A judge has tossed out summonses against five men busted for playing chess at Inwood Hill Park.

The judge’s action Tuesday came after civil rights lawyer Norman Siegel agreed to take on the bizarre case…

“We won’t be satisfied until all of them have their cases dismissed,” said Siegel, former director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “There was no reason for the police to issue these summonses.”

The other two players opted for civil trials on Jan. 4 in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Charges against the five were dismissed on the condition they stay out of trouble for six months.

There should have been no conditions.

Here’s an earlier statement from the cops– per an earlier article by Shelby Lyman:

“It’s the broken-windows theory: Small things can turn into bigger things.”

Ah, yeah. Some kid might see them playing, take up the game, learn to think critically, go to college and get a degree, influence the world. You see the danger, from the government’s point of view. One thing leads to the next.

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Related Link: My earlier post about this story:
The new USA: Chess players, like Socrates, busted for corrupting the youth.