Gothamist: Police Unhappy with Pandamonium in Williamsburg

dmg_ace

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:21:24 -0500

why?

zodak

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:52:09 -0500

"If I pass an NYPD foot patrol at a subway station or on the street in my neighborhood I don't normally feel super nervous or worried that they are gunning for me." you should.

dmg_ace

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:29:04 -0500

Was everyone really so threatened by the police helicopter flying around? Like if you saw that from another part of the neighborhood you would feel SO downtrodden that you would put down your beer to lament the loss of your personal freedoms? When I see a police chopper flying around in the distance I usually think its something to do with a crime or traffic...which was the case here. If I pass an NYPD foot patrol at a subway station or on the street in my neighborhood I don't normally feel super nervous or worried that they are gunning for me.

broadwayblue29

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:18:02 -0500

Come to Albany. Everybody.

Rose Zel Al B

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:45:04 -0500

all these trolls trashing on "hipsters" is so boring First of all who named artists "hipsters"? A: failed jealous potato couch types, perhaps? Or another Bushwick rebel without a cause? Who buys "hipster" products? A: People from all over the world buys "hipster" products. We make culture, your culture here. From Music to films, to books, and fashion in all genres and styles are created in Williamsburg. DO your research and see how many indy-rock bands from Williamsburg you listen to. You'll be surprised how much you support what you mouth trash so often.

chris lee

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:17:50 -0500

REALITY CHECK...No I believe there was also the minor inconvenience of disrupted traffic (someone could have easily gotten hurt) property damage and vandalism. Don't go blamin' the PO-lice if your also committin' crimes and misdemeanors.

REALITY CHECK

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:42:31 -0500

Excuse me. The NYPD deployed search helicopters because people were dressed up as pandas. Yet all you people do is bitch about hipsters. Does anyone not see the major problem with this? I'd rather have hipsters than a police state any day. Any day.

Luminescent

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:24:16 -0500

I would like to note that a five hour long peaceful beautiful fun and awesome street party did occur on the same night. It went from battery park to the staten island ferry to Brooklyn to aerial in the street and they spun fire for over an hour!! It was awesome minus the drama. It was called Kaleidoscope www.kineticfaction.com Here are some links, the pics were tooo big to embed but there are ton of images on flickr, picasa, and facebook if you want to see more. I guess the point is that not all street parties have to be angsty. . .but sometimes that is what people are going for. Choose your own path** Cheers~ http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3174/2771449598_17f35db129_b.jpg (flickr photo by Rose Marie Diaz) http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3148/2771458058_a3bd7f5824_b.jpg (flickr photo by Rose Marie Diaz) http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3176/2775908771_9a67a91acb_o.jpg(flickr photo by Justindia) http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3140/2770718955_45e498e5bb_b.jpg (flickr photo by Rose Marie Diaz)

chris lee

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:45:26 -0500

See, I wanted to organize a "Be-in" a gathering that PEACEFUL and POSITIVE..no adolescent destrucitve angst. Why are white kids and black kids these days so "hard"? Look at the music, it's sex, violence, apathy, irony and angst..name one popular artist that makes positive life affirming music AND is hip.

lb203

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:38:54 -0500

There was not one cool, hip, creative, artistic or politically (god forbid it was for a reason) cool thing about it. Stupid and vapid as usual in my hood. After 10 years of living in the area in the same apartment (originally from NY, Queens) - I am an artist who can't pay my rent or afford to create in this area. So sometimes stuff like this is super f'n annoying. Having to deal with a bunch of idiots who decide the Bedford Avenue area is the place to do this on a Saturday night in a politically charged environment seems idiotic. Then I get citations for entitled jackasses who eat tacos on my stoop and then throw their trash everywhere and refuse to get up when I try to walk into my apartment. Yeah that was SO COOL! I am all for free speech, but maybe there should be some thinking about organization people.. The kaos or craziness of this idea/type of event has been done before. It was more drunk frat boy shit that pissed everyone off. DUMB

brooklynbs

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:11:20 -0500

You know what would have been a really cool event involving the same people? Rent a space, have DJs, bands, fire eaters, etc. Charge $10 to get in to cover costs and give any extra proceeds to charity. Webcast the event, have people Twitter, blog, Facebook, etc., about it. Before the event, get a permit and hold a silent protest/parade at which you have signs and literature actually articulating your position. Invite the "MSM" and get some press coverage so that people who you are trying to convince of your point of view get some exposure to your ideas. I know, all of that involves work... Sorry to have brought up the idea.

