Alec Baldwin Booked by NYPD After Biking in Wrong Direction, Calls City a 'Mismanaged Carnival of Stupidity'

Alec Baldwin had a run-in with the New York City Police Department (NYPD) today that resulted in some fine frustrated tweeting from the notoriously blunt actor. Baldwin was initially stopped for "riding his bicycle the wrong way" down Fifth Avenue and eventually arrested for disorderly conduct, according to the Wall Street Journal.
"Officer Moreno, badge number 23388, arrested me and handcuffed me for going the wrong way on Fifth Ave," Baldwin tweeted around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.
"New York City is a mismanaged carnival of stupidity that is desperate for revenue and anxious to criminalize behavior once thought benign."
I wouldn't say that's an unfair characterization. Until yesterday the city criminalized carrying multiple condoms. Meanwhile, NYPD cops can't seem to stop getting smashed and firing off their guns. And this morning, cops took a man to the police station in handfcuffs for a biking infraction and not having ID on him at all times.
Here's more on Baldwin's morning from the Journal:
Officers approached Mr. Baldwin told him he "was riding his bicycle the wrong way," an NYPD spokeswoman said.
Mr. Baldwin was not able to produce identification and "then he got belligerent and started to argue with the officers," the spokeswoman said.
He was placed in handcuffs. Mr. Baldwin was taken to a local police precinct and was later released, the official said.
His court date is July 24. Good thing NYPD is here to protect from the scourge of celebrities riding bicycles in the wrong direction.
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You were not put on this Earth to "get it," Mr. Baldwin!
+1 David Lo Pan
Indeed!
Poor Alec. He's obviously a giant shithead, but it's impossible to not root for him. Hang in there, buddy!
It's such a short step from contempt of government to embracing a new philosophy. Can he make that leap? Ten bucks says no, he can't.
I mean my god, it's SO close from "this is mismanaged." To "it's ALL mismanaged." To "holy crap these morons need much less power and far fewer people."
If Alec Baldwin has some kind of libertarian awakening due to living in NYC it will be a clear sign that the end times are upon us and I will start construction on a bunker immediately.
Yeah, I don't think anyone could ever publicly admit that he was wrong about so much.
Some of the former communists like Ronald Radoosh came back from the dark side. If you are full on commie and come back, anyone can come back.
Thomas Sowell was a Marxist early in his career. Milton Friedman was a statist.
Sowell and Friendman were both true intellectuals. They were communists and Keynesians respectively because they didn't yet know better and followed their ideas where they took them. They didn't get their entire self identity from their politics. So when they realized they were wrong, they changed.
Most people are not like that. Most people choose their politics with their emotion and do so to get a sense of self worth and to feel superior. Doing that makes changing really difficult.
"I'll be in my bunker...."
Especially since I've come to think of him as the affable Jack Donaghy.
Ugh, me too. I know people think of Baldwin as a big-mouth who parrots liberal talking points, but I just think Donaghy.
Even if I watched 30 Rock regularly, I could never see him as anyone but the character from Glengarry, especially since his real-life run-ins show he wasn't really acting all that much in the role.
I can actually see the Glengarry version of Baldwin playing out in this scenario...
Yeah, that would probably get him cited. Common folk would likely have been tasered 6 times by then.
"If you ever speak ill of Reagan again, I will smack those teeth straight."
What's your name?
Blake: Fuck you. That's my name.
"Put that citation booklet down. Citations are for closers only."
"Third prize is - you're cited."
Here's the exchange I want to see.
Police Officer: What's your name? Do you have ID?
Baldwin: Fuck you. That's my name.
Whoops, I should have read the thread a little better. FUCK YOU
"I drove up on a $80,000 Trek Madone 7-Diamond, and you drove up in a police car. THAT'S my name."
Even for a Trek Madone, that bike better be made out of actual diamonds to be worth $80,000.
You got threads. Gillespie and Welch paid good money for those threads. You can't post on the threads you're given you can't close shit. You ARE shit. Hit the bricks pal, and beat it 'cause you are going OUT.
Yup. So is every other government on the earth.
Yet he will still support team blue and its nanny state at every step. Never realizing the nanny state must be supported by the police state.
The irony, it burns!
Alec Baldwin shoves reporters, rides bike on sidewalk.
