Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
NYC Cops Ticket Man For Spitting
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Apr 19, 2015
Modified Apr 20, 2015
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Apr 19, 2015
Modified Apr 20, 2015
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
By far the most common summons handed out by the NYPD is for drinking alcohol in public [PDF]. Unsurprisingly, spitting doesn't crack the 20 most frequent offenses. Yet at least two police officers in Brownsville are seemingly offended enough by expectoration to make writing summonses for spitting a priority.
A man standing outside the Sutter Av-Rutland Road 3 train station films a glob of spit and the two officers who are writing him a violation for it.
"What is it, a violation?" he asks.
"A violation, exactly," one officer replies.
When the man asks the officer where he spits, the officer replies, "Trashcan, man."
"Just because you did nothing all day on the block don't mean that you gotta give me a summons because you need to go back to the station to make your quota, you feel me?" the man says, adding, "Spitting is my crime? How many people have you locked up for spitting?"
Put another way: how many white people have they locked up for spitting?
The incident occurred on the border of the 73rd and 67th Precincts; in 2011 at the height of the stop and frisk era, officers in the 73rd Precinct [PDF] made 25,167 stops, the second-highest of any neighborhood in the city (the first was the 75th in East New York).
Spitting is a health code violation that carries a $25 fine, the same amount as a ticket for having an open container; 38% of all summonses go unaddressed and result in a warrant for the offender's arrest. The mayor just announced several reforms to the summonsing system, including online payment for penalities, "a wider window within which to satisfy the summons," and a "reminder system."
"Loose cigarette enforcement is a lunatic mission, that no cop ever joined the NYPD to be part of," John Jay College of Criminal Justice and former NYPD officer Eugene O'Donnell told us several months ago. One wonders how many cops signed up to write tickets for spitting.
Tagged
Bill Bratton
broken windows
brownsville
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Central Park birders, others remember 63-year-old woman killed in park
People who said they knew her described her as an artist and a familiar presence in the Ramble.
By
Charles Lane
Published Sep 28, 2026 at 7:04 p.m. ET
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
News
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
By
Arya Sundaram
A Brooklyn jail cell filled with smoke. The emergency button failed, a lawyer said.
By
Samantha Max
Crews launch tunnel machines to dig first new Hudson River rail tunnels since 1910
By
Michael Sol Warren
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .