dog's Poop?
By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 8, 2010
Modified Dec 8, 2010
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By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 8, 2010
Modified Dec 8, 2010
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Ann Stanczyk, 49, was walking her terrier Psotka (Polish for prankster) near her home in Rockaway Beach on the Friday after Thanksgiving when two NYPD officers took a special interest in her dog's business. She claims that two cops approached her and ordered her to scoop poop that wasn't Psotka's, and after she begrudgingly complied, they violently arrested her for talking back. "They saw my dog and they said I didn't clean up," Stanczyk, a Polish immigrant, tells the Daily News. "I said, 'No, she only pee.' They, of course, not agree with me and I say, 'Show me. Where is it?' "
The cops pointed to some doo that Stanczyk had nothing to do with, but she says, "I got scared. I pick up. I said, 'It's cold, not belong to my dog.' When I smiled and said I didn't do anything, that made them very upset." Here her story gets a little vague, and it's unclear what happened between the moment she smiled at the police and the moment when she was handcuffed and kicking the squad car door as they loaded her in, but at some point she got some serious bruises, as you can see. "I started to scream, 'My dog! My dog!'" explains Stanczyk. "They punch me in my face. They punch me in my breast. They punch me in my stomach." It's also unclear if the poop was entered into evidence.
According to court papers obtained by the News, Stanczyk was accused of "causing a ruckus by yelling at the officers to leave her alone." She's filed a complaint with the Civilian Complaint Review Board and plans to sue, because, "I want to protect the others. If it can happen to me it can happen to other people." But really, the most shocking part of this whole story isn't the alleged brutality, but that the NYPD was actually enforcing the poop scoop law.
Tagged
dog poop
poop
poop scoop
queens
rockaway beach
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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