OWS: The Art Police-Up to Their Old Tricks-As Always

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Back at Union Square for just less than two weeks, OWS had found a more resilient and friendly park for Occupation but the NYPD, puppeteering the National Parks Department, kept odd stride in enforcing whatever ‘laws’ they could just make up in policing the park and surrounding sidewalk.

With an age-old Occupy hobby of making snarky signs, Occupiers found themselves battling with police (figuratively of course) over cardboard. Yes. Cardboard.  New ‘rule’ says you can’t have any cardboard on the ground – cardboard signs that is. Never mind that other park people, let’s say chess players and other artists can have cardboard as part of their displays – it’s the Occupiers who can’t have any cardboard. And since I was wearing an Occupy t-shirt, and painting arguably funny cardboard signs, that meant me.

And so, in line with too many artists from the past, I found myself with a summons for ‘unlawful vending’ ($250), a charge that shouldn’t stick because artists are not technically vendors and instead are just exercising their first amendment rights to free speech – be it artistic speech – yet protesters are able to take donations for the work. But that’s not how the boys in green (National Park Rangers) want to see it. And so my routine went like this: One ranger came by and told me that all art needed to be 12″ off the ground, and I said, “I can do that” – so I got some boxes and put the ‘art’ on the boxes – 12″ above the ground. Then another ranger came by and said the 12″ wasn’t good enough, that the work must be on a table. And so I said again, “I can do that”, and proceeded to fashion the boxes into the shape of a table – 2 boxes high, 2 boxes wide – a cardboard table. “Whoop Whoop!” That’s the sound of the siren on the ranger-mobile. This time ranger Charlemagne was on the street adjacent to the sidewalk where art can be shown and motioning for me to come to his truck. Once there he tells me that ‘table’ meant a portable table with folding legs and assures me that he can produce documentation to support the claim. I argue that the cardboard legs of my table fold, but that of course, gets me absolutely nowhere.

Looking at the ticket above you’ll see that the ranger had a choice of fines to assess, from $25 to $250. He chose $250. Bad cardboard, bad cardboard. And so on May 15th I will go to the court and argue the charge. Other artists at the park assure me that it will be dropped on the grounds of my art being a protest and that my medium specifically is cardboard. We’ll see. In whatever case, I will waste 1/2 a day and if the officer shows up, he will be paid an overtime rate for his trouble. I, of course, will be paid nothing + the nothing I got for setting my display up in the first place and having to dismantle it. This is the price we all pay for living in a police state, a state where law enforcement can illegally enforce any law they dream up, including ones that violate the first amendment, whilst being paid a living wage and possibly and overtime wage, while the citizens must pay to defend themselves against the state.

Enter Robert Lederman. “Lederman is perhaps best known as the artist who painted hundreds of satirical portraits of NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Giuliani had Lederman falsely arrested, but never once convicted, more than 40 times between 1994 and 2000. The Giuliani portraits appeared thousands of times in the media during the Giuliani era and were a constant subject of controversy during those years. Lederman was featured in the documentary It’s Giuliani Time. His successful lawsuits made it legal to sell art on the street without a license, in NYC Parks without a permit and to protest without a permit on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.”

As the officer was giving me my ticket I asked him if he was aware that there was a jobs crisis in America these days (probably the most notable underlying reason for the Occupy movement) and that he was stopping me from making even a street artist’s living. No response. I then told him that he could go home assuredly that night and tell his children how he had made America a better country that day. No response. Of course.

Trampling the First Amendment, our right to free speech, has now become commonplace at OWS New York. Hi NYPD? How’s the overtime pay for reading this story?

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About Post Author

David Everitt-Carlson

David Everitt-Carlson is an international Advertising/Marketing consultant in New York City. He has also written for The Morton Report and currently writes for OpEd News and Cowbird. He is also an Occupier but most days he occupies a computer and tries his best to stay out of jail.
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11 years ago

[…] combined with successful lawsuits), if the art addresses anything “political,” the summons and tickets […]

11 years ago

[…] successful lawsuits), &#1110f th&#1077 art addresses anything “political,” th&#1077 summons &#1072nd tickets […]

11 years ago

Well Junction, at least you’re asking questions – that’s the first step. But coming to conclusions as you do without any information is not the smartest of approaches to the global wake-up call of Occupy. So my answers to your questions and clarifications on your assertions follow:

1) The point of Occupy is to stimulate a conversation on what is important to the American people and then to communicate those issues to our elected representatives.

2) There is no camping out on private property. In NYC the sidewalks are public spaces and so you own them too – not the corporations in the building adjacent to them.

3) As far as Occupiers harassing the cops, the funniest thing I’ve seen was a guy with a donut swinging from a fishing pole as the cops barricaded themselves into Union Square at midnight as they have now done for three weeks +. Google “Occupy Cop Fishing” and see the video. And while there, look at a few more videos and see how the police brutally handle a peaceful occupation …

4) And as far as ‘something better to do’? I’m fighting for my country in a national war against financial terrorists. What are you doing ‘better’?

starburst63
11 years ago

Well Junction I think for one you are not paying attention? Don’t you know what the corporate monsters are doing to our country? At least these people have the courage to speak up and the police should leave them be. This was a really good story.

11 years ago

Can someone tell me the purpose of this “movement?” What’s the point? Camping out on private property, harassing the cops. Don’t you have something better to do?

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