You've got to be kidding.

Woman arrested, cuffed for eating candy.

You would really think that, in a crime-ridden shithole like Washington D.C. (and I'm not just talking about the politicians & lobbyists), the cops - even the transit cops - would have something better to do. Sounds like this rent-a-cop made it too far up the ladder for his own good.

"If she had stopped eating, it would have been the end of it and if she had just stopped for the issuance of a citation, she never would have been locked up," Transit Police Chief Polly Hanson said Thursday.

Metrorail has been criticized in the past for heavy-handed enforcement of the eating ban. In 2000, a police officer handcuffed a 12-year-old girl for eating a french fry on a subway platform.

In 2002, one of their officers ticketed a wheelchair-bound cerebral palsy patient for cursing when he was unable to find a working elevator to leave a station. Unflattering publicity eventually led the police to void the ticket.

Willett was the second person arrested this year for eating or drinking, Hanson said. In addition, police have issued 58 tickets and given more than 300 written warnings.

You have to wonder what type of little Napoleon is in charge of the D.C. transit cops.

Thanks to E.N. for the tip