I hate him. I like him. I hate him. I like him.
If the light would only come on...
I don't even know why people feel the need to hate him. Shit like this, combined with Glengarry, gets you in the good books for life. I mean we're surrounded by fucking statists, so he's better than 95% of people still, right?
In fairness, if he ever came out and admitted to being anything but a liberal, he would literally never get another part again. He would be lucky to get bathroom soap commercials.
He got cited for not having an ID? Is there actually a law requiring you to have ID on you? If that's the case, why the outrage at requiring ID to vote?
From the Journal: "Mr. Baldwin was not required to carry identification in New York City, but identification is required for an offense where a summons needs to be issued. "He received a summons relating to riding his bicycle the wrong way and not having identification," said a person close to Mr. Baldwin."
Not carrying your ID: that's not a paddlin'
Not carrying your ID and breaking some law: Oooh...you better believe that TWO paddlins.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H6jN0e7ivA
Mr. Baldwin was not required to carry identification in New York City, but identification is required for an offense where a summons needs to be issued.
That makes no sense. Either as drafted (which would mean that you can't commit an offense where a summons needs to be issued if you don't have your ID), or as intended.
Esp when he's Alec-freakin-Baldwin. Who honestly between the ages of 30 and 60 doesn't know who he is...
I don't believe he got cited for that but apparently it's procedure to take a person without ID to the station to issue any citation. It's a form of punishment for not carrying papers.
IANAL. That said...
There's no legal requirement to carry an ID, but some states let cops cite you for not providing ID if they've got probable cause to arrest you for something else, at which point you'd have to produce ID before a judge.
States or cities can require that a person give his/her name if asked by a cop, but they can't require possession of ID. New York specifically does not have such a law, so, technically, he didn't even have to give his name, much less an ID.
mismanaged carnival of stupidity
Sounds like Facebook.
Yet he still chooses to live there. I just do not understand why people love NYC so much - particularly when he doesn't really work there since MSNBC canned him.
I don't know why this is so hard for certain people to understand, especially when talking about a celebrity. Have you never been to NYC? It has almost anything you could want. Some people like that. And if they are immunized (mostly) from the hassles by money or fame, why wouldn't they choose to live there?
I mean, if you really can't understand, you are having a severe failure of imagination, or just projecting your own desires and choices onto people who are nothing like you.
If I won the mega millions, I would probably live in New York. The place sucks ass to live as anything but a super rich person. But if you are rich, why live anywhere else outside of the other extreme and having a compound way out in Montana or something? Everything you could possibly want is right there.
The place sucks ass to live as anything but a super rich person
Completely untrue, but it's all based on what you're looking for. When I lived there I made good money and was very comfortable and completely avoided the government and the police and successfully stayed off their radar. It was a lot of fun. When I got sick of it, I moved out. Many people do this.
Not as a super rich person. That is true. It would suck to live as anything but a well off person. If you make good money and don't mind not having a lot of space, you are right, it would still kick ass.
And if you're that rich, you get to live in NYC and have the MT compound. Livin' the dream!
And the private jet to commute between them.
And the 120 m yacht and the house in San Diego on the ocean and the ski lodge in Telluride and I think I'm still forgetting something (I know this person).
"It has almost anything you could want."
Things I want:
Fresh Air
Open space
Quiet
Guns and occasional shooting range visits
Reasonable taxes
Affordable cost of living
A yard with a decent vegetable garden
Freedom & Privacy
I've been to NYC plenty of times and know that I won't find anything I want there.
I'm the same way. I hate going to Manhattan. But I can comprehend that lots of people do want the sort of things you can get in the city.
Bullshit. I'm a huge fan of bike snob nyc (google him) who claims to love NYC, but living in NYC? Crime? Crooked cops? High cost of living? New Yorkers are like Texans: very proud of where they live, for no rational reason.
I'm no fan of the city either, but it is hardly bullshit. Are you trying to do your Yogi Berra impersonation or something?
Millions of people spend their whole lives there and millions want to move there. There are plenty of rational reasons to be proud of NYC and like living there (if you are into that sort of thing) in spite of all the terrible shit that is there.
"You are worthress Arec Barrwin"
Excellent - I was wondering if someone would remember to put that up!
He's a big Nanny Stater. Someone needs to explain to him that he was arrested for his own good.
