Giuliani-artist conflict: Not a pretty picture
First Amendment Outrage
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08.28.98
In their campaign to demonstrate the First Amendment implications of the Giuliani administration's crackdown on artists and street vendors, protesters sold newspapers in front of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art earlier this week. Police cited them for selling the newspapers without a permit, and artist-activist Robert Lederman was hauled off to jail -- his 34th arrest. This harassment of artists and protesters continues despite two court decisions warning the mayor and his minions to respect First Amendment rights and principles. In 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the Guiliani administration's appeal of a decision that affirmed the First Amendment right of street artists to sell their work without a license. Unbowed, the administration labeled the ruling a victory and resumed its harassment of artists and vendors. On Aug. 12, Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Lucy Billings dismissed criminal charges against three artists, ruling that they had a right to sell artwork in public parks without a license or permit. Undeterred, a city lawyer said that the case was "wrongly decided" and that the charges and arrests would continue. Someone needs to advise the mayor that in the United States adverse court rulings are appealed, not ignored, and that even street artists have First Amendment rights. Until that message gets through, Giuliani's crackdown deserves criticism as less an effort to clean up the streets than an effort to make the city safe from the courts and the Constitution.
Original story
NYC activist arrested again – this time for selling papers without a permit
Artist-advocate Robert Lederman: 'I do not want and never want to be arrested, but I do want to have First Amendment freedoms and I am not willing to give them up.'
08.27.98
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