NYPD Continues Crackdown On Cyclists, Stops Brooklyn Rider On Sidewalk, Arrests Bystander (Video)

[UPDATED BELOW] A quiet corner in Brooklyn became the scene of an unfortunate arrest by the NYPD after they stopped a cyclist for riding on the sidewalk, and ended up arresting a vocal bystander.

NYPD Questions Tourist Videotaping In Times Square (Video)

When Aaron C. was visiting New York City from central Florida for the first time back in October, he did all the things New Yorkers do; walk around, see the sights, get questioned by the NYPD for taking photos... you know, the usual.

During a bustling evening in Times Square, Aaron saw a stretch, pink Mini Cooper pass by and recorded it on video. "When I started recording it..." he told NYC The Blog in an email, "the officer asked me what I was photographing." In video he recently shared online, you can hear the office inquire: "What are you taking pictures of, the yellow cab?"

'Missing' NYPD Barriers 'Found' On MacDougal Street

The New York Post reports that somewhere 3,000 NYPD barriers used for crowd control were reported missing or stolen in the past year. The NYPD said the number is actually 1,700 and includes those that break.

Sometimes the barries are turned into public seating. Gothamist wonders how many of you have one in your living room. And NYPD spokesman Paul Browne told the Post: "Clubs and other institutions will often take use after the police used them, and we go out and take them back."

Which brings us to the barriers seen above, on the corner of MacDougal and Houston Streets. They've been there forever, which means I can't remember not seeing them there. They are normally stationed in the adjacent parking space, cordoning it off on either end. If a business is saving the parking space, I've never actually seen a car parked there, but normally pass by after business hours. Either way, it seems clear they are not being used by the NYPD for any reason, but instead have been repurposed by someone else. So now we are down to 1,697 missing, stolen or broken barries.

Have you seen barriers in "unauthorized" use? A pile of them sitting near the roadside? Please send in your photos.

Related:

• Did You Know The NYPD Has A Movie/TV Unit?
  
• Skywatching SkyWatch: Where Are The NYPD's 8 Tactical Towers?

» Follow NYC The Blog on Facebook and Twitter. Photo credit: Paolo Mastrangelo/NYC The Blog

In The Market For An NYPD Cruiser?

Authentic or not, here's an NYPD cruiser for sale in the U.K. that one would hope it difficult to import into the U.S. without having to answer a lot of questions. The YouTube user selling the car claims it is "genuine...not a replica," and is asking £3500, which is approximately $5,500. The 1998 Chevrolet Lumina "was decommissioned by the NYPD...used on an American Air Force base here in the UK," before being bought privately and restored for use in promotional events.

The Most Unconventional And Comical Arrest Ever Recorded

Last Thursday at approximately 9:30 pm in the Woodlawn station of the Bronx, a neighborhood resident witnessed a ruckus involving an NYPD officer. What follows is a video so outlandish— full of reckless and vulgar verbal abuse by the arrested subject and unprofessional behavior by the officer—that it seems plausible the officer is not a professional NYPD officer but a member of the NYPD's Auxiliary Police. NYC The Blog has a call into the 47th precinct looking for more information and will update if they get back. UPDATE: 47th advised to call the DCPI, who have requested a copy of the video for review.

In the video seen below, provided to NYC The Blog by YouTube user EverybodyCanGetIt, who recorded the scene, the officer is shown engaging a verbally abusive and threatening person without making an arrest for over four minutes. Instead, the officer pins him to the ground, throws his hat, pushes him down the stairs, hits him once, threatens him with a baton, wrestles him to the ground and challenges him to make a move—all while engaged in a ridiculous war of words. "Get up." "F*ck you!" "Get up." "Fuck you!" At the 41 second mark, as the officer is shoving the subject down the stairs, he spins the man around and broadsides him with a right hook. "Yah, I like that," replies the man, adding for good measure: "Fuck you...suck my dick...you're a pussy." At the 1:08 mark, it appears if the subject mimics a gun with his hands and points it at the officers face. He takes his jacket off and challenges the officer to fight once again. The officer removes his baton and approaches. "Oh you're gonna shoot me?" the man asks. "You're a pussy," he again tells the officer. "I'm not the one who just got dragged down the stairs," retorts the officer. Watch the video below.

