For Immediate Release (8/26/98):
provided through OPENAIR-MARKET NET
On Tuesday, 8/25/98, in an action that was unprecedented even for the Giuliani administration, police officers confiscated more than 100 copies of the N. Y. Times, Daily News, N.Y. Post, Newsday, N.Y. Law Journal, Village Voice and N.Y. Press, issued more than 20 summonses to artists selling them in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and arrested Robert Lederman, President of A.R.T.I.S.T. Lederman was charged with selling newspapers without a permit, failure to comply with orders to stop selling the newspapers and Disorderly Conduct. Lederman was held for more than 8 hours in two different precincts and then released. The Giuliani Administration has become infamous for violations of the First Amendment during the past few years but until this date had never arrested anyone for selling newspapers.
The confiscations and arrest were carried out between 1 and 2 P.M by more than 30 police officials including enforcement officers from the Department of Parks, uniformed N.Y.P.D. officers, officers from the N.Y.P.D. Intelligence Division and the top attorneys for the Department of Parks. Members of A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics) arrived in front of the museum at 11 A.M. for a protest in response to the arrest on 8/23 of artist Patrick Christiano and the issuance of a number of summonses to artists for not having an artist permit.
Christiano was one of three artists whose cases were dismissed on 8/12 by Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Lucy Billings [see "Judge Refuses To Enforce Permit Rule For Artists", New York Law Journal 8/17/98 and 8/18/98; NYTIMES 8/18/98 "Charges Are Dropped in Sale of Art in Parks in New York"; N.Y. Post Editorial 8/20]. Judge Billings had issued a 19 page ruling on 8/12 declaring the Parks Departments' artist permit unconstitutional based on the Federal and New York State Constitution's First Amendment, and further stating that the controversial park rule violated a number of New York City laws.
Since 1982 vendors of written matter, including newspapers, books and magazines, have been exempted from needing any form of New York City license or permit. Newspaper vendors are not even required to collect sales tax or have a tax I.D. number. Since June of 1997, artists are also exempted from any form of license or permit, based on a successful Federal lawsuit by members of A.R.T.I.S.T. [see New York Times Metro Section B3, Tuesday, June 3, 1997 "SoHo Street Artists Triumph As High Court Rebuffs City"]. Despite the 1997 Federal Appeals Court ruling granting artists full First Amendment protection the Giuliani administration has continued to harass and arrest street artists and on March 1st of this year began requiring artists selling within 350 feet of any Parks property to obtain a permit.
Later in March of this year artists filed another Federal lawsuit [Lederman et al v Giuliani] in response to the permit requirement. Part of the issue in that case is that based on the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection, requiring artists to have a permit while book and newspaper vendors are not required to have a permit is unconstitutional. The Parks Department has admitted that there is no permit for book or newspaper vendors and that previous to yesterday's arrest and confiscations of newspapers, no enforcement against them. Hundreds of newspaper vending boxes ring the perimeters of Central Park and most other N.Y.C. City parks and require no permit of any kind. Newspaper vendors also sell on both sides of City Hall Park without a permit and have done so for more than 100 years based on the First Amendment.
Robert Lederman issued the following statement after his release:
"During our four and a half year struggle with the Giuliani administration, many people, including many newspaper reporters, have had difficulty understanding why street artists were making such a big deal about needing a license or permit. Yesterday's confiscation of hundreds of copies of the City's top newspapers should make it clear to anyone interested in the reality of free speech that allowing Mayor Giuliani to oppress one group's speech will eventually affect the speech rights of every person in this City. The Parks Department apparently see itself as the front-line troops in Giuliani's war on speech. Its rules against public speaking, public gatherings of more than 20 people, displaying any form of protest sign or demonstrating without a permit and its policy of privatizing and selling off public property to the highest bidder reveal an arrogant disregard for the very principles that make this nation unique.
The U.S. Supreme Court has called our public streets and parks, "quintessential public forums". If the sale of a newspaper without a government issued permit is now going to result in arrest and confiscation, what kind of free speech do we have? I call on all of the City's newspaper publishers, reporters and editorial writers to take a firm stand on this issue now, before they find themselves in the same circumstances New York's street artists have become all too familiar with.
The reason free speech and permits or licenses don't mix is that requiring a permit opens the door to censorship and discourages criticism of the very same elected officials who decide who gets a permit. This was clearly understood 200 years ago, when people were routinely arrested for expressing unpopular views. Will Mayor Giuliani readily give Robert Lederman a permit to sell satirical paintings or leaflets exposing his crimes against the people of New York City? Will he give a controversial person like Muhammad Khalid a permit to hold a march or make a speech that certain influential Giuliani supporters find offensive?
Freedom of speech may sometimes lead to extremely offensive speech but it remains the essence of what makes this nation and this City worth living in. Mayor Giuliani seems unable to grasp the fact that the freedoms we in New York take as our birthright are exactly what makes the real estate he is so protective of as valuable as it is. True quality of life, rather than the fake version he advocates, begins with the freedom guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. This Mayor, who poses as an advocate of law and order, is himself New York city's biggest criminal and should be impeached now."
For more information contact Robert Lederman, President of A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics) (718) 369-2111 e mail ARTISTpres@aol.com For more material on this issue go to http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html
Photos of the newspaper confiscations are available for publication.
Postscript.
A few hours after ordering newspapers confiscated in New York Mayor Giuliani began a Presidential Campaign trip in Milwaukee Wisconsin, and made the following absurd comments: [From N.Y. Daily News 8/26/98 "Rudy Sells Himself, And His Party, in Heartland"]
[Giuliani] said the core of his programs give people "freedom" from such things as welfare dependency and fear of crime. When crime was high, he added, "New Yorkers . . . had the same feeling of oppression that someone would have in a totalitarian government."