As a huge Democrat booster, this is the government he asked for.
But Kristen, the government exists to control the little people. Not TOP. MEN. like Alec Baldwin. Therefore this is clearly not the government he asked for, and we all need to DO something!
Isn't he a board member of People for the American Way? I remember that because it has the most Orwellian name for a PAC I've ever heard.
Yep. Cry me a fucking river, Alec.
He's capable of being such a douche, but I've so thoroughly enjoyed so many of his performances...
At least he's giving the NYPD a hard time.
Can't we have them both lose somehow?
He is a total asshole but he is an entertaining asshole. I forgive a lot if you are entertaining. Contrast Baldwin with Aaron Sorkin. They are both equally idiotic in their own way. But Baldwin is entertaining. If you had to spend an evening with Baldwin you would probably manage to have a good time. If you had to do the same with Sorkan you would end up excusing yourself and trying to leap to your death out of the bathroom window just to make the evening end.
Jack Donaghy is one of my all-time favorite TV characters. If only the actor were more like the character....
Same here -- he got all of the great lines in the show. When Tina Fey won an emmy for writing, she was up against another writer on the show and she said in her speech that he deserved the emmy just for writing the Donaghy line, "Never follow a hippie to a second location."
The thing about that show is that Donaghy was supposed to be some charactature of the idiot, evil conservative. Yet, if you paid attention, he was nearly always right and the Tina Fey character equally wrong and was much more adjusted and happy than Fey. I don't know about you, but it always looked to me like Donaghy had his shit together a lot better than Fey.
The funny thing is, other than her politics and repressed sexuality, I am almost exactly like the Liz Lemon character. I always loved the interplay between Jack and Liz. I would love to have my own personal Jack Donaghy mentor.
If the show was only those two, plus Kenneth, it would have been even better (I thought the Jenna and Tracey characters were useless and boring).
If you take away politics and repressed sexuality, what exactly is left of the Liz Lemon character? Are you a cute short, perky brunette?
Introverted, misanthropic, stubborn (or, as Liz Lemon says: "principled"), bad luck with men, stressed, food-oriented ("workin' on my night cheese"), puts others before herself (despite her misanthropy).
You only have bad luck with men because you subconsciously want to have bad luck with men and choose your men accordingly. Having bad luck with men is part of your personal myth.
Just a guess.
I have no doubts about that. The introverted misanthropy doesn't help. I just prefer being on my own most of the time. That's one reason the squeeze and I have had some modicum of longevity - he's gone a lot.
Nothing wrong with that. Some people are better cut out for semi long distance type relationships. I could have done it in a minute. I am like you. I don't mind being alone and am very comfortable in my own skin. My wife in contrast is about as introverted and comfortable alone as a golden retriever. She wouldn't last a week if I was gone a lot.
Come for the dick jokes, stay for John's down-home advice.
And flye reminded me - slobby
And I love my Snuggie. So there.
Do you, right this moment, have dishes in your bathroom?
Let me put it this way - I have had to take dishes out of the bathtub at some point in my life.
I could never be in a relationship where I was the neat one.
The only thing worse than being in a relationship where you are the neat one, is being in a relationship with a neat freak.
I was close: "Never go with a hippie to a second location."
This is one context where I totally give the celebrity a pass for playing "Do you know who I am?"
It's incredibly stupid to cite someone for failing to have ID when you damn well know who the person is. Exactly the kind of dickweed behavior I'd expect from cops.
I agree. And there is no law that says you have to carry an ID or identify yourself to cops. Cops have just decided they will arrest anyone who doesn't.
Officer Moreno, badge number 23388, arrested me and handcuffed me for going the wrong way on Fifth Ave. 3h ago
I broke the law and the cops wouldn't leave me alone. WAAAAAHHH!
Meanwhile, photographers outside my home ONCE AGAIN terrified my daughter and nearly hit her with a camera. The police did nothing. 2h ago
The photographers didn't break the law and the cops left them alone. WAAAAHHH!
Mr. Baldwin was not able to produce identification
I gues we know what's not in his wallet.
*narrows gaze*
Team Blue bitch gets bitch-slapped by City Team Blue and bitches like a little bitch? Life's a Bitch.