UPDATED: Vehicles Of State And City Officials Block Handicap Access To Sidewalks; Is This Legal?

UPDATE: The New York City DOT responds via Twitter: "@nyctheblog No, it is not legal for anyone to block a crosswalk with or without a placard."

As per normal on this stretch of Centre Street, multiple cars have blocked access to the crosswalks and curb cuts in front of the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, depriving the handicap and frail the option of moving onto or off a sidewalk without difficulty or assistance. Two vehicles had official placards on their dashboard (see top right). One vehicle belonged to an NYPD employee, the other to an employee of the New York State Judicial system. Do these placards give the vehicles a right to park illegally like this? Even assuming so, their choice of parking arrangements seemed particularly inconsiderate and unnecessary considering the public parking lot only a couple of feet away that had an abundance of empty spots as illustrated in the photo below.


Previously:
While Good Times Roll For Many In Manhattan, Hundreds Gather Every Night In Downtown Parking Lot For Free Food
Downtown Manhattan's Collect Pond Park Overrun With Rats (VIDEO)
Visiting Manhattan Night Court At 100 Center St.

» Follow NYC The Blog on Facebook and Twitter. Photo credits: Paolo Mastrangelo/NYC The Blog

Spotting An Undercover NYPD Taxi Cruiser

Seen in the video here, a pair of undercover officers with the NYPD stop a vehicle in the West Village earlier this month, letting the driver on his way shortly afterward.

As unnerving as it is to see blue lights flashing in your rear view, seeing the blue lights emanate from a yellow cab operating undercover as an NYPD cruiser seems less so.Some might even find it exciting to be pulled over by a cop car disguised as a taxi.  And obviously, if you see a taxi with lights flashing and a siren sound—two burly white men in the front seats—you can safely assume it is an undercover police car. But what other ways can you tell?

NYPD Admires Freshly Bombed Deitch Wall By Barry McGee And Co.

Even an NYPD officer can appreciate the stunning new work on the Deitch Wall at Houston Street by Twist and company. The officer driving by late last night stopped his paddy wagon well short of a red light to take a few moments to admire the newly bombed wall. It's quite possible he is pleased as everyone to see the uninspired and obnoxious work of Shepard Fairey finally banished from that corner.

Twist, aka Barry McGee, and friends worked into the wee hours of yesterday morning to complete the wall, being questioned by the police on at least two occasions during the process of creating the commissioned and permitted work. The Art Collectors documented all of it and more, from 12am to 6am, including a roll over car accident on the street that happened only yards away.

Follow NYC The Blog on Facebook and Twitter. Photo credit: Paolo Mastrangelo/NYC The Blog

NYPD Cruiser Wrecked Itself Before It Checked Itself

This nearly split in half NYPD cruiser was spotted by BlackBook Media's feared respected Chris Mohney on 34th Street and Park Avenue a few weeks ago. It was about 12:30pm in the afternoon when Mohney came upon the scene. No one seems to know exactly what happened or what led to this extraordinary sight of a NYPD cruiser forcefully converted into a convertible.


Mohney told NYC The Blog: "...some guy was regaling the gawkers with a story about them having to saw the car open to get someone out, but it was puzzling...car didn’t look wrecked or seem like it was crushed or anything else that would make it impossible to open. A mystery."

» Follow NYC The Blog on Facebook and Twitter. Photo credit: Paolo Mastrangelo/NYC The Blog

Did You Know The NYPD Has A Movie/TV Unit?

Did you know the NYPD has a Movie/TV Unit? They do, and the car seen in the photo at left (note the title on rear panel) was spotted on a set in the West Village a few weeks back.

