Riverside Park Conservancy
- Dora Marchand was arrested after cops approached her for having her dogs off the lead.
- After failing to provide ID, she was handcuffed and taken to a local precinct.
- The police colleagues laughed at the Parks Enforcement Patrol officers for the arrest.
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Dora Marchand was arrested and held in a jail cell for hours after walking her dogs without a lead in New York City.
Marchand, 29, was arrested by park police in an incident she called "unnecessary" and a "power trip."
Officers approached Marchand and her two mini Australian shepherds, Comet and Sophie, to reprimand her for not having the leash, which is required by Riverside Park, Manhattan.
"He was just like, 'OK, you don't have a leash. Just don't do it again.' He gave a warning," Marchand told The New York Post.
The officer reportedly turned to leave the situation, but another approached to continue the interrogation.
He stated that he would have to write her up, but trouble continued when Marchand could not recall the address of the sublet she had recently moved to.
She offered to show the officer her home to prove her identity, but the officer did not see this as sufficient and instead told her that she'd have to be held at the nearby precinct.
All the while, the two dogs were standing by their owner, well behaved, though they clearly did not want to get into the cage that one of the officers was inviting them into.
Marchand's boyfriend arrived to take the dogs back home, and Marchand was taken to the precinct, where she told The New York Post that she was stripped of her shoes as she sat in a holding cell, listening to NYPD cops rib the parks officer for even bringing her in.
"They were kind of all laughing like, 'This is not fascist Germany, we don't arrest people for like not having dogs on the leash,'" she said.
In response, a spokesperson for the Parks Department told the New York Post, "education is always our first course of action," but Marchand "refused to comply with the rules as stated by both [Parks Enforcement Patrol officers] and signage on site."
"The patron also became confrontational and did not cooperate when asked for identification information," the spokesperson said, a claim that Marchand has repeatedly refuted.
Marchand was issued two tickets and faces up to $525 in fines, said the New York Post.