dmg_ace

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:58:19 -0500

I watched that youtube link posted above and I have to call Bravo Sierra. I was watching the entire debacle from across the street until it broke up completely (yes, I have no life) and saw that guy get arrested. He was not just walking along minding his own business, he was in the middle of the crowd on the corner of N. 6th and Bedford. Don't try to tell me he was walking home from a night of delivering meals to the elderly and just decided to try to walk through an unruly drunk crowd? Right. You know what bothered me most about that whole scene? how it became a political "rally" type event towards the end, complete with a banner and flyers advertising their manifesto (which was half-assed). It was apparently to bring awareness of high rents and rampant consumerism...wow, welcome to the United States? I also appreciated the hipster, critical mass types that were cursing at people on the sidewalk. Heaven forbid someone around their age have a different opinion from them. When people want to question your stance maybe you should come up with something better than, "the fucking pigs are wrong", "fuck you yuppie" or something about bank accounts. I thought parties were supposed to be fun?

Luminescent

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:58:10 -0500

Actually their starting location of union square had been announced for weeks on their website (but the route for the most part was kept secret)and I must admit that it was a high security area that increased their police attention from the start. However, if they were aiming for battle and apocalypse they did acheive their goal in some way. . . I think that the oppresive state of permits and police can definitely be troublesome and is something that should be pushed sometimes. However, their are ways of working with the system and ways to work against it. I prefer more positive ways of doing so because I think it opens up the route of changing them. . .rather than it backfiring and making things stricter. I think this was a good example of not working within the system.

zodak

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:43:36 -0500

so a bunch of people get dressed up & act silly in the streets, EARLY on a SATURDAY night & the cops send helicopters!? meanwhile they let criminals do whatever they want & let bars keep people up until 2am on weeknights. the party may be dumb but it's better than the people who just go drink in a bar. how exciting. oh & if you don't like hipsters, don't live in hipster-city, usa. if these pandas did do what memling says, then yes, they deserved to get arrested. plenty of parties like this happen with no NYPD crackdown. dadoc, your post at 43, & NannyState, your post at 49 made me lol! well done! (only a gumby would be posting here on a sunny sunday morning)

DOBKINAZI

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:39:46 -0500

This WAS their version of TSP. The cops gave them dirty looks and yelled at some of them. Now they claim they were "brutalized and abused" by the pigs. Now they are "Badasses" !!! ....... punks.

duckert

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:05:56 -0500

These morons are lucky the cops didn't smash their heads in a.k.a Tompkins square park.

sharpshoota

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 10:52:46 -0500

#57 In case you haven't noticed NYC has and is changing. It is not the "do what you want" city it was. The people who rent and buy all these extremely expensive places don't want you idiots coming in their neighborhoods causing a ruckus. As was seen this weekend, neither does the NYPD. Sounds like you need to move. NYC is not the place it once was. Don't like it.... you move. This panda paty crap was really just a bunch of douchebags invading a neighborhood and disturbing the residents. You want to blame anyone....blame Bloomberg. This is the way it is.

memling

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 10:40:39 -0500

STFU everyone of you ridiculous morons spouting "Right to assemble, right to assemble." It's called "Right to assemble PEACABLY!" That does not include the right to overturn newspaper boxes, impede the flow of traffic by exhorting crowds to gather in the street and by dragging construction barriers into the road (which could also be considered theft of private property and creates a hazard by leaving dangerous construction sites open for anyone to wander into and get badly hurt), and wave open flames around in an unruly crowd. Or, maybe, when I wasn't looking they finally did pass that law I've been pushing for - and they just got arrested for being stupid c*nts. Either way, lock 'em all up as far as I'm concerned. You wanna have a stupid douchetard panda party? Get a f*cking panda permit, ass.

flowerface

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:53:22 -0500

I may have found this panda biz entertaining had I seen it. But no, I was in bed trying to get to sleep with a freaking police helicopter circling overhead for an hour, which didn't make me very happy since I had to get up for work Sunday at 5:00 am. So why is it that the NYPD can get out and keep an eye on a bunch of hippies or whatever just out having some fun but they can't do anything about the obnoxious a-holes who've been openly selling crack & heroin on my block forever? Oh and markedman: "And you wonder why people want to cut hack white people in this area with a machete." Maybe people WANT to, but that's never happened. All of the machete attacks around here have been hispanic males vs hispanic males.

