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Woman Arrested at Street Wars Water Fight

2008_08_union1.jpg A 30-year-old Australian woman was arrested in Union Square yesterday when she did not heed police officers' warnings that a planned water fight event had been canceled. Cassandra Wu, in town for her 30th birthday, was arrested after spraying the crowd (including the officers) with a water bottle. "This is crazy and this would never happen in Australia," Wu's sister said.

The water fight, originally planned to celebrate the beginning of the three-week Street Wars tournament, had previously been canceled because of failure to obtain proper permits. After the arrest, dozens of people walked a few blocks east to Stuyvesant Square Park and had a water fight of their own without any trouble from police.

Just last Saturday, several arrests were made after Pandamonium broke out in Union Square and spilled over into Williamsburg.

Photograph by Tatyana Kildisheva on Flickr

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Comments [rss]

  • Rach

    AAhahaha lol @ Snoopy for #33!

  • PBRK

    This wouldn't happen in Australia because it would be a knife fight there.

  • Bouncing Soul

    The real abusrdity about this whole thing is who has the time to have a water gun fight that lasts three weeks and involves stalking?

  • Snoopy

    I hear there is an Australian underground group in Williamsburg that are building a water canon and are looking to put a serious smack down on the NYPD when they show up at the McCarren pool for an Olivia Newton John concert.

  • NannyState

    . "This is crazy and this would never happen in Australia," Wu's sister said.





    Yeah, let's all head to Australia and attack cops there with water and see just how easygoing and fun-loving they are.

  • Spirit of 76

    [26] Oh, that's rich. You're telling someone else to grow up with that potty mouth of yours.

  • Spirit of 76

    More evidence that NYPD is becoming more like the Keystone Kops with each passing day. Does anyone respect NY cops anymore? Anyone?

  • Snoopy

    Why you ask nice job? Because these officers are busy defending the rights of innocent law abiding people from Australians who go out there and squirt water on people in a park in the summer.



    Meanwhile drug dealers, car thieves, pimps and whores are part of their economic system. Plus most of them are better armed then the NYPD. Do the math.

  • nice job

    The NYPD sure can't get enough of hassling people who aren't really doing anything wrong. Meanwhile real criminals are on my street corner every evening and not a cop to be seen for blocks.

  • Snoopy

    Now she knows how Powderly, or whatever his name is, feels over in China.

  • ribaldry

    Whye is a thirty year old trying to have a water fight. grow the fuck up.

  • theevilone

    She was arrested for being an idiot. The people told her not to do it, and she did it. Pretty simple.

  • Shinobi Shaw

    #23 he is proving the point that in third world paradise (Thailand) they have more of this less-regulated freedoms to do things like these.



    You be surprised the little freedoms here and there that many developing countries have that are either over regulated or even illegal over here.





  • eyekantspel

    It is obvious that these cops have never been to Thailand where you don't need a permit and everyone gets soaked for the Songkran festival.



    What does a festival in Thailand have to do with this? Oh, right, nothing.

  • Steven

    She was just trying to have a little fun with the NYPD.

  • John Knee

    It is obvious that these cops have never been to Thailand where you don't need a permit and everyone gets soaked for the Songkran festival. I was thrown into a swimming pool fully clothed as my introduction to this great time in Thailand.



    http://www.flickr.com/photos/78634514@N00/55087931/

  • Pull My Finger

    Take away water bottles from law abiding citizens and only criminals will have water bottles.

  • tsol

    Meanwhile 3 dozen illegal immigrants zip past on bikes as they deliver lunches.

  • TJ

    @#15 (Catatonina):



    I think you've spent too much time watching Locked Up Abroad on the National Geographic Channel.

  • jonathan

    ^ nothing worse than an obnoxious host.

  • thefacts



    ^ "prison overcrowding is a huge issue "



    Yes, but she ain't going to prison, or even jail.



    She'll be given a Desk Appearance Ticket and be home in two hour.



    She'll be back in Australia before she appears before the Judge, who will give her a $25 fine, which she won't pay because she is in Australia,



    So a warrant for her arrest will be issued for non-appearance.



    She will be persona non grata when she tries to re-enter, held for a few hours at JFK, and summarily be DEPORTED permanently for ignoring our laws for a second time.



    Remember, she is a guest in the US on a temporary tourist visa, not a citizen, and has few rights.



    Nothing worse than an obnoxious house guest.

  • catatonina

    um, yeah, but in a country where prison overcrowding is a huge issue - is an arrest really necessary?

  • Nick S

    Wait, so she received a warning, then proceeded to throw water onto police..why is it shocking that she got arrested? Because she was trying to make some sort of "statement"



    I agree that this city is overpoliced, but not EVERY instance is uncalled for.

  • JacqueMehoff

    she looks good for 30. no tats, too.

  • Snoopy

    I think Condoleezza Rice should have a sit down with the Australian ambassador about this. Those Australians are a bunch of war mongers and they have to be stopped NOW!



    Did you hear the joke, "How many NYPD cops does it take to arrest a hundred pound five foot tall Australian woman?"

  • Rocknrope

    Lucky someone didn't shark her while she was handcuffed.

  • Daniel Millstone

    Does it strike anyone else that we've perhaps become over regulated? A permit for a water fight? What a bizarre use of police power and public funds!

  • Billiamsburg

    Let this be a lesson to the rest of you tourists!

  • Rfive

    I wish she was a bit wetter. That top doesn't look watersafe.

  • killerasp

    why do people always do these mass gatherings in unions square? you might as well organize something in times square if you want the attention.

  • babyhitler

    Yeah, 3 cops arresting a ASIAN woman with a water bottle!!!! Meanwhile, 2 blocks away Cornelius is raping a tourist and cutting her face up.

  • Jen Chung

    I like how three cops needed to escort this lady away.

  • catatonina

    if you think this arrest is dumb (and remember, money's taken out of your paycheck to fund the police who spend their time arresting people with water bottles like in this situation) please take a moment to check out this site: http://www.assembleforrightsnyc.org/

  • thefacts

    We used to do this when we were 11.

  • Pull My Finger

    Welcome to New York. We don't fuck around here with people brandishing illegal water bottles.

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