June 30, 2007
Reverend Billy Locked Up
Reverend Billy was arrested and detained last night while reciting the First Amendment in Union Square. The police claimed his preaching it at this month's Critical Mass constituted "Harassment of a Public Official". The NYPD has a history of some controversial arrests at the Critical Mass events, and at last night's the number of police practically outnumbered the riders. From the press release we received:
"...even unaffiliated riders were ticketed as they approached the park. Reverend Billy and his partner Savitri D were reciting the First Amendment to the United States Constitution to the gathered police force when Lieutenant Daniel Albano, head of the NYPD's Legal Division, ordered the Reverend's arrest and detention at the 13th Precinct station. It is believed Albano is the public official Reverend Billy has been charged with harassing."
This brings up ongoing concern over protecting civil liberties and rights to free assembly and political action. However, it also draws attention to selectively enforced Parade Laws, drafted by the police and passed into law by the City Council earlier this year. The law criminalizes gatherings of more than 50 people that do not have permits. Something the press release points out is that "while the NYPD surrounded and intimidated last night's Critical Mass cyclists, a line of several hundred shoppers formed just across the street to purchase the new iPhone, blocking pedestrian traffic and forcing people to walk in the street."
As of now, Reverend Billy is being held at 100 Centre Street, awaiting arraignment. Hopefully he'll be out for tomorrow's Hot and Holy Highline Revival show!
Photo by Konstantin Sergeyev.
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I still can't get my head around this. Just thinking about what the police forces could be doing instead of bothering cyclists who, god forbid, might go through a red light (safely!).
This is absurd! New York is THE most bike unfriendly town in the damned US!
new york city is also very marijuana unfriendly.
this is ridiculous. somebody please sue the nypd until they get on the clue train.
They hate us for our freedom indeed.
but where's the iphone angle to this story?
No Doubt, the NYPD has to find better ways to spend their time; however, Critical Mass is really annoying. I wish they would simply stop at lights and obey traffic laws, wouldn't it be better to have a few hundred bicyclists driving around in a lawful manner, setting an example of clean and safe transit, than the NYPD have no reason at all to harass them. As a pedestrian, the way Critical Mass is now makes me despise them as much as the car traffic. Getting hit by a bike may not kill you, but it can easily break your bones.
The cops followed us as we rode away from the initial failed ride. It's really scary to be treated like a criminal.
I'm a bike messenger for this summer. Yesterday since it was the end of the month, the cops were giving out tickets like crazy everywhere I see in the city. On the courier company orientation people told me that cops has this quota and they will ticket heavily at the end of the month. We seemed all know this as a fact but this is RIDICULOUS. I was with the Critical Mass yesterday people had many concerns for getting arrested and i heard cops told us if we were gonna go through the precinct they would lock reverend billy overnight. Now THIS IS RIDICULOUS. It feels like we are not dealing with cops, but with some legalized gangs. "if we were gonna go through the precinct they were gonna lock him over night"? Now this is funny and all media should publsih it to mock the cops.
This is why I dance my Irish riverdance jig whenever a cop dies or has bad karma handed to them.
I dance like it's 1999, dance, dance, dance.
And, I think Karma, of course, she deserves all the credit when a cop dies.
I'm pretty sure if critical mass people would actually follow traffic signs, cops wouldn't give a damn.
but they do stop at red lights and let all emergency vehicles through.
I too, dance my Micheal Flatly best when a cop dies. Riverdance is the bees knees. the lord of the Dance.
#11 Wrong, wrong, wrong. I followed the laws during CM, and while stopped at a red light, I got arrested.
Hundred of bicyclists are now getting ticketed for laws that don't even exist. The person then has to take off work to fight the ticket, etc.
It's gotten to the point now where the City has consistently lost in Court, and now wants to punish any person on a bicycle. Why? I don't know. It seems that a lot cops just cannot admit that they are wrong. The attitude seems to extend up the chain of command.
