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    Question False Arrest for Standing in a Median

    My question involves civil rights in the State of: CO

    Hey guys. Quick question. Should be pretty easy. I just wanted to confirm if this is an obvious infringement on my fourth amendment rights or not, and if the police are liable in a 42 USC court for not having arguable probable cause.

    Location in question is the 29th Street Mall private drives in Boulder, CO.

    Quote Quoting Municipal ordinance in question is Boulder Municipal Code 5-6-16:
    5-6-16. - Staying on Medians Prohibited.

    (a) No person shall stand or be upon a median of any street for longer than is reasonably
    necessary to cross the street.

    (b) For the purposes of this section, median means:

    (1) The area of a street, generally in the middle, which separates traffic traveling in
    one direction from traffic traveling in another direction, or which, at intersections,
    separates traffic turning left from traffic proceeding straight. Such an area is
    physically defined by curbing, landscaping, or other physical obstacles to the
    area's use by motor vehicles, or by traffic control markings which prohibit use of a
    portion of the pavement of a street by motor vehicles other than to drive
    generally perpendicularly across the markings, or to wait there awaiting the
    opportunity to cross or merge with the opposing lanes of traffic (also known as
    painted medians, which are wider than a double yellow line); or

    (2) The area of a street at an intersection between the streets and a right turn only
    lane, roughly triangular in shape, and separated from the motor vehicular traffic
    lanes by curbing, landscaping, or other physical obstacles to the area's use by
    motor vehicles (also known as a right turn island).

    (c) This section does not apply to medians which are thirty or more feet wide, to the
    medians on Mapleton Avenue between Fourth Street and Ninth Street, or to persons
    maintaining or working on the median for the government which owns the underlying
    right of way or for a public utility.

    Ordinance No. 7965 (2014)
    And so, this led me to look up the definition of "street" -- which can be found in their Municipal Code Section 7-7-1:

    Street means the entire width between the property boundary lines of every way
    publicly maintained when any part thereof is open to the use of the public for purposes of
    vehicular travel and includes, without limitation, alleys or the entire width of every way
    declared to be a public highway by any law.
    So... the private drives of the 29th Street Mall are all obviously private property, and the parcels when looked up in Boulder's city and county maps reflect that there are definitely no "property boundary lines" to which they exist between -- because obviously they, and the whole area of the mall, is undisputed private property. These are not public streets in any way, shape, or form.

    The police officers told me I was "standing in a median less than 30 feet wide." When I got to municipal court, they dropped the charges instantly, saying in their motion to dismiss that they were "unable to establish each and every element beyond a reasonable doubt."

    A clear and obvious violation of my fourth amendment rights because the officer didn't even have his definitions correct? Or can he claim "I thought he was on a median!" even though he clearly thought wrong that I was on a public street.

    PS- I pointed to the "private street, no city maintenance" signs right behind me, of which he ignored and pretended didn't exist. Actually, when asked, his supervisor said the private drive I was on was still "maintained by the city for the purposes of enforcing said municipal code."

    I say hogwash. What do you guys say?

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