Alice Muniz, Gay Officers Action League Christine C. Quinn, President, New York City Council Honorable Michael Bloomberg, Mayor, New York City (by email form)
Last night, after dinner in the Village, a friend and I were walking and came to Christopher Park. The gates were wide open and there were other people there. We walked in and sat on a bench to talk and enjoy the beautiful evening. Tourists passed through and posed with the statues and people sat on benches. It was quiet and peaceful.
Between 10 and 10:30 police officers came into the park shining lights in peoples faces and saying the park was closed. We got up to leave and one officer (I regret I didn't get his badge or name, but he was the only one in a white shirt) demanded to see ID. I started getting my driver's license from my wallet and my friend asked why he needed to show ID. The officer didn't explain why he just demanded again. My friend insisted to know why. Then the officer in the white shirt instructed another officer to cuff him. I had seen the other officer get the cuffs out at the ready the first time my friend asked why. My friend did not do anything physical, he was only verbal and he was not insulting, but he was insistent on knowing why he was being treated like a criminal.
He was placed under arrest and pushed into an unmarked car. As he was getting into the car he looked at me and said "he called me queen."
I went to the 6th Precinct and inquired about his status. Officer Leahy, badge 18943, told me he was the one who cuffed my friend. I asked him if he was the one who called my friend a "queen" and he said no. Officer Leahy told me that it would take about three hours to process my friend at the precinct, then he would be taken to Central Booking and by that time no judge would be available so he would spend a night in jail. I informed him that I was a YouTube video director and that I was going to post a video about this as soon as I got home. For whatever reason, my friend was released about an hour later with a summons.
My friend says he does not think Leahy is the one who cuffed him. I don't know if there was some bait and switch going on or what the source of the confusion is.
The facts are that the park was physically open and the list of rules is on a dark plaque against dark shrubbery and not noticeable at night. Within 30 minutes after leaving the precinct, I rode by the park in a cab and it was wide open again.
If it is so important to public safety to keep people out of that park after dusk (whatever time that is), why don't they get locks that work? The locks looked unmolested to me and the gates were wide open. And why isn't the closing time posted more prominently at the entrance? Is this some scam so the city can make more money?
Why can't people just be asked to leave and not treated like criminals?
I asked the officer in charge why they needed to see ID. He answered with a question, "How can I write a summons without ID?" Well, I didn't see them write any summonses. They didn't write me one. Is this selective enforcement? Is it only because they perceived my friend to be gay? And even if all was legit, which I doubt, they have no right to use an anti-gay slur when they make an arrest.
I keep reading the City wants to encourage tourism for the 40th anniversary of Stonewall. This kind of behavior combined with the entrapment arrests at the video stores in Chelsea is not helpful. I have advised my friends to stay away because NYPD is hostile to gay people. Not 30 yards from Stonewall, no less.
Your standards are quite high. Kudos to ya.
Intelligent discourse, among other things, is enabled via vlogging, perhaps not inherent in the phenom itself (...because many humans love the crap. (?) ) By enabled, I mean that connections are made be...
The Internet has greatly increased my ability to do research and find the books I want to read. I am now completely in control of the content that comes my way. For example, I can watch German and French news on YouTube. If you think the Internet ...
I have seen many people express concerns about giving their personal information to this site for identity verification. The concerns are legitimate, but I am holding judgment until the system is in place and I can evaluate it for myself.
I don't know Paul Robinett personally and I cannot vouch for him, but I do know Tom Guarriello quite well personally and I know his professional reputation. I would trust Tom with my life. But the issue is not one of personal trust. It is the technical ability… Continue
I find myself often, after posting a comment, waiting for them to post. Then I realize they posted immediately and I have been waiting for no reason. I need to break that habit. I am so used to a delay, if they post even at all.
I don't understand. On some videos I can post a comment and the vid keeps on trucking. On others, I post a comment and the damn video re-starts from the beginning. What up?
I went out for the afternoon and came back and there were like a couple of thousand new vloggerheads. Oh, all right, I exaggerated. I do that. Often. Like about a million times a day. I am trying to welcome everybody. Let's see if I have enough stamina.
I am a subsscriber of yours over on youtube & I have just gotten back to Vloggerheads after a long time! I just want to know how do you subscribe to people's channels? Beacuase I am a HUGE fan of yours & I'd like to subscribe to ya. Thanks so much!
May the vibrant beauty of the season make your home bright with laughter and togetherness and may today and all your tomorrows be blessed with rich harvest of prosperity, peace and happiness! Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanks, there have been many versions of this band pop back up I have had the pleasure of working with. How ever the magic of the original group is for ever lost, it's a shame because they would have surely been huge, all there songs were thi...
Interested in what started all of this latest bru-ha-ha over Dumpin Loadham? Read all about it here, with a copypasta of his blog post, unedited.
http://koptalkinsider.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/koptalks-rasict-opinions-hit-an-all-time-low-for-the-...
That was awhile ago and I nearly forgot it happened.You are right. I have lightened up alot since then but racism and true value destruction,Duncan knows well.No harm done dude. LOL :0)
KyHeLL isn't anyone's lapdog, he's very much his own person, his diatribes like the one in this video are his way of trying to be funny, even when he's not. Duncan on the other hand, just plain has a lot of fucked up issues. I ...
Try to remember this, alright? You got mad at me for sincerely stating that I had trouble understanding you and it wasn't meant as an insult but you got really mad at me. As you can see from Duncan's attitude and what he's said, we&...
Peace bro.Down the line,I will make damn sure he does get his.I have relatives in England who are dying to track him down in Spain.He will get his for sure/
Just a hand full of thumb nails from my browser cache, The song is from a local band I did sound for in Columbus Ohio called Mcguffey Lane that fell apart just before they went national back in the early 80's, I thought it fit, Some past and ...
I appreciate you for the same reasons, Iva.
Just today I was hiking with my two closest friends and we talked about how we're more like sisters and how much we'd been through together. I feel so fortunate to have had them both in my lif...
it's unpleasant when you fill your head with what others might be thinking about you. I personally struggled with this a lot because of the cultural differences I had to face in the US... a lot of miserable stories believe me. I had enough of...
And remember folks, Mexico isn't in North America on Phantom409's Earth.
This explains a lot, see, he's from an alternate universe and his videos are somehow crossing into our universe through a wormhole between the membranes of th...
You didn't think it was too far when he posted his diatribe against all Muslims, Arabs, Pakistani's and "niggers"? I got banned from there for calling him out on it.
What do you call this?
I and every other thinking human being on planet EARTH call it the Uxmal Mayan Pyramid, located in MEXICO...
Here's a lovely, color coded map of NORTH AMERICA
Notice that country at the bottom? That's got te...
nice to see you Iva....I think people are around but many are not vlogging right now for a variety of reasons. you raise a point that illustrates perhaps the reason for apathy....or the caution to express. Do we put ourselves too far "out the...
''....whereas if they are pleased they often don't say anything''
I'm fucking one of those people. I'm like that. horrible.
signs are interesting to read. but we communicate with signs sometimes when it would b...