The unit was founded along with the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting in 1966. They assist with traffic control, firearms, uniforms, safety, access to public space and more. They also help insure your robbery scene will not be interrupted by NYPD officers responding to reports of a robbery in progress with guns drawn. The unit's services are provided free of charge to the industry.

At the time I happened upon this particular unit, it was, from what I could gather, being enlisted to help with scouting an area the crew felt unsafe in. Moments later, three members of the film crew entered the car and off they went.

According to this comment at Filming in Brookly, the unit is the only one of it's kind in the world.

» Follow NYC The Blog on Facebook and Twitter.

Where Are The Eight NYPD Skywatch Towers?

The NYPD Skywatch towers seen here in Times Square on the second week of April are assumed to have been deployed in response to trouble on Easter evening, when hordes of teenagers filled the area and caused a bit of mayhem. 

If they were still there during the attempted bombing of Times Square, news reports did not mention them.

Will they again be deployed in the area? The NYPD has only eight Skywatch towers to deploy over the entire city.  Do you know where they are? Have you seen them in your neighborhood? Send in the location and lets map them out.

» Follow NYC The Blog on Facebook and Twitter.

UPDATED: William “Billy” Leroy, Owner Of Billy's Antiques Arrested; 'The End Of The Subway Signs At Billy's'

NYC The Blog has learned from William “Billy” Leroy of Billy's Antiques and Props on E Houston that he was arrested yesterday by the NYPD at his establishment: "hauled away in cuffs and let out 8 hrs later." The NYPD and Transit Police were there requisitioning the subway signs Billy's has long been selling in the aftermarket, and it seems the arrest stems from those transactions.

Yesterday, Young Manhattanite reported the NYPD swarmed Billy's Antiques and Props on E Houston at around 11am for unknown reasons, using bolt cutters and documenting the scene with a video camera. NYC The Tumblr dug up a photo of the scene from Twitter user @andyellwood (seen at right).

In an email to NYC The Blog this morning, Billy fills us in the events that transpired yesterday, after selling the subway signs without incident for ten years:

Skywatching SkyWatch: Where Are The NYPD's 8 Tactical Towers?

Northattan recently reported there are 11 SkyWatch units deployed around the state. When not plotting the destruction of the human race, SkyWatch towers are deployed by the NYPD to "hotspots," in an attempt to suppress crime and surveil the area. A spokeswoman with ICX, the company that manufactures them, candidly informed Northattan that the NYPD owns 8 SkyWatch units.

Using recent published reports, the map below identifies the locations of six SkyWatch towers in New York City. Four have been verified in December, one was spotted a few weeks ago at the United Nations, and one was photographed in Brooklyn this September by ANIMALNewYork. Click through the map to see the locations and accompanying reports for these six SkyWatch towers.

If you can identify the location of any other SkyWatch towers in New York City, or know that one of these six are no longer in the noted location, please leave a comment or send an email!

Welcome To Northattan, Where Politicians Are Defeated With Santeria

Almonte is an assistant gardener in the park, responsible for planting, pruning and cleaning up the playgrounds. Park cleanup is not the most pleasant job – especially on the many mornings when Almonte has to pick up big black garbage bags stuffed with animal corpses – the remains of Santeria religious sacrifices.

[...]

Almonte says she found other sacrifices this past summer around the time that local Councilman Miguel Martinez was forced to resign under corruption charges. Almonte believes the sacrifices were aimed at saving his political career. As news spread of embezzlement charges against Martinez, Almonte retrieved five bags in the park, each with a photo of Martinez inside.

Saving his career? They torpedoed it! Santeria for all corrupt pols!

The report and slideshow above comes from Northattan, a new website reported and edited by student journalists at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, covering northern Manhattan. It is an ambitious, wide reaching website, featuring original reporting, video, and audio. Here are some other reports you probably missed:

++Amikka Smith on Bennie "Tex" Miller, a "true american cowboy." Smith was the first African American to win the world championship for bull riding, and passed away last week at aged 96.

