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Cop doesn't understand how law works, arrests guy who does for something totally legal.

That awkward moment when your average citizen knows more about the law than the police do.

Cop doesn't understand how law works, arrests guy who does for something totally legal.

Andrew Kalleen, 30, a street musician, was playing in the subway station, which is totally legal (as long as you aren't in the way — he was against the wall). A police officer disagreed.

Andrew had been stopped by police on six previous occasions, had gotten two previous tickets, and decided he'd had enough. Andrew told him the number of the law. The police officer then read the law that protected Andrew out loud. And didn't understand that the law was on Andrew's side.

So the officer, with the help of his fellow officers and to the great annoyance of everyone in the station, arrested Andrew. According to Andrew's account in Rolling Stone, when the officer realized he didn't have anything to arrest him on upon getting in his vehicle,

"my officer was frantically looking through his phone to try to find some law to charge me with..."

By the end of the video, everyone was booing and speaking out on the performer's behalf.

Watch the whole thing here:

The law the officer cited was as follows (emphasis mine):

Section 1050.6c of the NYC transit authority rules state: "Except as expressly permitted in this subdivision, no person shall engage in any nontransit uses upon any facility or conveyance. Nontransit uses are noncommercial activities that are not directly related to the use of a facility or conveyance for transportation. The following nontransit uses are permitted by the Authority, provided they do not impede transit activities and they are conducted in accordance with these rules: public speaking; campaigning; leafletting or distribution of written noncommercial materials; activities intended to encourage and facilitate voter registration; artistic performances, including the acceptance of donations."

In a interview with the New York Daily News, Andrew doesn't really blame the officer.

"I do sympathize with [the officer]," Kalleen said. "He's sort of a cog in a larger problem that's encouraging that behavior."

If the police don't know the rules, how can we expect them to enforce them properly? Educate officers in the law and teach them to de-escalate (along with body cameras, more oversight, etc...) . It's a win for all.

In the interim, Andrew is still waiting to find out the status of his arrest.

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Tory Burch
Tory Burch Empowered Women
Empowered Women

After Losing Her Friend To Cancer, This Woman Created a Horse Camp for Pediatric Patients and Their Families.

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When Molly Reeser was a student at Michigan State University, she took a job mucking horse stalls to help pay for classes. While she was there, she met a 10-year-old girl named Casey, who was being treated for cancer, and — because both were animal lovers — they became fast friends.

Two years later, Casey died of cancer.

"Everyone at the barn wanted to do something to honor her memory," Molly remembers. A lot of suggestions were thrown out, but Molly knew that there was a bigger, more enduring way to do it.

"I saw firsthand how horses helped Casey and her family escape from the difficult and terrifying times they were enduring. I knew that there must be other families who could benefit from horses in the way she and her family had."

Molly approached the barn owners and asked if they would be open to letting her hold a one-day event. She wanted to bring pediatric cancer patients to the farm, where they could enjoy the horses and peaceful setting. They agreed, and with the help of her closest friends and the "emergency" credit card her parents had given her, Molly created her first Camp Casey. She worked with the local hospital where Casey had been a patient and invited 20 patients, their siblings and their parents.

The event was a huge success — and it was originally meant to be just that: a one-day thing. But, Molly says, "I believe Casey had other plans."

One week after the event, Molly received a letter from a five-year-old boy who had brain cancer. He had been at Camp Casey and said it was "the best day of his life."

"[After that], I knew that we had to pull it off again," Molly says. And they did. Every month for the next few years, they threw a Camp Casey. And when Molly graduated, she did the most terrifying thing she had ever done and told her parents that she would be waitressing for a year to see if it might be possible to turn Camp Casey into an actual nonprofit organization. That year of waitressing turned into six, but in the end she was able to pull it off: by 2010, Camp Casey became a non-profit with a paid staff.

"I am grateful for all the ways I've experienced good luck in my life and, therefore, I believe I have a responsibility to give back. It brings me tremendous joy to see people, animals, or things coming together to create goodness in a world that can often be filled with hardships."

Camp Casey serves 1500 children under the age of 18 each year in Michigan. "The organization looks different than when it started," Molly says. "We now operate four cost-free programs that bring accessible horseback riding and recreational services to children with cancer, sickle cell disease, and other life-threatening illnesses."

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