[mquander]

I wish things were different, to be honest, but if you put yourself in the law enforcement officer's point of view, what's the difference between a few tourists enjoying a bottle of wine on the street, and a few drunken hooligans causing trouble and starting fights. I'm not saying you were doing anything like that, but a cop really can't discriminate.

Don't make needless excuses. Firstly, there are many ways the law discriminates in your example; given your description, a cop could probably cite the second group for disorderly conduct or assault.

In addition, cops are not machines who accept a sequence of events and output "legal" or "illegal." Nor should they be, or could they be, given the complexity of law. An individual officer is indeed expected to exercise discretion and to enforce the law in ways that help society. It's impossible to take that discretion away from them, since we don't always have a way to judge the objective truth of situations without trusting some of the people involved, so we should remember that they hold that responsibility and be wary of attempts to discharge it.

[tptacek]

I guess, to the extent you're right that police should be held to a standard of "unfailingly professional while issuing open container tickets to drunk people who are taunting them". We also obviously don't have the full story. His friends apparently were arrested. Arrest is a big deal; it takes cops off their beat or patrol for an hour or two. What did his friends do to make the situation worse?

Open container enforcement is a quality-of-life issue. Tourists and bros won't appreciate it, but you should be aware that in many places, the residents not only do appreciate it, but get angry if it doesn't happen. I'd be pissed if people were wandering up and down my street drinking in the middle of the night.

Finally: with regards to "making excuses", you should get over it. Getting mad at the police for being assholes isn't going to get you anywhere. You can be "message-board-correct" about this all you want, but there is zero power to be had in standing up for your right not to be verbally abused by the police. You are the least of anyone in the NYPD's problems. There is, on the other hand, tremendous power to be had in being able to come back at abusive behavior with calmness, politeness, and appropriate compliance (don't consent to searches).