Results tagged “freespeech”

Long-time readers of Gothamist may remember that we've applied for NYPD press passes a couple of times, and have gotten denied. The explanation we were given was that the NYPD only credentials traditional media— radio, print, and television— and that online reportage simply did not qualify. So it was with great interest that we attended today's public discussion of "Rules for City Issued Press Credentials" at New York Law School.

Yesterday, NJ blogger surrendered to Connecticut authorities, who claimed his blog post incited injury to state lawmakers and a state employee (he promised to include their addresses) by urging readers to "take up arms and put down this tyranny by force" against them. According to the AP, Harold Turner was upset "over legislation that would have given lay members of Roman Catholic churches in Connecticut more control over their parish's finances." The bill was withdrawn in March, but Turner wrote on June 2, "It is our intent to forment direct action against these individuals personally. These beastly government officials should be made an example of as a warning to others in government: Obey the Constitution or die." Turner's Blogspot blog was removed by Blogrer; Courant's Capitol Watch adds, "Turner, who has been identified as a white supremacist and anti-Semite by several anti-racism groups, hosts an Internet radio program with an associated blog." Turner's lawyer said the defense will focus on the First Amendment.

Yesterday, The Daily News printed an article that began, "A cop-bashing art exhibit at a taxpayer-funded museum in Brooklyn portrays the city's Finest as trigger-happy racists who have put bull's-eyes on the backs of black New Yorkers."

Two members of a three-judge federal appellate court panel took the city to task yesterday for removing the principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy. Debbie Almontaser, who helped found the dual-language school with an emphasis on Arab culture, stepped down before the school opened last fall, after controversy over remarks she made in the NY Post.

MOVIE: Delve into the mind and life of H.L. “Doc” Humes (pictured) in a documentary by his daughter. Titled Doc, the 96-minute film focuses in on the counterculture icon. "In the 1950s and early '60s, Doc co-founded The Paris Review, wrote two acclaimed novels, and was a gregarious fixture of the cultural scene in Paris, London and New York. Doc was a 1950s NYC intellectual, a 60s free speech militant, and a 70s visionary crazy genius. His story is the story of decades of cultural history, a poignant personal long-strange-trip, and a fount of ever-relevant ideas." Tonight Immy Humes (filmmaker) will be at the 8pm screening, and tomorrow night she will be joined by Paul Auster. More info here.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian struck on Autumn and Liberty Aves. in Brooklyn, a suspicious fire on Wallace Ave. and Pelham Parkway in the Bronx,and a carjacking on 85th St. in the Bronx.
• Lawyers for Ted Corliss continue to argue for charges to be dismissed against their client, who attempted to jump off the Empire State Building, even after the State Supreme Court ruled that jumping off tall buildings was a form of free speech. Corliss is currently experimenting with jumping out of airplanes and landing without a parachute.
• I'm still trying to figure out how to parlay my cardboard box residence to this Internet entrepreneur's comfortable domicile. Next week in Extra, Extra: drunk guys hurting themselves and barely legal girls making out.
• PSA: 7 Line service will be out of commission starting this upcoming Saturday. Alternate service will be available on the LIRR, unless of course, Amtrak workers go on strike, in which case one can take the subwa . . .nevermind.

The Parks Dept. decided to throw in the towel on litigation that's been going on for three years and conceded to reevaluate its requirement that no more than 50,000 people could gather on Central Park's Great Lawn at one time.

D is for drunk and disorderly, not boobs and breasts. At least according to New Jersey State Senator Richard Codey. The Times first reported yesterday on the halftime events at Gate D at Giants Stadium during Jets games. Hundreds of fans gather on the exit ramp, chanting at women and encouraging them to expose their breasts. If they don't lift their shirts, the women are met with boos and sometimes are spit at or have...

Hallelujah! Yesterday the judge presiding over the Reverend Billy case dropped the charges that claimed he harassed public officials. The Rev was arrested in June while reciting the First Amendment in Union Square during a Critical Mass ride which coincided with the protest of the proposed MOFTB rules. Turns out the prosecutors didn't meet their deadline to file papers explaining the arrest and its justification. The Reverend's (whose real name is Bill Talen) lawyer, Earl...

