Dancing Couple Arrested

First smoking, then soda — now there’s no dancing in New York City.

Caroline Stern, 55, and her boyfriend George Hess, 54, claim they were handcuffed for having happy feet on the platform of the Columbus Circle subway station — and spent 23 hours in custody as a result.

It was nearly midnight when Stern and Hess, a film-industry prop master, headed home last July from Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Midsummer Night’s Swing. As they waited for the train, a musician started playing steel drums on the nearly empty platform and Stern and Hess began to feel the beat.

“We were doing the Charleston,” Stern said. That’s when two police officers approached and pulled a “Footloose.”

“They said, ‘What are you doing?’ and we said, ‘We’re dancing,’ ” she recalled. “And they said, ‘You can’t do that on the platform.’ ”

The cops asked for ID, but when Stern could only produce a credit card, the officers ordered the couple to go with them — even though the credit card had the dentist’s picture and signature.

When Hess began trying to film the encounter, things got ugly, Stern said.

The charges, including resisting arrest, were later dropped. The couple has filed a Manhattan federal court suit against the city for unspecified damages. “When you’re waiting for the subway late at night, there’s not much to do but dance and celebrate life,” she said.

The Charleston is not the least bit offensive or dangerous.  If they had tried a Dirty Dancing scene or something more athletic, maybe I could see an argument.  A couple enjoying music did a quick shuffle and winds up in jail?  That seems a bit extreme.  NYC cops have taken a beating in the press recently.  You would think they would be trying to buy back a little goodwill with the public, not drive citizens crazy over a harmless spin late at night.

We need to be able to laugh and dance and ask questions.  This overbearing mindset has to go.  A simple warning would have likely sufficed.  This was silly from the start, but when the police got involved it went to stupid times infinity.  Let the people dance, and be grateful someone out there can enjoy a good beat.