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Cop: Cyclist Crackdown Is Robin Williams's Fault
By
John Del Signore
Published Apr 22, 2011
Modified Apr 22, 2011
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By
John Del Signore
Published Apr 22, 2011
Modified Apr 22, 2011
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Playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis, whose hilarious play The Motherfucker With the Hatyou should definitely go see, tells Vulture he just got slapped with a $330 ticket for blowing through a red light on his bicycle on 72nd Street. As if that wasn't infuriating enough, the officer who wrote him the ticket offered an apologetic explanation—as they tend to do—for giving Guirgis the ticket. As in all things, the blame can be placed on Robin Williams. Just in case Old Dogs wasn't enough of an outrage, Guirgis gives us this:
I got a $330 ticket on my bicycle on the way down here for running a red light. [The police officer] told me that there’s a clampdown because someone let Robin Williams out of a ticket on his bike the other night, so they have to write everybody up.
You'll recall that Williams has been bragging all over town about how cops let him out of a ticket for biking on the sidewalk once they realized he was the star of Patch Adams (and, currently, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, which you should also definitely go see!). Unfortunately for Guirgis, writing a critically-lauded Broadway show doesn't quite rise to the level of summons-waiving status. (Maybe next time he should ride a tandem bike with Chris Rock, who stars in his show?) Of course, it's also unfortunate that the NYPD has gone completely insane!
Tagged
cycling
cyclist crackdown
robin williams
stephen adly guirgis
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
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