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Post by billhammond on Oct 22, 2014 14:04:21 GMT -5
NEW YORK - AP - Musicians rallied around a fellow subway performer whose arrest in a busy station came after a confrontation over whether he needed a permit and was captured on video as straphangers jeered police.
The New York Police Department said it's looking into the arrest of Andrew Kalleen.
Kalleen was performing Friday at the G train stop in Brooklyn's hipster Williamsburg neighborhood, home to trendy boutiques and cafes patronized by ultrahip residents and tourists who flock there to experience Brooklyn life. A police officer told Kalleen he had to leave the station because he needed a permit to play there.
"I'm not going to argue with you," the officer says calmly in the video.
Kalleen, also speaking evenly, refuses to leave and tells the officer he has a right to be there performing, then directs him to the section in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's rules of conduct that says artistic performances and solicitations of donations are allowed.
The flustered officer reads the section aloud, as the watching straphangers clap, but then decides to eject Kalleen from the station.
The MTA does not issue permits, and the rules the officer read aloud are accurate. But the MTA rules differ from state law, which says an entertainer can be arrested for loitering in a transportation facility unless he was authorized to be there.
"Get your stuff. You're leaving," the officer says.
Kalleen again refuses and begins to play Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here."
The officer calls for backup while removing a guitar from the shoulders of Kalleen, who continues to sing a cappella.
"I'm being oppressed," says the musician, wearing hot pink socks, no shoes, a jacket, a tie and a fedora.
Meanwhile, straphangers taunt the officer and then begin to insult him and ask whether there are more serious crimes he should be policing.
Kalleen was arrested on a charge of loitering as he sang Neil Young's protest anthem "Ohio." Police spokesman Steve Davis said Tuesday that the department is investigating the matter.
The video was posted online and has been viewed more than 450,000 times.
On Tuesday afternoon, Kalleen and a group of other musicians and supporters including two City Council members held a musical rally at the subway station before he filed a complaint.
"It's important to stand up for your rights," Kalleen said. "If I'm not doing anything illegal, we are on equal playing fields, so he has no right to tell me what to do, so I will do as I please."
Matthew Christian, of the BUSK-NY advocacy group, called for police officers to get better training to understand musicians don't need permits to perform.
Kalleen has a court date scheduled for Friday.
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Post by dickt on Oct 22, 2014 14:12:07 GMT -5
Maybe if he hadn't played Neil Young. That's a crime in itself, isn't it?
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Post by theevan on Oct 22, 2014 14:15:05 GMT -5
Hah Dick, beat me to it!
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Post by billhammond on Oct 22, 2014 14:16:32 GMT -5
Maybe if he hadn't played Neil Young. That's a crime in itself, isn't it? I was gonna go there, but didn't want to be predicable! |
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Post by dickt on Oct 22, 2014 14:29:17 GMT -5
<predictable>
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Post by Marshall on Oct 22, 2014 14:35:24 GMT -5
There are designated areas on Chicago subway stops. And you need a busker's permit anywhere. Cost $100 a year, I think. I've seen CTA security tell someone to leave a station for playing in a non-authorized area. The guy just said "OK" and packed it up and left.
On other NY busker news; One of the performers on "The Voice" last night is a transplanted-to-NY street musician trying to make it big. His voice is HUGE.
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Post by billhammond on Oct 22, 2014 14:42:01 GMT -5
Maybe I didn't want to be in a predicament. Ever think of THAT??? |
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Post by fauxmaha on Oct 22, 2014 14:48:31 GMT -5
"I'm being oppressed," says the musician, wearing hot pink socks, no shoes, a jacket, a tie and a fedora. Demonstrating that there is a such thing as being too hip. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2014 16:00:30 GMT -5
Permits for busking. Big Government is out friend and yours.
Sheesh.
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Post by Rob Hanesworth on Oct 22, 2014 16:07:21 GMT -5
I spent my first 47 years totally ignorant about busking. Then I saw a sign in the window of a small shop in York, England, that said "NO BUSKING!" I had to go in and ask the shopkeeper what busking was so could be sure I wasn't doing it. I wasn't.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2014 18:28:49 GMT -5
On YouTube.
The NYPD need to cool it.
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Post by Chesapeake on Oct 22, 2014 18:32:31 GMT -5
I thought the policeman handled it in a very professional manner. Stupid, but professional.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2014 18:38:56 GMT -5
Professionally handcuffing and arresting a law abiding citizen? I think that stupid and professional and powerful are a bad mix.
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Post by Doug on Oct 22, 2014 19:13:06 GMT -5
I took from Peake's post: Much better stupid and professional than stupid and not professional (stomping guitar, stomping busker, tasering busker) all of which behavior we have seen from policemen.
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Post by Chesapeake on Oct 22, 2014 19:58:28 GMT -5
I agree with James. But once I got over my incredulity at what was happening, I realized it did have a farcical aspect. The cop obviously has had training about how to handle situations where he is being filmed, and being ridiculed. None of it seemed to phase the dimwit.
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Post by Doug on Oct 22, 2014 20:14:18 GMT -5
Think of it as paying a fee to have free speech. While the government is at it they should charge each of us a $100 permit to have free speech here.
See Col. Paul's post.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2014 20:37:39 GMT -5
Permits are not required to busk there. Misguided big police chief is the problem it seems.
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Post by godotwaits on Oct 22, 2014 20:50:43 GMT -5
The last I heard, you need a permit. Much like a curbside kiosk.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2014 21:06:52 GMT -5
Perhaps I am mistaken. I was going by the last but one sentence of the news report. I appreciate that laws can get knotty locally though. Government types are however to blame for the organising of mass transit infrastructure projects more often than not.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2014 21:19:00 GMT -5
A government requiring a $100 busking permit seems akin to telling a suspect he needs to buy a permit to assert his right to counsel.
Next series from Dick Wolf's production company: Law & Order: Special Busking Unit
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