I was walking down the block in Manhattan at 12:00am.  I picked up a
beer from a local bodega, brown paper bagged it, opened it and,
started walking down the block.  A few blocks later I discovered two
police officers had followed me down one of the blocks.  One asked me
what I had in the bag.  I said it is enclosed, what is the problem? 
The other officer proceeded to take the bottle in the bag from my hand
and pull out the bottle.  The first officer asked me for my ID and,
they wrote me a $50 ticket.  My question is, can I appeal this ticket
on the grounds that they had no right to search anything on my
persons?  They had no probable cause.  That was the only bit of
alcohol I had all night - so no drunk and disorderly issues to alert
them.  All I was doing was walking down the block with a nonexposed
bottle in a plain brown paper bag.  I am not denying what I was doing
but, did they have the legal right to do what they did?