2/17/98
by Robert Lederman, President of A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics).
provided through OPENAIR-MARKET NET
Dear Editor,
"Wall St. Plans to Pay for a New Police Substation There"
N.Y. Times 2/16/98 and "Precinct to House Private, City Cops"
Daily News 2/16/98 describe the alarming acceleration towards
a corporate police state that New York City has been moving under
Mayor Giuliani. When corporations pay the bill for police facilities
as described in this article, mixing City Police and private security
guards in the same facility and build and finance their own local
criminal courts, as the times Sq. B.I.D. (Business Improvement
District) and Fifth Ave. B.I.D. have done on 54th St. can anyone
doubt that they have undue influence on the police? That the operations
managers of all the city's major B.I.D.s just happen to be ex
high-ranking police officials further illustrates the problematic
relationship these so-called "Business Improvement Districts"
have with City government. New York City's street artists have
experienced first hand how the B.I.D.s set the N.Y.P.D.'s agenda
and decide government policies affecting everything from pedestrian
movement to free speech. It's time for the City Council to put
its collective foot down and stop these unelected non-representational
B.I.D.s before they completely take over our city.
Robert Lederman, President
A.R.T.I.S.T.
(Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics)
255 13th Street
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11215
For more info, contact: A.R.T.I.S.T. Ph: (718) 369-2111 or (212) 561-0877; Email <ARTISTpres@aol.com>; Web site http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html