Giuliani Orders Artist Arrested Outside Brooklyn Museum 10/2/99
Robert Lederman, President of the First Amendment rights group A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists’ Response To Illegal State Tactics), was arrested at 10:35 AM today outside the Brooklyn Museum of Art only four minutes after his arrival. This is the 40th time the street artist/activist has been falsely arrested since Mayor Giuliani was sworn into office. He’s never been found guilty on any charge.
Lederman was quietly speaking with a group of reporters and photographers who were questioning him about his Giuliani portraits that had appeared in the previous days television coverage of the museum protest and in Saturday’s NY Times Metro section directly across from a photo of the Mayor endorsing George W. Bush. One portrait in particular that Lederman was carrying, a wide-eyed grimacing Giuliani with a large piece of dung attached to his forehead entitled “Giuli-anus”, was the particular focus of conversation.
Lederman, who was standing on the sidewalk and holding two of his acrylic on cardboard portraits of the Mayor, was surrounded by police, handcuffed and forcibly dragged to a car while yelling “censorship”. He was taken to the 84th Precinct and charged with disorderly conduct. The arresting officer was Lt. Richard Murphy of the 78th Precinct.
On the way to the precinct Lt. Murphy, who has never before met Lederman, admitted he knew exactly who he was and told the artist, “You understand, We’re just doing our job”.
After being released Lederman returned to the museum. Throughout the day police officials on the scene allowed protesters who were picketing the museum to scream anti-semitic insults at museum supporters without interference. Many of the same protesters were also allowed to walk up and down in the street with pro-Giuliani signs, to aggressively confront museum goers and to picket outside of the police barricades without interference of any kind or any threats of arrest.
After being released Lederman issued the following statement in front of the museum:
“This Mayor has a long and very well-established habit of violating freedom of speech, retaliating against his critics and selectively enforcing the law. Rather than being the upholder of the law, Giuliani is actually the City’s biggest criminal. Giuliani’s insistence on ordering yet another false arrest like his attacks on the Brooklyn Museum, is proof that he like many authoritarian despots before him, sees artists as a threat to both society and to his political future. His understanding of the art inside the museum or outside on the sidewalk is as defective as his understanding of the First Amendment.
Before Giuliani became Mayor I had little knowledge or appreciation of the First Amendment. Thanks to his concerted efforts over the past six years to censor my speech and destroy my art I’ve come to understand the real value of both the constitution and art. Thanks to Mayor Giuliani I’ve learned to make my art serve a higher purpose than mere decoration or visual pleasure. I will continue to use my abilities to expose this criminal Mayor and his criminal administration. Long live the Brooklyn Museum, long live art and long live freedom of expression”.
Lederman can be reached at 718 369-2111.
The A.R.T.I.S.T. website is at http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html