++Bruce Pianski's City Solve, a graffiti-removal company, removes graffiti from St Nicholas Avenue between 170th and 185th street in Washington Height. Before and after pictures were taken. That was three weeks ago. Anyone know if the gates stayed clean?

++Touring Obama's New York

++Canal Street isn't the only area street vendors are feeling the heat from the NYPD. "New York City police, citing overcrowding, cracked down in September, chased out all vendors — licensed or unlicensed — from the north side of 125th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues. Now the street’s original vendors have returned, but police are keeping a close eye on what they sell.

[Welcome to Northattan]

Canal Street Crack Down; NYPD Watches From The Sky

On Tuesday, in what is becoming a periodic game of cat and mouse, the police swooped in and shut down 10 buildings and 30 stalls on Canal Street that were selling counterfeit merchandise.

This comes a few weeks after NYC The Blog photographed NYPD Skywatch units watching over the area. At the time, it seemed that "...they might be keeping an eye on the street vendors in the area selling Gucci sneakers on the cheap." If the NYPD was gathering intel, the vendors didn't seem to give a shit. No word on whether the minivans parked along nearby side streets were also nabbed.

"We're just not going to have any tolerance for people selling knock-offs. It's not fair to those companies that invest in their brand," Mayor Bloomberg said after the raid. 

Unfortunately for Bloomberg, tomorrow will bring thousands of young men and women back to Canal St. who disagree with the Mayor, many of whom will be buying the very same merchandise confiscated today.

NYPD Deploys Skywatch On Canal Street; Counterfeiters Don't Seem to Give a Sh*t

Quietly peeking above the hectic crowds of Canal Street this Sunday afternoon was a Skywatch unit from the NYPD (seen in the background above). From a distance it blends in with the surroundings, but becomes more ominous as you get closer. Sitting near Church St looking east down Canal, the tactical tower was supplemented by two officers near by on ground duty.



It has been reported that the towers get dispatched to areas that have seen a spike in crime. NYC The Blog couldn't help wonder if they might be keeping an eye on the street vendors in the area selling Gucci sneakers on the cheap. The vendors in the immediate area did not seem concerned, and continued with their business in usual fashion.

Rockwell could not be reached for comment. For more on Skywatch, check out ANIMAL New York.

Backlash Against Williamsburg Grows, Community Now A Source Of Derision From NYC To Hong Kong

HSBC Advertisement, shot from Williamsburg side of the bridge, seen at the 6th Ave. 14th St L Subway Station

The above advertisement is reported to have been unveiled with nine other new images in Hong Kong based HSBC's "Different Values" ad campaign on October 20th, a campaign now ubiquitous throughout the city. The ad above, featuring Manhattan's skyline, was only spotted by NYC The Blog for the first time last night in the 14th St. 6th Avenue L subway station, and is shot from the Williamsburg side of the river, as witnessed by the skyline and the Williamsburg Bridge stretching above. Though the ad is relevant without respect to recent events, HSBC could not have imagined just how poignant the ad would become only three weeks later in light of recent events in Williamsburg.

Recent events of course referring to yet another large street celebration on Bedford Ave in Williamsburg which was populated by a large crowd of young men and woman, the fashionable and artistic 'New Williamsburg', drinking alcohol, flashing their boobs, and celebrating the latest news/event/parade. The occasion this time being an Obama presidency.

A notable amount of attention online and in print reporting on the events that occurred there that evening, between residents and the police --and the reaction to those events after police tried to disperse the loud and boisterous crowd celebrating Obama's victory in the streets-- followed. And though these spontaneous celebrations happened in neighborhoods all over nyc without incident on election night, it was Williamsburg's which ended with arrests and accusations from both sides alleging physical violence.

If the comments on postings about the impromptu celebration at places such as Gothamist and elsewhere are any indication, the majority of people are disgusted with the antics displayed by the crowd that evening towards the police of Williamsburg, activities that were recorded by a proliferation of digital media showing individuals taunting and antagonizing the police, and then posted online at places such as YouTube.

