What is a consequence of the crime rate dropping in NYC? Cops with too much time on their hands

So a group of friends and I were pre-drinking Saturday night and began to head to dinner around 9:00, having decided we had consumed enough alcohol. Andrew, on the other hand, hadn't quite had his fill yet and riskily attempted to walk down the street with a red-stripe in tow [stealthily concealed by a brown bag]. I gave him my usual "What the hell are you doing look?" [it's basically plastered to my face when I'm around him . .and I'm around him A LOT] and he replied "I'm SO going to get an open container ticket."

Fast Forward 10 minutes to us walking down the street. Andrew downs his beer in a mere 5 blocks and like any decent environmentally-friendly Canadian, plops the beer IN THE GARBAGE CAN. Note: He didn't put it on the ground, smash it against a wall, or throw it at a passing-by biker. He.Put.It.In.The.Garbage. Next thing you know, we hear the stringent yell of a less than intelligent man to our right, in a beat up cadillac. "Hey Dude, you going out tonight?" Andrew turns to me with a questioningly look while I proceed to disregard the harassment and continue walking [it's Williamsburg, there are lots of crazies so this is pretty much a daily occurence.] Next there's a loud noise that barely resembles a siren and the same guy is trailing us saying "DUDE, get over here." Last time I checked, Andrew doesn't answer to 'dude.' Idiot, dork, loser, nerd MAYBE. but not Dude. Andrew finally walks cautiously to the car, as I was invisioning the wierd man taking out a gun and shooting it in his face [I'm such an optimist].

The conversation goes something like this:
"Policeman in car": What did you throw out in the garbage?
Andrew [or 'Dude']: A beer
Policeman: You're stupid for telling me that because I had no idea what was in there, I'm going to give you a ticket.
Andrew [a bit drunk at this point]: Are you a REAL policeman? [or one of those fake ones]
Policeman: Dude, I'm really going to write you a ticket. This is not a joke.
Andrew: No seriously, what is going on here?

You get the point. . .It was a very bizarre experience. Who gets an open container ticket, especially in New York? Last time I checked there were probably hundreds of people getting murdered, doing drugs [and real drugs, not weed], breaking into houses, gangs beating up on people, I don't know what else. . .a dog without a leash in central park? This seems like something that would happen in back woods Vermont [haha Shannon] where the police actually have nothing to do. But see in NYC we have a lot of crazy people that do crazy things so the police are actually very busy [hello, have you ever seen Law & Order? And now there's like 3 different shows, the original, criminal intent, SVU. . .complete proof that NYPD has much more important things to take care of other than a silly open container ticket]. Oh and not to mention those people call 'terrorists,' don't mind them!

And the best part was, the ticket is $25. What is the point of a $25 ticket? It probably doesn't even cover the administrative fees, not to mention the cop's time. Ah well, I feel like Andrew probably learned his lesson and I had something to blog about other than what I ate for lunch today. Which, by the way, was a chinese soup bowl from Master Yap and it was nothing short of delicious.