DOBKINAZI

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 07:18:13 -0500

"just as there are good and bad people, there are good and bad hipsters." Whats a good Hipster ?

isimme

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 02:42:58 -0500

it's one nite of reverly, a saturday nite! you people complaining live in a city(were people live in close proximity and u have to by law be tolerant of others) and a city know for its liberal ways. new york is not going 2 change, if u dont like it move! as far as anyone flaming on "hipster scum" there is no initiation into "hipsterdom". people are individuals not black and white stereotypes. just as there are good and bad people, there are good and bad hipsters. also regarding all of the flaming going on, when has ever been a feasible tactic to solve the problem of a "fire"(ie this petty name calling) with more fire. go do something constructive or positive!

dansmyname

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 01:36:26 -0500

my friend, who was not in panda gear, was bumrushed and arrested. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F53KLyKVVwQ he wasn't doing anything illegal at all, he was just walking down the street admiring the spectacle, but he got got taken in for inciting a riot and resisting arrest. he'll probably walk, but this kind of stuff is a time-consuming disgrace to the legal system. that's not to say that the screaming whistling fire-dancing pandas around him were innocent, and i'm not trying to get into an argument over whether people should be allowed to fly their freak flags in the streets of williamsburg. i can see both opinions. some people want the right to panda, and others want the right to be free from pandas. i'm not trying to get involved in this flame war. what i am saying is that no matter what way you slice it, my friend, who wasn't a part of pandamonium, got arrested for nothing, and this type of improper conduct on behalf of the police is an abuse of power and rights that only hurts the causes on both sides of the issue. i don't really know why i'm posting this, i'm just very mad about the situation.

dansmyname

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 01:35:37 -0500

Jerky

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 01:26:12 -0500

Thank god the NYPD has its priorities straight, protecting us from people dressed as pandas. We all know the history of suicide bombers and terrorists posing as these cuddly Chinese bears. I'm glad that in these times of reduced tax revenues and shrinking budgets he's not wasting police time on catching machete gangs, Queens rapists, or weeding out all of the corrupt NYPD officers/detectives that cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in lawsuits. Truly, a modern policing genius!

Rose Zel Al B

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 01:08:45 -0500

well I know who called 911 that old lady neo nazi wanna be "British" who sales crap at the corner, I've seen her for years there, and I have seen her calling the cops on Mexicans or any other people who try to sale their crap near or next to her, before police arrived he yelled to the immigrants : go back to your country! Last night she was almost kissing the police and of course complaining about "the rats" I guess she doesn't know what pandas look like.... NYPD even brought a helicopter! It was following me, or so it seemed, for about an 1 hour... I dunno this whole thing gives me the creeps= Old lady's turned skin heads Pandas on the loose Helicopter madness Machete pyscho gangs

chris lee

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 23:19:31 -0500

hipsters and yuppies are NAZIES..racists...love it...take off your reactionary goggles...

dadoc

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 22:50:06 -0500

Um, no, I am not happy with that. I am not interested in such things. What is this "gumby" of which you speak?

DOBKINAZI

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 22:47:35 -0500

Nannywaste, just because you are gay does not mean you have to stick your two stupid comments into this. You just keep doing your internet child porn to keep yourself busy. You dont have much else to do obviously. Just dont get caught at a side road garbage dumpster waiting to meet a 14 year old boy.

NannyState

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 22:43:08 -0500

DOBKINAZI, look at your avatar. You're a bloody panda! Hipster trash.

DOBKINAZI

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 22:37:58 -0500

"Wow Such a waste, He did so much for his community helping the homeless giving to charity. Spreading the word of non-violence. Puh lease. Gimmie a break just another Egotistical punk. I didnt bat an eyelash at this. That what happens when You think your the shit someone always thinks there shitter than you. DUHHHHHHH." This is from the story of a great young boxing prospect with a future all in front of him and a loving father. You gumby scumbags get away with this and laugh. He was an innocent young man.... he caused no harm the the gumby "reflex" that wroye these words. Dobkin the NAZI and Jin Chong have no problem with it. They dont mind if it pains someone to read this garbage. But hurt a Homos feelings by using that word and those two and all the rest of the fragile "ladies" here have a hysterical, eye scratching, foot stomping, jump up and down, bitch slapping melt down. Tears and snot drool included.

