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Man sets up impromptu entertainment center on Red Line platform at Harvard, but that's not why he was arrested
By adamg on Fri, 07/09/2021 - 11:57pm
Transit Police report arresting a man watching a movie and fiddling with his Playstation on the TV he plugged in on the inbound platform at Harvard around 4:20 p.m. on Tuesday - not for his unique way of wiling away the time underground but because he was wanted on charges of attacking somebody in Roxbury.
Police say Tykell Jones, 22, of Cambridge, didn't want to hear from cops that the inbound platform of a busy Red Line station was not the best place to set up an entertainment center and that he should mosey on. While talking to him, officers discovered he was wanted on a warrant out of Roxbury Municipal Court on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and assault and battery:
Jones was placed into custody and transported, along with his entertainment set up, to TPD-HQ for the arrest booking process.
Police did not specify the size of his TV, but it looked pretty big.
Innocent, etc.
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Comments
"around 4:20 pm"
Ha! I see what you did there!
In his defense, his lawyer
In his defense, his lawyer may use the urban planner parlance and say that he was just doing his part to "activate the public space".
He wasn't arrested for the tv
He wasn't arrested for the tv though. He had an active warrant.
They had to ID him
I don't think this is a major civil rights violation, but had they ignored what he was doing they wouldn't have found he had a warrent in the first place.
From the TPD report
It is plausible that if he had packed up and gone on his way, it would have been the end of the story. If he was unwilling to cooperate with their request to vacate the station with his setup, as the report implies, now he's trespassing, which is a crime in itself.
They may not arrest you for trespassing at that point, but they will certainly be determining your identity and when it turns out you have active warrants for alleged violent crimes, you aren't going to be leaving the station on your own anymore.
Yeah
I'm not arguing the police are in the wrong in this case but one of the common criticisms of police, particularly in public spaces like this, is that they should ignore people doing things which might not be socially pleasant but otherwise aren't hurting or blocking anyone.
See something, say something?
Anything involving electronics and consoles plugged into outlets within an underground T station is probably going to make the MBTA a little edgy. It was a different set up than the usual amp/guitar. Don’t know what else they should have done in this case. I’m a regular T rider and have seen a ton of stuff in those tunnels, and this was amusing, but it’s still entrenched in me to keep an eye out for things that are “off” and potentially dangerous.
I don't understand why people
I don't understand why people with active warrants do things that attract attention.
As the saying goes
smart criminals don't get caught easily.
Same reason that they ended
Same reason that they ended up with an active warrant!
When you said "fiddling with Playstation"...
...I thought you meant-- you know.
Can I nominate that as a new UH expression for publicly flogging the bishop, mixing a batch, etc. ?
Wait, was he actually
Wait, was he actually breaking any laws or did someone call the officers to check him out?
I don't understand what he was doing that warranted him being detained or being obliged to provide ID.