Giuliani Orders Artist Arrested For the 41st Time by Robert Lederman 2/17/2000
I just got home from a 24 hour stay in the dungeon-like Manhattan Criminal Courts' Central Booking, popularly known as The Tombs. My crime? Selling postcard versions of my portraits of Mayor Giuliani outside the gates of City Hall.
The Mayor was considerate enough to have his pointman in the war on street artists and vendors, Deputy Mayor Rudy Washington, personally supervise the arrest along with NYPD attorney Margaret Shields and to have me interrogated by the NYPD Intelligence division's Lt. Raymond Celentano and Detective Gene Casserli while I was held at the First Precinct. [A videotape of the arrest is available to the media.]
It should have been a routine three hour booking procedure ending in the issuance of a summons after a warrant check, fingerprints and a mug shot but according to two of the officers involved in the arrest Police Commissioner Safir's office called and said, put him through the system.
After close to an hour of conferencing between NYPD lawyers and brass about what "crime" to charge me with I was booked on section 105b of the Parks Department's rules which requires a permit for vending within 500 feet of a NYC park. What's interesting about this is that in 1998 Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Lucy Billings issued a ruling which declared 105b to be both unconstitutional and a violation of the Laws of the City of New York as applied to artists. While the City is appealing this ruling Judge Billings' finding is the law therefore no Manhattan Criminal Court Judge can find an artist guilty of violating section 105b. None has since 1998. It's also worth noting that in typical Giuliani fashion Judge Billings, who was regarded as one of the most respected, knowledgeable and intelligent judges in the Manhattan Criminal Court system, was transferred to civil court almost immediately after her ruling was published in the NY Law Journal [see N.Y. Law Journal 8/17/98 Judge Refuses to Enforce Permit Rule for Artists; N.Y. Times 8/18/98 Charges Are Dropped in Sale of Art in Parks in New York (reproduced below); N.Y. Post Editorial 8/20/98]. She's lucky Jailiani didn't have her arrested and put through the system as well.
Central Booking is a windowless maze of underground holding cells lacking in any system of ventilation which must have been designed by an enthusiastic fan of medieval torture chambers. Aside from graffitti the walls are covered with dire warnings about Tuberculosis and the feeding schedule, i.e. when you get your salami sandwich. Packed thirty to fifty to a cell, prisoners are forced to lie on bare concrete floors. While my most recent stay lasted 24 hours some of my fellow prisoners had been there for two or three days when I arrived and were still there when I was released.
The deliberate cruelty, unconstitutionality and illegality of this arraignment system is evident when one considers that there is actually no purpose for this booking procedure other than to humiliate and punish. By the time a prisoner is brought to Central Booking they have already spent from three to eight hours being warrant checked, fingerprinted and photographed at the local precinct they were arrested at. The time spent curled in a fetal position on the bare concrete floor of Central Booking is, for most defendants, already more punishment than is allowed by law for the "crime" they are charged with. This calculated system of punishment before arraignment might seem just if it were being applied to already convicted murderers or rapists, but in New York City murderers and rapists have their own far more humane holding cells where they are also afforded more in the way of constitutional rights. Instead, these bare steel cages are used to hold the targets of Mayor Giuliani's quality of life campaign, a phony statistic-generating scam that is in itself the City's biggest crime wave.
If one were an alien space traveler who happened to beam down into Central Booking one might conclude that New York City was a place in which all criminals were black or brown. In Racist Rudy's Quality Of Life Police State white prisoners, like genetic mutations, are a one in a million anomaly.
I've lived in New York City for most of my life. My fellow light-skinned New Yorkers stand around in front of apartment buildings, drink beer and smoke reefer as often as Black and Latino New Yorkers do. Yet, when I'm incarcerated in Central Booking, I never meet any white construction workers who were arrested for sitting on a sidewalk while drinking beer with their lunch nor any white men who were arrested and charged with trespassing while visiting an acquaintance in a nearby apartment house or with possession of a joint. These three "crimes" make up the vast majority of the charges against those who end up in Giuliani's updated version of Central Booking.
In my opinion, the racism involved in the shooting of my fellow vendor Amadou Diallo, like the obvious racism evident in the selection process behind who ends up in Central Booking, originates with those at the top like Giuliani and Safir who set the racist policies that rank and file police are then ordered to carry out. The four cops who pulled their triggers 41 times on that fateful night were merely overdoing what they'd been taught by the Giuliani administration; to treat all Black and Latino males as armed and highly dangerous criminals and to disregard any evidence to the contrary.
The tombs is indeed a very scary place. I can think of no more degrading and depressing place to spend 24 hours of one's life than the windowless fluorescent nightmare that is New York City's Central Booking. If there's any justice in life someday NYC's #1 criminal, Rudy Giuliani, will get to sample the City's hospitality first-hand on that hard concrete floor. ---------------------------------------------------------
Robert Lederman is an artist, a regular columnist for both the Grenwich Village Gazette [See: http://www.gvny.com/ ] and Street News, and is the author of hundreds of published essays concerning Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. His essays and letters have appeared in the NY Times, NY Post, Daily News, Newsday, Brooklyn Bridge, Park Slope Courier, The Daily Challenge, Amsterdam News, Sandbox, Penthouse, Our Town, NY Press and are available on hundreds of websites around the world. Lederman has been falsely arrested 41 times to date for his anti-Giuliani activities and has never been convicted of any of the charges. He is best known for creating hundreds of paintings of Mayor Giuliani as a Hitler like dictator.