DOBKINAZI

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 22:25:30 -0500

Its you with a penis in your butt... thats what. happy now?

dadoc

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 22:17:44 -0500

Aw, shucks, did you get banned again? In the words of one of my favorite white-on-color opression scenes from Dirty Harry, "I gotsta know!" C'mon DOBNAZ, you're almost there! What is the gumby?

dadoc

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 21:01:41 -0500

And the gumby thing is?

DOBKINAZI

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 20:25:46 -0500

Dadick.... STFU and dont ask me questions. I dont answer to you or Dobkin the NAZI propaganda minister that likes to try to silence people that speak against the so called "progressive" phonies that splat here everyday. The ones that laugh when an unarmed child is killed by racist cops. The ones that lash out against the mother of a child that drowned at Rockaway as if she was to blame. He, and all the rest, dont like being called Yuppies or Hipster racists even though thats what you are. You scum can insult people of color with impunity here and joke about the systematic oppression suffered every day.. thats OK. You can (ZODICK and Jerkoff) crack about how people of color molest their nieces even though white homosexial pedophiles are never mentioned here. But the minute I type "Homo", which is what they are, the NAZI little boy Dobkin wants to silence me and delete my opinion and factual observations. Its OK for you scum to hurt and insult people even though you worm around it and dont use certain words, your intent is the same. So I say FUCK YOU !!!!!!1

dadoc

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 18:49:00 -0500

OK, so a bunch of folks get into some panda thing, there's some noise, some folks don't like some others, bla, bla, bla. But what is this "gumby" thing? While I've always relied on (now) DOBKINAZI & his/her/their multiple BINGO personas to keep me up-to-date on understanding what my local undermedicated psychotics are ranting as I walk by, the gumby thing leaves me stumped. Is it like Gumby & Pokey, or a Python thing? DOBKINAZI/BINGOs please expound. Don't hold back now....

slappy

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 18:28:01 -0500

@paolo O yeah. Oops. Adbusters. Now there's an authoritative source.

slappy

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 18:24:24 -0500

Whoa. So much ignorant shallow hatred here... What's the point?

sharpshoota

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 18:10:20 -0500

As far as I'm concerned if you live there it IS your neighborhood. If people invade a neighborhood with this dumb chit and the folks who live their decide to kick the chit out of some of them then they good and well deserve it. Where I live is always my neighborhood. It's my community. If you don't care about it then who will? The folks who participate in the dumb panda part chit are effin idiots. Get a life.

chris lee

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 17:58:47 -0500

Actually I have to apologize..I wasn't actually AT the panda event, what I thought was a harmless spectacle prank actually did have some fringe vandalism ( according to my friend Al who lives on North 7th) etc..which I am against. But I still stand by my challenges to the anti-"hpster/yuppie " rhetoric that is so prevalent.

DOBKINAZI

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 17:35:36 -0500

"The rest of them are just people trying to have an interesting life." Thats the point. Go "try to have a life" somewhere else you gumby LOSER !!!!! Thats why you are hated, you phony jackass. Thats why you hate your own life... because you know you dont have one... you invade other peoples lives.... you imbecile !!!!! Go away PHONIES !!!!!!!

veeelchop

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 17:06:12 -0500

brooklyn finally becomes san francisco. yawn.

paolo mastrangelo

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 16:35:22 -0500

Slappy: "All you "hipster" bashers are laughable. You act as if they are responsible for the decline of the western world and high rents in NY." opps. egg on your face. like, you obviously did not read Adbusters this month.

slappy

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:58:18 -0500

All you "hipster" bashers are laughable. You act as if they are responsible for the decline of the western world and high rents in NY. Get real. Many of the so called hipsters are really artists and musicians. Do you know what that is besides something you buy?? The rest of them are just people trying to have an interesting life. Big deal. So what. You make them sound like a negative cultural force. Get some politics in your brain and realize whats going on around you. And BTW what exactly constitutes an non-hipster; and what makes you so ficking correct.

joeb

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:54:03 -0500

God forbid anyone should gather in un-designated gathering location to take part in an activity that doesn't involve money changing hands. This is the great thing about the Constitution. They have the right to dress up like pandas and gather and you all have the right to say it's stupid. But they still have the right to do it.

bagelman

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:41:54 -0500

assembly for assembly's sake. light-hearted and very post-60s. it does no harm. i sort of like it.

