Neither more nor less: 6/29/08

Saturday, July 05, 2008

Independance Day 1996 in Little Italy ..

The cops and the Fire Department occasionally drove through the area but did not stop on this night . This was a neighborhood thing ; a traditional Little Italy 4th of July celebration of independance and liberty . This event was sponsored , funded and executed by the neighborhood for the benefit of all who chose to come to the area around Mott and Prince to enjoy up close and uncomfortable this old fashioned fireworks display .

This celebration was the last of it kind . The nanny state stopped it all , claiming of course that it was just too dangerous .

Well , we did always wear eye and ear protection for this event and yes , it was dangerous but it was also the best show in town ; outclassing Macy's annual display by a long way . Both displays used the same big aerial bombs but here you could be up close when bombs were launched from mortars in the center of an intersection .

Today we are left with one big automated fireworks display over the river , a pathetic cascade of water spilling from the top of some scaffolding errected beneath the Brooklyn bridge and memories of some orange sheets blowing in the wind in Central Park ... and of course annoying visions of a mayor lecturing us on safety as he also informs us as to just how much that the pathetic cascade of water from atop a scaffold will bring NYC in tourist dollars .

We ask one question of the reader concerning safety and our city administration . Which would you prefer , 1 night of fireworks on your block every year or a tower crane errected directly across the street from your residence that will be used for the next 18 months to build a new 400 foot tall building that was designed and self-certified by God-only-knows-who ? The tower crane of course will be certified safe by Mayor bloomberg's NYC Dept. of Buildings .The inpections and approvals of all work will be done by the same God-only-knows-who that designed the building according to their Directive 14 privileges .

# posted by Bob Arihood @ 4:53 AM 7 Comments

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

6 Nov. 2004 : The Most Recent Tompkins Square Park Riot ...

On 6 Nov. 2004 in Tompkins Square Park , NYPD called for a major mobilization , including helicopters , horses from the mounted patrol , large numbers of regular officers and several others of the NYPD special units . The reason for the mobilization : a riot was in progress .

It all began here at 6:03 pm with the above arrest . A young man is arrested for drinking a beer .

At the very end of a TSP concert , the permit ended at 6:0o pm , 2 officers were entering the centeral area of TSP where the concert was held ,to shut down the sound system and to supervise the area as those who had attended the concert left the area .

As the 2 police officers entered the area they encountered a young man drinking a beer . They politely requested ( we saw this ) that this young man pour out his beer and deposit the can in a trash recepticle . Well , the young man was not in the mood to surrender anything , especially his beer , to the cops . The police officers attempted to take the beer from the young man ; there was a scuffle ending with cuffs on the young man and a riot to follow envolving perhaps 150 anrgy concert-goers .

Many of those who had attended the concert were at the end of the event well soused . The concert had been largely un-policed and thus mass quantities of the hoppy , alcholic beveredges , beer and malt liquor the favorite , had been consumed .

Indeed during the concert we saw several full beer containers fly through the air , striking and injuring people . Bloody scalps and faces were seen . People were seen diving from the stage into the crowd but the crowd was not catching everyone ; those who were missed were seen crawling , bloody, on hands knees between the legs of the crowd making there way to the sidelines to nurse their wounds. Some folks were so well pickled that they had to lean against each other just to remain standing upright .

Above a young man is subdued for allegedly breaking a 40 oz. beer bottle on the window of a police vehicle . At this time a hail of beer bottles , mostly 40 oz. in size , was directed in the direction of these police officers .

We have seen many a riot , Chicago in 1968 , Chicago and the Weather Underground's "Days of Rage" in 1969 , the Tompkins Square Park Riots 1988 through 1994 and others in other cities , but only rarely had we seen rioters actually run at and tackle police officers . Above a man is subdued who along with several other concert-goers had run at and tackled police officers .