Are disputes between dry cleaners and their customers a new source of income for lawyers? The owner of an Upper East Side drycleaning business is suing a man for papering the neighborhood around his store with fliers that impeach the quality of his service. Todd Ofsink owns Todd Layne Cleaners on East 77th St. and is suing Evan Maloney for $100,000 for defamation. Maloney had some negative customer experiences at the store, so he set up a site called ToddLayneCleanersSucks.com and began posting fliers.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke today, giving a speech and sort of answers some of questions posed by Columbia University President Lee Bollinger and School of International and Public Affairs Dean John Coatsworth. We're sure video and transcripts will come shortly, but in the meant time, The Bwog, New York, and City Room have been liveblogging the speech. Here's a sample of questions posed, via the City Room:

In response to a question about the treatment of homosexuals in Iran, Mr. Ahmadinejad was initially evasive, instead talking about the death penalty, which, he pointed out, exists in the United States: “People who violate the laws by using guns, creating insecurity selling guns, distributing guns at a high level are sentenced to execution in Iran. Very few of these punishments are carried out in the public eye.”

Continue reading "Ahmadinejad Speaks, People Listen, Applaud, Boo, Hiss"

When the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting announced in June that they were proposing new rules for videographers, filmmakers and photographers - everyone who's ever seen an image of New York responded.

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg traveled back to his Massachusetts roots and gave the commencement speech at Tufts University. Bloomberg, who grew up in Medford, name checked various haunts in the hood, tried to seem with it by mentioning Busta Rhymes, Ali G, and Salma Hayek, and reminded kids to call their mother. He also discussed free speech, in what the Sun called a nod to the Minutemen incident at Columbia:

The fourth lesson is, in the words of Ali G, 'Respect.' Don't worry, I'm not going to start quoting Borat. Respect is so important - especially in times of conflict. You all know what I'm talking about. In December, The Primary Source printed some things that much of this community ardently disagreed with - that many considered quite offensive. But instead of suppressing the publication - and despite the emotion of the moment - you respected their right to express themselves.

Continue reading "Bloomberg on Mom, Sports, and Respeck"

prompted a free speech case heard by the Supreme Court and was the only film banned in New York as well as 24 states and 4 countries. For those interested in the underground film movement in New York in the '60s, Smith is a really seminal, though obscure figure. This documentary portrait gives a real sense of Smith's struggles to get his work made and his role within the scene, from his exotic, free-form film shoots on SoHo apartment roofs to his late night, drug-fueled performance art pieces. Ultimately we see how Smith unfortunate insistence that his work remain unfinished (ostensibly to safeguard against getting banned again) kept him woefully obscure. But Jordan's documentary is a wonderful opportunity to see much of his luscious, weird and provocative work blown up on the big screen as well as hear from the crazy crew of friends and enemies who knew Smith. The film is playing now at Film Forum through April 24th, so don't miss it.

Almost six months after a group of Columbia students rushed the stage when Minutemen Project leader Jim Gilchrist was speaking, the university has imposed sentences against the protesting students. The Columbia Spectator reports the students received "disciplinary warnings" which will be on their transcripts until the end of 2008. Monique Dols, a General Studies student who spoke to the media last fall, said, "It's a light punishment, it's a slap on the wrist. It's a victory for free-speech and anti-racism."

After its story about how the NYPD spied on organizations for at least a year before the 2004 Republican National Convention, the NY Times reports that the city wants to keep NYPD records sealed, in fear that the media will "fixate upon and sensationalize them." Well, that's probably too late.

With the sun out, the temperatures high, one can only think of one thing-- what's going on in the World of the -ist's?

I particularly liked the Bush/ Lincoln comparison that we did a couple of weeks ago. That was good fun to do. And breaking my nose whilst charging at the Confederate army takes some beating.

A reader snapped this picture from the protest against the NYU College Republicans' "Find the Illegal Immigrant" game in Washington Square Park today. College Republicans president Sarah Chambers denied the event was racist and told the Washington Square News, "The event will open up both vocally and physically the issue of illegal immigration." She added, "The media response was much larger then I expected - the NYU response was no."

Federal Judge Charles S. Haight Jr. banned the police's ability to routinely videotape demonstrations yesterday. Haight found the NYPD violated Handschu v. Special Services Division, a 1971 decision that established "consent decree"; Haight wrote in his decision, "Solely politically based investigations are flatly prohibited by the guidelines. In other words, there must always be a legitimate law enforcement purpose - having a purpose of investigating political activity exclusively for its own sake is never allowed." In other words, just because it's a demonstration doesn't mean it has to be videotaped.