NYCSniper

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:31:05 -0500

However stupid the panda thing is --- don't people have a right to meet and congregate? FIRST AMMENDMENT: RIGHT OF PEOPLE TO PEACEABLY ASSEMBLE

Steven

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:52:32 -0500

Long live Western Queens where the hipsters don't live and it's actually quiet at night!

kittencrunchies

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:45:56 -0500

NOW I know why the police didn't bother to turn up to my complaints about the PR disco in my backyard at 1am. It was the Pandas fault.

blablanyc

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:38:52 -0500

Panda Riots of 2008

Jonathan V

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:22:42 -0500

The helicopters hovered a few hundred feet above the crowd for hours. They started scanning streets and rooftops with high-intensity spotlights. Marked cars started weaving the streets with sirens. I don't care about stupid Pandas -- what I do care is that the NYPD created a audio/visual nuisance that gave me a headache. Instead of keeping my windows opened, I needed to shut them all and turn up the AC. It was fucking loud. I did not care for that. chris- FYI, the residents of Williamsburg/LES didn't try to turn their land into squalor -- large landowners did to increase vacancies, drive down the value of nearby lots, and game the political system with revitalization plans. Thats why we all witnessed mass evictions of buildings in WB/LES, and them laying fallow years before zoning plans went though.

giulianipolicestate

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:17:07 -0500

i can only imagine what all you law and order types who "hate hipsters, geeks & nerds" could possibly have been doing at 10 o'clock on a saturday night. probably knowing where your children are and other socially responsible, upright-citizenry-like things to make the world a better, safer, more orderly place. actually, you all sound like intolerant cogs who disapprove of anyone who so much as sneezes out of turn let alone congregate for the simple act of sharing a unique human moment with others. your fascist intolerant rants would be comically naive if you didn't sound like you'd prefer to just ship people down to guantánamo or have a good ole public hanging. lighten up people. try not to suck so much. your intolerance makes you ugly. on the inside.

paolo mastrangelo

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:09:21 -0500

haha. funny funny stuff. these are great comments. >>"@5 - How about I bring a bunch of my friends to your neighborhood and cause havoc because we're bored and have a perverse sense of entitlement." tee-hee. >>"chris lee - way to be incredibly condescending towards the "immigrants who lived in these crappy ghettos." your comments wreak of the sense of entitlement and superiority that they privileged people who have moved in and displaced the initial residents of these neighborhoods. "We know what is best for you! We know what you really want! We're making these shitty ghettos better for you" Sounds just like the Neighbors Project. >>"Welcome to the free market United States. Rather the pander and patronize it would be best to educate people to the way markets for goods and services work." please elaborate. But obvs the best one is, >>"And you wonder why people want to cut hack white people in this area with a machete." EEK!!

DOBKINAZI

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:08:18 -0500

Of course the Yuppie and Hipsters dont need to mug anyone. Why would some gumby that buys a coffee and a roll with an American Express card need to mug someone? Why would a moron that buys 250 dollar jeans and then rubs them in the dirt on the sidewalk so they look like "hip" clothes worn by the less economically advantaged mug someone? Your "allowances" from mommy and daddy (I call it the get lost payoff) are enough ... you dont need muggings to survive.

DOBKINAZI

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:08:17 -0500

markedman

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 13:11:30 -0500

chris lee - way to keep on being classist and racist. your just going to invalidate your obviously prejudiced views with that "unihabitable" drivel, so keep it up and that way i don't even have to bother disputing your points.

DOBKINAZI

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 13:03:39 -0500

Dobkin.. why are you so much of a NAZI. Why do you edit posts that expose the scum Yuppie and Hipsters for what they are ? They (you) are hated by everyone from their parents, strangers to themselves. Beating them is fun. Why cant we talk about that?

matty

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 12:54:18 -0500

^total nerds. I bet these are the same people who go to improv everywhere.

Nick S

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 12:52:12 -0500

These aren't even hipsters.. these are just plain ol' nerds. Fire dancing???

matty

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 12:49:19 -0500

Wow I am glad I don't live in new york. First off this party is fucking stupid. Second, I don't want to apologize for living in a city. Which is what transplant New Yorkers seem to always be doing.