Ain't that a bitch
Alec, if you're gonna suck that big, blue dick, you gotta expect a shot in the mouth every now and then.
Jus' sayin'.
I'm sorry, but bicyclists going the wrong way down a one-way street are a goddamn menace. And when informed of this fact, they invariably go all asshole on you.
There is no creature more obnoxious and belligerent than a NYC bike messenger. And they love to go the wrong way down, well, everything. I once saw one slam his bike onto the hood of a taxi after he cut the taxi off and had to swerve.
Bike messengers and tourists with umbrellas were my two greatest impediments when I worked in the city. They received no quarter.
The only good things about bike messengers is they don't live long and no one ever mourns their passing.
This.
Fuck Reason and anyone saying this isn't a problem.
I hate obnoxious bikers as much as the next guy, but the arrest was a bit much.
I agree. Cyclists riding the wrong way is a pet peeve of mine. The arrest was a bit much though. My preferred solution would be to allow motorists to run down cyclists who ride on the wrong side of the road with impunity.
Don't get me started with motorists. They're a goddamn menace too.
Yeah, I'm probably giving them too much credit. I don't live in a city, so I generally think of motorists as just me. Or the slow poke in front of me.
bicyclists going the wrong way down a one-way street are a goddamn menace
I'm willing to rely on evolution to deal out the punishment, not the cops.
I thought he'd given up on Twitter and switched to Shitter so that his homophobic thumbs wouldn't get him into any more trouble?
Obligatory.
curiously ironic the contents, or lack thereof, of his wallet getting him into trouble.
Ahem. SOmebody already mentioned that.
I liked Alec Baldwin better when he was the mean guy from Glengarry Glen Ross.
He has been good in a lot of things. He was good in Malice and also in The Hunt for Red October. He is a good actor. He is just such an asshole few people work work with him.
I caught a bit of Red October over the weekend. Boy was he handsome.
"New York City is a mismanaged carnival of stupidity that is desperate for revenue and anxious to criminalize behavior once thought benign."
What a thing to say, Alec!
Government is full of hard working and capable people making our lives better each and every day! They love us, and take care of us, and we shouldn't question the rules they apply, because it's all to the common good.
Many things were once thought benign that we realize are crimes today. Racism. Sexism. Slavery. Drinking unpasteurized milk. If you're opposed to government power to stop evil, you're *for* evil.
Arrested for biking in the wrong direction? How did the cops know where he was going in the first place, and since when it is against the law to go in the wrong direction? I get lost all the time, and the cops have never arrested me for that.
One way street or wrong side of the road.
I can't tell if you are being obtuse or trying to be funny.
In New York State it has been as long as I remember. A cyclist has to follow all the vehicle and traffic laws.
I get lost all the time, and the cops have never arrested me for that.
That's the wrong direction in relation to your personal goals, predilections and perversions.
Then there's the 'wrong way' according to local statutes and traffic pattern designations. One way streets, no left turns, DO NOT ENTERs and that kind of thing.
I presume that Mr. Baldwin, progressive, was abusing the latter, not the former.
"New York City is a mismanaged carnival of stupidity that is desperate for revenue and anxious to criminalize behavior once thought benign."
"Oh, by the way; fines are based on ability to pay, Mister Baldwin. Your fine will be $75.000.- and I hope you brought cash."
I think they pull that crap in Sweden or somewhere? Don't give De Blasio any ideas - you know he's reading this, "know thine enemy" and all.
Fuck Reason and anyone saying this isn't a problem.
WAAAAAAAH!
Alec Baldwin Booked by NYPD After Biking in Wrong Direction, Calls City a 'Mismanaged Carnival of Stupidity'
It's a progressive's progressive city. Live by the regulatory state, die by it, Mr. Baldwin. Next TMZ story...
Laws are laws Mr Baldwin! Do you just want abject anarchy?
He's just a racist teabagger who supports the Kochporashuns.
Alec Baldwin is a Democrat.
Looking at that picture, my first thought was "Baldwin and Putin: Separated at Birth?"
I like him a little better now. Is that a bad thing?
'Mismanaged Carnival of Stupidity'...
That pretty much describes every Progressive/Marxist Urban Utopia. No?
And yet Alec Baldwin will keep supporting Democrats until he drowns in his own stupidity... along with the rest of us.