It's a new semester at City College and it'll be a new round of fighting over a campus center's "Guillermo Morales/Assata Shakur" sign. The Daily News reports that City Councilman Charles Barron re-placed the controversial sign for the City College NY community center and vows to re-place it if it's taken down again:

"We are here to say to the City University that we have a right to self-determination, that we have a right to free speech, that we have a right to freedom of expression," Barron said. "We are saying that you can't determine who our heroines and heroes are going to be."

Remember when Rivington Street was painted all sorts of colors for a musical being filmed? Well, it looks like the movie won't be in in theaters until September, but the trailer is already floating around out there. Check it out:

Seagull in Flight, by Shveckle.

Yesterday, Columbia University president Lee Bollinger sent a letter explaining the school's response to the incident where student protesters and members of the Minutemen Project got into an unseemly brawl during a College Republican sponsored talk. The full text of the letter is after the jump; here's the pertinent part about punishment:

Third, there has been a comprehensive review of security at student events. In this case, an examination of the facts shows that Columbia University Public Safety personnel (both in uniform and a number in plainclothes) restored order within a few short moments. Still, it is always a sad day for academic freedom when disruption makes speech impossible. For the future, we will accordingly have additional security measures in place. It is, of course, unfortunate that such protective measures are necessary in a campus environment that depends on openness and human connection. Nevertheless, we must strike the balance between an environment that fosters self-regulation of behavior by young adults and the visible security presence necessary to ensure the safety of all participants at student sponsored events.

Continue reading "Bollinger's End of the Term Letter about Columbia's Minutemen Incident"

Yesterday, the NY Times looked at Columbia President - and First Amendement scholar - Lee Bollinger's free speech stance given this incident as well as many other instances at the the school were speech seems to have been shut down. And did you see Jim Gilchrist on The Colbert Report? Stephen Colbert didn't run across the stage from his desk to the interview area - it was probably in Gilchrist's rider that no one approach him suddenly before speaking.

One Koran in the toilet is bad. A second Koran in the toilet, you got problems. Or a rash of copy cats Koran dunkings. At Pace University's downtown location, a Koran was found in a toilet at the library's bathrooom - the second Koran-in-the-toilet incident in recent weeks and the fourth hate incident spanning the NYC and Westchester campuses. Pace is investigating the incident, but the Council on American-Islamic Relations' NY chapter issued a statement saying, "We once again call on Pace University to take concrete measures to help educate the student population about Islamophobic bigotry and its negative impact on ordinary Muslims and on American society."

Members of Columbia University's Chicano Caucus and International Socialist Organization had a press conference yesterday to discuss the fallout from last week's clash with the Minutemen group on campus. The protesters said they didn't mean to stop the Minutemen's head from speaking when they went on stage, but, as the Chicano Caucus' political chair reasoned, "We are sure that if the Ku Klux Klan came to campus, African Americans would be there to protest. So would we." The protesters also emphasized that the violence was instigated by the Minutemen and College Republicans - not the protesters.

), as questions about the level of security and motives of chosing certain speakers remained.

Wednesday night's clash between immigration "watchdog" group the Minutemen and Columbia University student protesters has even pulled Mayor Bloomberg into the frazy. During his radio show, Mayor Bloomberg said university president Lee Bollinger has "got to get his hands around this. There are too many incidents at the same school where people get censored." Case in point: School of International Affairs needing to uninvite President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from speaking because the school couldn't coordinate security logistics in time. Of course, it is interesting that Bollinger's specialty is free speech. Anyway, Bollinger released a university-wide statement:

Columbia University has always been, and will always be, a place where students and faculty engage directly with important public issues. We are justifiably proud of the traditions here of intellectual inquiry and vigorous debate. The disruption on Wednesday night that resulted in the termination of an event organized by the Columbia College Republicans in Lerner Hall represents, in my judgment, one of the most serious breaches of academic faith that can occur in a university such as ours.

Continue reading "Columbia Students Vs. Minutemen Free Speech Dispute Continues to Simmer"

Protest is alive and well at Columbia, though it's still a far cry from 1968. Yesterday evening, Jim Gilchrist, head of the Minutemen, the "citizens' vigilance operation" that patrols the Mexican border in California, was invited to speak at Columbia University. But pretty much as soon as he got on stage, a group of student got on stage and protested - and then all hell broke loose. The Bwog liveblogged the event, and here's an excerpt:

Finally the Minuteman himself enters. "Now who're you calling racist?" he shouts, putting his arm around [Minutemen boardmember Marvin] Stewart, who is black. "I love the First Amendment. As soon as you graduate, you'll all be investment bankers. I've been where you at. I know you hate yourselves."

Continue reading "Minutemen Insanity at Columbia"