Awww, poor Albano. What a thug.
pork!
billy! a local hero. keep on preaching, rev. we need you!
that the cops harass critical mass never ceases to amaze and infuriate me. bloomberg is trying to be mr. environmental w/ congestion pricing and tree planting etc etc, but critical mass riders are still enemy #1? while cyclists get killed on the west side bike path, or just trying to ride around the city? give me a break!
cops like to drive their cars and scooters fast
http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/images/homepageimages/pinkie260x252.jpg
So reciting the First Amendment can get you arrested. Wow. Who are we anymore? When our police officers can arrest us for reciting from the United States Constitution, who the hell are we? Are we living in the United States or in some dictatorship? I praise Reverend Billy for putting his (fine) ass on the line every single day. Blessed are the agitators, for theirs is the kingdom of peace.
This situation is incredible to me. What are the police so afraid of? Maybe they should just build a mall on Union Square to make their lives easier. Sheesh. This is the kind of event that people should be talking about, not the release of the iphone. Imagine if all of those people in line across the street had started saying the First Amendment along with Billy?
"Reverend Billy was arrested and detained last night while reciting the First Amendment in Union Square."?
Scary state of affairs when reciting the 1st Amendment gets you arrested! WTF is the Mayor and the Police thinking!? Un-F___ing-Believable! I swear, I hope the Mayor runs for president just to vote against him.
Say, if people protest this, will they all be arrested? I hope the ACLU among others are on this!
The street is spelled "Centre," not "Center."
The City Council did NOT pass the NYPD's parade rules into law. They allowed them to take effect, which is a very different thing. The City Council has relinquished its power over freedom of assembly to unelected officials of the NYPD. See
www.assembleforrightsnyc.org
for more information.
So rev billy gets locked up for speaking from the Constitution and not harming anyone, while iPhone shoppers were causing a traffic hazard right across the street and were unscathed? WTF?
They had to arrest him! He committed thought crime.
fuck New York ...
I hate to see history repeating itself, but this is just like what Slick Willy Brown did to San Francisco in the nineties. I saw cops tackling riders from their bikes, breaking cameras of people on the street archiving the violence, and the great effort of the day was the corral they set up on California street to corner and arrest 100 cyclists (none of the charges held - obvious abuse of power)
Critical Mass by nature is an unorganized, organic collection of ordinary people who happen to all be going the same direction and travelling by bicycle - how is this criminal??
This is the new gangs of new york.
Funny, it seems that cops may in general have a thing for ticketing cyclists. I live in Santa Cruz and manage to be stopped three times (ticked twice) on my bike, but never while driving, and I know of others who have as well. I think approaching Bloomberg over this is reasonable. I know someone who worked in his administration, and he's not as evil as some may make him out to be (some folks in the NYPD, on the otherhand, may be)
Also, in response to [2], although the cops may be very bike infriendly in NYC, I found that the drivers' respect for cyclists to be much worse in an number of the towns I've ridden in CA, including Santa Cruz. Of course, you must be an alert rider wherever you may be.
To clarify [27], I used to ride in Brooklyn and Manhattan, so this based on my experience with drivers both in CA and NYC.
Hi everyone,
If you truly care about our rights, it all starts from the TOP down!
Please take the time to watch this video. It's a conference that took place this weekend. The media didn't cover it one bit. Who cares that over 1,000 people came out to a "Liberty and Life" conference!!
Video: http://tinyurl.com/yter7s
No free speech...
No right to take pictures in public places...
Welcome to your new facist city, state, country...
What is so special about the First Amendment? New Yorkers already gave up their Second Amendment rights. Either the people delegate powers to their government, or it is the other way around. The First Amendment is only one small piece of freedom. You have to really believe in freedom, and be willing to fight for it, to have any. Public school may have tought you that you were free; well relax and smile, because then you must be.
They took away their rights and you didn't complain. Now they have come to take away your rights, and well, good luck with that.
-Peter
#26
it is different in SF because the bicyclists WON there. SF is a relatively bike friendly city, and critical mass has not been harrassed much since then.
SF also won in terms of marijuana laws (whereas NYC is VERY backwards).