JGNY

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 12:29:54 -0500

Chris lee, I don't think it is accurate or responsible to say the LES and Williamsburg were sqaulid. After the WW2 most of the areas around NY were subjected to mass exodus and disinvestment. Dropping prices and the "white flight" to the burbs allowed new immigrant populations to settle in areas were jobs were available and real estate affordable. The look and feel of these neighborhoods changed to match the countires from where they came (much as Little Italy and LES did to support thier residents before the war). To call that transformation crappy and squalor is a bit xenophobic. Also, being black does not protect you from ignorance. Finally, yuppies and hipsters do not mug you because they do not need to resort to extreme measures for money, petty crime is the result of economic factors, not race.

natis

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 12:24:06 -0500

My contempt for hipsters is the real deal. Shared an apartment with a few of them some years back. Worst experience ever.

RDR105

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 12:09:49 -0500

yawn...

chris lee

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 12:04:49 -0500

"demonspawn" ..explain..or has noone ever challenged your position before..how many yuppies or hipsters have you been mugged by?I am black by the way. I respect ALL people, I just think left wing reactionaries are just as tiresome as right wing reationaries.

JacqueMehoff

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 12:00:19 -0500

chris lee, you had me on your side until the immigrant rant, way to feel entitled and even slightly racist. what's going to be worse is that sense of entitlement when these people have their demon spawn. (not necessarily hipsters)

chris lee

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 11:55:05 -0500

Markedman- If you knew anything about New York history you would see that these neighborhoods were constantly changing. The "original" residents WORKED to improve their lots, they MOVED out to better housing and circumstances. Now their descendants growing tired of the suburbs have come back to live in a once uninhabitable city. Oh and let's talk "entitlement"..what exactly "entitles" a "renter" to an uninterrupted hold on a property. Welcome to the free market United States. Rather the pander and patronize it would be best to educate people to the way markets for goods and services work. You would be offended if the government told you where and what you could buy with your wages, but not offended if the government put false controls on the housing market?

markedman

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 11:44:45 -0500

chris lee - way to be incredibly condescending towards the "immigrants who lived in these crappy ghettos." your comments wreak of the sense of entitlement and superiority that they privileged people who have moved in and displaced the initial residents of these neighborhoods. "We know what is best for you! We know what you really want! We're making these shitty ghettos better for you" And you wonder why people want to cut hack white people in this area with a machete.

chris lee

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 11:28:15 -0500

The neighborhood is not YOURS sharpshoota, you don't need a visa to do something or say something in a section of the city a certain distance fromyour apartment. I am glad that people are still being creative and self expressed in a city overly policed and regulated.

toliveandshaveinbrooklyn

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 11:16:17 -0500

BINGOSBUDDY: You are on a blog at 10:30 on Sunday morning trying to be sarcastic. That makes you seriously threatening. Extra badass for certain. Yawn.

sharpshoota

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 11:12:52 -0500

People forget that along with all the development that is happening in NYC...the 5 boros are more residential than ever. Nobody likes this kind of chit where they live. If you do it in some out of the way industrial are then no one care but otherwise, it's a nuisance to the residents and just plain disrespectful. These were not kids... they should know better.

chris lee

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 11:11:44 -0500

I can't believe some of the comments on this board. First of all, you are guaranteed freedom of assembly in the constitution, even for a silly idea. Second of all can we FINALLY drop the faux yuppie and hipster contempt? All of the immigrants who lived in these crappy ghettoes worked and slaved so that their great grandchildren could one day BECOME college educated professionals. I don't see why people romanticize the squalor of Williamsburg and LES's past.

brooklynbs

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 10:55:37 -0500

@5 - How about I bring a bunch of my friends to your neighborhood and cause havoc because we're bored and have a perverse sense of entitlement.

sharpshoota

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 10:42:27 -0500

I just don't see the point of this....I looked at the pics and it looks like a bunch of people who look rather old to be doing this kind of dumb chit

chubbyonekanubby

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 10:21:22 -0500

@3- Maybe you should move?

Scout1

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 10:17:46 -0500

OK so there's a mob of people walking down the middle of the street and "there was even a fire dancer" -again, in the middle of the street. And you people think the police are not going to do something? In what place on this earth are the police not fully justified in responding and reacting to this?

brooklynbs

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 10:16:56 -0500

When we saw the helicopter flying over the neighborhood we figured it was some hipster's parents keeping an eye on him. So tired of living in Williamsburg.

sharpshoota

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 10:07:33 -0500

OK and what was the point of dressing up like pandas? Any police brutality take place?

moocowtoo

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 10:00:03 -0500

Who listens to the radio anymore?