Robert Lederman, President of A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics) ARTISTpres at aol.com (718) 743-3722 http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html
Excerpted from: N.Y. Law Journal Monday 8/17/98 Judge Refuses to Enforce Permit Rule for Artists
A New York City Parks Department rule requiring a $25 monthly license to sell artwork, books or other written matter in the parks or on sidewalks adjacent to the parks is not enforceable, a Manhattan Criminal Court judge has ruled in dismissing misdemeanor charges against three artists who were arrested for unlicensed vending. ------------------------------ From: NYTIMES 8/18/98 Charges Are Dropped in Sale of Art in Parks in New York
By JOHN SULLIVAN
A Criminal Court judge has dismissed charges against several artists who were arrested for selling art in city parks without a license, saying that New York City law prevents city agencies from licensing vendors who sell books and other written material.
The ruling noted that the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has ruled that for legal purposes, art should be considered a form of speech and afforded the same First Amendment protections as speech and writing.
The three artists were arrested earlier this year after the Parks Department began enforcing a $25 licensing fee for vendors within the parks or on adjacent sidewalks. The fees prompted protests by artists on the sidewalks at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In an 18-page decision dated Wednesday, Judge Lucy Billings found that the City Council had declared that vendors who exclusively sell written material should be free from licensing requirements.
Judge Billings, whose ruling was primarily based on city law rather than Constitutional grounds, quoted a 1982 City Council law that said, "It is consistent with the principles of free speech and freedom of the press to eliminate as many restrictions on the vending of written matter as is consistent with the public health, safety and welfare."
Judge Billings went on to quote the Council's decision specifically exempting vendors of written material from licensing, then noted the Federal appellate ruling extending First Amendment protection to art.
Last year, the city was forced to abandon its plan to regulate artists who sold their works on public sidewalks. The Giuliani administration had contended that street artists, like vendors selling T-shirts, should be required to obtain permits.
The artists sued, and a ruling by the Federal United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled with them, saying that artists are protected by First Amendment rights.
Referring to the city laws, Judge Billings wrote that Parks Department regulations must be secondary to City Council ordinances.
"The conclusion to be drawn from this expression of legislative intent is inescapable," Judge Billings wrote. "Licensing is not a permissible restriction on vending of written material under any circumstances."
Judge Billings wrote that the blanket prohibition of licensing should not be construed to eliminate the Parks Department's ability to control vendors -- even vendors of written material -- inside the parks. In fact, the judge wrote, the city and the Parks Department have "a wide array of permissible restrictions on vending generally and vending of written material specifically, to address concerns of public health, safety and welfare and to carry out the purpose of the parks."
One of the defense lawyers, Diana Heller, said the ruling could have important ramifications for the city.
Ms. Heller said the judge had affirmed the concept that city laws as passed by the City Council are superior to administrative regulations made under the authority of the Mayor.
"It is a very fundamental concept here, who can make law," Ms. Heller said. "You have a balance of power; the Mayor can't just do what he wants."
Ms. Heller said she believed the judge's ruling "has ramifications for any similar city ordinance."
Tuesday, August 18, 1998 Copyright 1998 The New York Times
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, the NY Times article above is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. ----------------------------------
Excerpted from: NY Times 2/17/2000 Drug Crackdown Is Overloading Court System With Arraignments By DAVID ROHDE
A citywide antidrug crackdown that was spurred by higher crime figures has swamped the court system over the last two weekends, bringing a record number of arraignments to Manhattan courts one night and leading to complaints that scores of suspects were detained illegally for more than 24 hours.
The jump in arrests stems from Operation Condor, a $20 million antidrug crackdown announced by the Police Department last month to counter an increase in the city's homicide rate last year, police officials said. The initiative, which pays narcotics officers to work overtime to make arrests, mainly on weekends, has generated 10,000 additional arrests since it started on Jan. 17. In one sign of the impact on the courts, a Manhattan Criminal Court judge arraigned a record 234 defendants in a 10-hour court session Sunday night, triple the usual number and nearly double the previous high for a night court. In addition, many of the people arrested last weekend were held longer than legally allowable.
In two formal complaints, the Legal Aid Society said that 226 prisoners in Manhattan on Feb. 7 had been held for more than 24 hours, including a 17-year-old held for more than 50 hours on a trespass charge. On Monday, 122 prisoners had been held for more than 24 hours in Brooklyn, according to the society.
Tony Elitcher, the Legal Aid lawyer who filed the complaint in Manhattan, said that the backlog was the worst in the city in at least a year. He said a 1998 Police Department policy of restricting the issuing of tickets to people accused of minor crimes was flooding the system. Under the new procedure, low level offenders are jailed overnight, instead of being taken to a precinct house, checked for outstanding arrest warrants and issued a desk appearance ticket that requires them to appear later in court.
Mr. Elitcher said that along with the 17-year-old charged with trespassing, people accused of disorderly conduct, marijuana possession and resisting arrest had spent over 50 hours in jail by Feb. 6 and 7. "Why should you be in jail for 50 hours for trespassing?" he asked. judgeships as valuable political appointments, and they have been unable to reach a compromise on increasing the number of judges around the state... As a result, arraignment courts have emerged as a choke point in the city's criminal justice system. With the number of misdemeanor cases soaring by more than 70 percent under the mayor's quality of life crackdown, judges must quickly arraign as many cases as possible to prevent the system from backing up...Defense lawyers dismissed Operation Condor, which they have dubbed "the Buzzard," calling it excessive. Ms. Mode, citing the recent drop in crime, said the crackdown would continue indefinitely.