Imagine you are finished with a hard day at work. You get on the train to go home, open a cookbook to read on the ride home and slowly drift off to sleep.
Window washer Sam Hardison has been charged by City Hall with another crime of the century:
Falling asleep on a CTA train, with a cookbook in his lap. So the poor guy may have to pay City Hall a fine of up to $300 for sleeping dangerously.
Oh yeah, you are now a criminal in the eyes of the City of Chicago. You can get a $300 fine for sleeping in public. And if you are not careful, you could go to County for it:
“I looked the officer right in the eye and said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding. I have to go to court on this?’ And he said, ‘Yes, you do,’” Hardison, a West Sider, told us the other day about his June 5 ticket on the Red Line.
The officer’s partner didn’t like Hardison’s attitude, which he says was shock and astonishment, not anger. (Full disclosure: My late father-in-law was a window washer, so I’m prejudiced in Hardison’s favor, as is my wife, and she’s angry.)
“And the other officer said, ‘If you don’t be quiet, we will take you to jail right now. We’ll arrest you,’” Hardison said. “I let them write their citations. I felt that it was not right, but what can I do?”
This isn’t the first time someone endangered a train load of people by drifting off to sleep either:
Gaurav “Legs of Death” Bhatia, a chemical engineer who became famous a few years ago for getting a similar ticket for sleeping dangerously, and fighting City Hall and winning, with the help of your humble servant and a top-notch law firm.
“His name was ‘Legs of Death,’ but they said his legs were out in the aisle,” Hardison said. “My legs weren’t out in the aisle. I dozed off, but I wasn’t endangering anybody.”
“Legs of Death” Bhatia is now an engineer living in California, searching for a beautiful young woman to marry before his mom sends him back to India where they’ll match him up with someone whether he likes her or not.
“I’ve been there, man,” Bhatia said. “Tell him, I wish him good luck. Tell him to walk with his head high. Tell him he is going to sleep again. Tell him that it is his constitutional right to sleep, yeah!”
Hardison fought the ticket and the City dropped the case, but he lost a day’s wages going to court.
