Not long after a man stabbed two men to death on the No. 2 train with a kitchen knife last year, the NYPD stepped up its enforcement of the city's illegal knife ban, and Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance got Paragon and Home Depot to stop selling illegal switchblades. In April, the crackdown swept up former Pulino's chef Nate Appleman, who was spotted with a chain running from his belt into a pocket, where he kept a two inch long knife that he "used to cut boxes at work." Appleman was arrested, and it seems the NYPD hasn't let up; their latest famous collar is East Village artist John Copeland. But luckily for him, he had lawyer Ron Kuby on his side. (He knows his rights, man.)
Copeland, who shows at the Nicholas Robinson Gallery in Chelsea and internationally, was arrested for carrying an illegal gravity knife in his pocket as he walked home along East 3rd Street on October afternoon, the Daily News reports. (According to the Post, he had it in a belt clip.) Gravity knives are defined by state law as knives that open via centrifugal force and have a blade that locks automatically in place. Copeland—who bought the knife at Paragon years ago, before they stopped carrying them—maintains that he was never able to open it with one hand, but the cop who arrested him did it with ease.
In court yesterday, Kuby told the judge, "Apparently, whether or not a knife is a gravity knife depends on the wrist size and dexterity of the arresting officer." After Kuby explained that Copeland is an artist who used the knife to cut canvases, the judge let Copeland off with an ACD. The charges could be punishable with up to a year in prison, but usually result in a community service sentence. "It's completely ridiculous," Kuby told the News. "They arrested me for basically carrying a tool I use for work that wasn't a gravity knife—it was a folding knife. I've been carrying a pocket knife since I was a kid."