After a loud and vocal argument was made online by those attempting to shape the issue as one of a police state trying to crush a political rally, a backlash to this storyline has developed, most recently spilling out directly into the neighborhood as witnessed by the latest salvo spotted, (photograph right) of a flyer from neighbors posted in a local laundromat that declares 15-20 writers --Bronx born artists and teachers who came to Williamsburg over 15 years ago-- "appalled" at the behavior of the rowdy crowd, and warning them not to "humiliate the working left" with their continued "spoiled brat antics", suggesting instead they "donate to NYC public schools and hospitals". This latest display of public admonishment joins the Dear Williamsburg tumblr accepting letters to Williamsburg via email, and the recent decision by the NY Times to dispatch a reporter to the community to do their own report on the situation; a reporter who sought out stinging quotes from community residents offering comments on the "newer crowd" such as "They’re distracted, there’s a total disregard for protocol. They have no regard for nobody else."

It seems a certain class of Williamsburg residents, media savvy, young, and public, have so successfully nutured, embraced, and marketed a community that is now despised for being self-centered, obnoxious, and misguided members of the bourgeoisie class who would rather fight for their right to wear panda costumes in the street then fight for more public school funding for instance --that derision towards that is boiling over in public, and is now part of a marketing tool for international conglomerates. This couldn't have ended any other way really.

As the flyer spotted in the laundromat suggest, as a means of reversing course, "Teach, Counsel, Donate...Stop using Obama's campaign to blow shit coke and BS up ur ass"

UPDATE: Curbed picks up the post, and attempts to offer some ground cover for the beleagured residents of Williamsburg by blaming out of town frat kids for the ruckus, but a commenter isn't helping matters, writing that "I was talking with a friend of mine who had worked on Obama's campaign and she said that the sad/ironic thing was that they couldn't even get enough volunteers in Wmburg to set up a phone bank."

(photograph of letter, on right, from exq1979's Flickr)

NY Police Officer Offers Tips On How Not To Get Mugged, What To Do If You Do Get Mugged

Via the NYC interwebs comes a best of Craigslist rant from someone who infers he is a NYC police officer, writing a humorous and angry diatribe about how to handle yourself on the street to minimize your chances of being mugged, and what to do when you eventually do get mugged after you've paid "$1200 for a studio in a shitty neighborhood." With the recent bout of assaults and muggings up here in Harlem, not to mention the rumored gang violence that has the community on high alert, it is best to go over some of his pointers.

He begins,

"So you've just moved into a new "gentrifying" neighborhood that's full of urban culture, cheap(er) rents, and wonderful friendly people. An odd lack of organic food stores and greenmarkets, but you can't have everything. So one day you're doing something FUCKING RETARDED like walking back from the store alone at 1 am or walking home from the subway while texting your sorority sisters back in the fucking midwest or something while SIMULTANEOUSLY listening to an ipod with the bright white headphones and you get fucking mugged."

He strongly suggests not fighting back as in all likelihood you're a "pussy hipster retard." If you were paying attention and desire to be of help in solving the crime, it is very important to get the details such as "sex, clothing color, clothing type, headwear, and direction of flight," of your assailant.

Soon the police will arrive, but, he wants you to know, not so soon that they are going to race thru red lights slamming into taxicabs just because you lost your phone. When they do arrive, they want the description of the perp, and will canvas the area with you in the car.

"We are now going to drive around and try to arrest someone. Quick con-law refresher for the lib hippy types: if you're in my car, and have given me a description, THAT MEANS WE ARE STOPPING PEOPLE WHO FIT THAT DESCRIPTION. If you told me they are violent or armed, it's probably going to be a felony stop. So when you tell me it's a 15 year old black kid in a red hoodie with a silver pistol, don't be surprised when the car slams to a halt and we jump out and stop a 15 year old black kid in a red hoodie."

The full self-help guide is here, Tips For Clueless People Who Get Mugged

(photo by Olivier)