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While many of you may have read about this online already - I'd say that most of you also did not get the full scoop on the importance as to why the protest even happened. Unfortunately, the simple story/headline you might get is that Sturgeon acted like an idiot & got arrested for satirically lobbing donuts in the direction of police officers. Clearly a popular immediate criticism of this action is a sarcastic "Great , that's really productive" or at least something along those lines. And ...that criticism is accurate to that extent when held upon those actions but that's not the whole story. Sturgeon may of had the spotlight on him as he was the entertainment/ 'the clown' - but the issue here is constitutional rights. His role was to draw attention to it. And you're reading this now - so there you go.
This is not simply an issue about an arguably politically juvenile punk band & their lyrics or their sound decibel debate -- this stretches past all that now. While it may not be directly related - it also gets tied up to the ongoing pattern of targeted harassment by members of the NYPD where they have been blatantly targeting Sturgeon and his bands (most recently being Star Fucking Hipsters this past May) where they have actually, on numerous occasions, threatened to close venues permanently if they let his band perform in the following days(as in pre-event). At a club in Greenpont - they promised that if the band was let to perform the next day - that they would find a code violation to shut down the venue. On top of that - during the incident last May - they flat out refused to give their badge numbers & took down the information of every kid that walked up to the venue. No matter what inane ramblings the man says - its punk to challenge authority (at least - the last time I checked) & its now an issue about the violations of free speech. Quoting an officer from the 9th precinct on the behavior of these Brooklyn Cops : " these people are no longer cops, they are criminals.
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Now back to the issue as to why the protest ocurred as it did :
On August 2nd & 3rd , the usual group of Lower East Side activists/organizers put on the annual anniversary rally/concert of the neighborhood-defining 1988 Tompkins Square Park Police Riots. This was the first time that the organizers were held to a strictly enforced sound level reading - limiting the concert to 70 DB at 100 ft. The concert the week before had no enforcement, nor the month before, nor the month before that, etc etc etc. During the event, an organizer had to call a well known Civil Rights Attorney to get the show from getting pulled. After the bands were done, the concert promoters were informed to expect a $1,500 summons in the mail for violating the decibel limit.
So maybe this was a coincidence & the rule just happened to start being put into effect during our 20th Anniversary Police Riot Anniversary gig - but since then - there has been zero enforcement on sound levels in the park for other events, including Street Life Ministries Christian Rock Concert, the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, The Theatre for the New City play along with various other concerts, movies, etc. This pretty much displays a pattern of selective enforcement. By letting you gather, perform or rally - they are letting you keep your right to freedom of speech - but if they dont like what is being said - they can make that speech inaudible....and legally less audible than the traffic passing behind the event. Again, what is more important than a decibel debate for a targeted borderline juvenile punk band like Leftover Crack - this is a standard that can be forced upon ANY group protesting or rallying in the entire city of New York. To further this - they gave the permitted protest a decibel limit for amplified sound capping at 70 db at 50 ft (due to being in a resid |