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Open Letter To All
NYC 2001 Candidates
for Public Officeby Robert Lederman
robert.lederman@worldnet.att.net
May 22, 2001Dear prospective candidate,
The 2001 NYC election will lead to significant changes at every level of government. I want to draw your attention to one issue in particular and request that you provide a timely response in writing concerning your position.
The past eight years in NYC has been marked by an all out assault on First Amendment freedom. Street artists, protestors, art museums, park visitors, unions, City employees and even elected officials have found their most basic right of speech challenged in the name of "quality of life".
While Mayor Giuliani's part in this has been documented in thousands of articles the less well-publicized truth is that business interests and numerous elected and appointed officials - including many of the current candidates for Mayor, Public Advocate and City Council - played a crucial part.
In some cases their role was to act as passive facilitators who, despite claiming at every public opportunity to be advocates for First Amendment freedom, did nothing to stop these efforts to limit free speech.
Others actively participated in abridging this most valuable freedom, working with the Mayor to carry out his agenda. Part of that agenda involves the creation of permits for First Amendment protected activities which never previously required one.
Some elected officials, organizations and business interests have been open and forthright about wanting to curtail free speech. We respect their directness and absolute right to take such a position. That's what free speech is all about.
Others took a more deceptive approach, quietly filing legal briefs in various Federal Court cases. Like many political positions nowadays, these briefs appeared at first glance to be a vigorous defense of freedom yet were in reality a treacherous means of taking freedom away. Some of these briefs were filed by those the public and media think of as leading advocates for First Amendment freedom in NYC.
As the saying goes, the devil is in the details.
The "fine print" details contained in these amicus and other legal briefs resulted in a very substantial loss of every New Yorkers' unabridged freedom to speak, assemble and protest on public property. In some cases a substantial diminishment of the right to speak was misrepresented in the media and in organizational press releases as a victory for free speech.
Such is the nature of disinformation and public deception in our time.
To take a recent episode as one small illustration of what is being addressed here, I refer to the 5/20/2001 NY Times article, "Group Turns Malcolm X March into a Protest Over Permit". Here the 125th Street Business Improvement District - a business and real estate group closely aligned with the Mayor and having a long history of opposing the interests of Black political activists, Black vendors and grassroots community groups - secured an NYPD permit for a Malcolm X Rally. This co-opting technique was done solely in order to deny the traditional organizers of this same yearly rally their right to hold it - which is exactly what the NYPD then did. I can think of few more blatant examples of a permit being used to eliminate free speech of a controversial political nature than this.
The street artist group I lead, A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics) has been directly or indirectly involved in many of the City's public space controversies.
We were the first of Mayor Giuliani's many targets in the sterilization and cleansing of NYC public space - predating squeegee guys, panhandlers and the homeless. We were the first to file and win a Federal lawsuit against him resulting in a change of NYC law. We were the first to organize protests specifically against Giuliani personally and have continued our efforts to the present day.
As a result, for eight years we've been the single most targeted group in all of NYC in terms of false arrest.
You might think the interests of street artists are relatively insignificant in this city of eight million. Yet, most of the controversial First Amendment issues which affected the rights of every NYC resident during the past eight years revolved around our own or closely related activities.
Our sidewalk art sales on NYC streets have become the legal focus for the entire vendor issue.
Our use of the steps of City Hall for press conferences and anti-Giuliani protests (in eight years we held more than 150 such events) was a trigger for the Mayor making that public forum off-limits. Recently we began selling our anti-Giuliani art right outside the Mayor's entrance to City Hall, minus the required - and we believe unconstitutional - Parks Department artist-permit.
Years before Giuliani began his effort to censor the Brooklyn Museum he was actively censoring our anti-Giuliani paintings and signs - without any pretense about decency or the use of tax dollars. While no Brooklyn Museum artist or their paintings was ever touched by the police, virtually every member of A.R.T.I.S.T. has been illegally arrested at least once and has had their original paintings seized, confiscated, sold at an NYPD auction or destroyed. This blatant violation of the Constitution has gone on for eight years without a single criminal court case ever being brought to trial and without a single conviction.
Our ongoing lawsuit against the Parks Department [Lederman et al v city of NY] may decide just how much power to eliminate free speech in these key public spaces the next Mayor has. It will also determine if the City's vast park system is to remain open to the public or be parceled out via permits and concessions which only the highest corporate bidders and Mayoral campaign contributors will have access to - as is now the case.
It was the A.R.T.I.S.T. group that first exposed the Parks Department's 20 person permit rule, leading to a Daily News expose. It was the A.R.T.I.S.T. group that worked with Times Up to protest the Mayor's pedestrian barricades and A.R.T.I.S.T. members that were arrested and charged with jaywalking for violating them. Members of A.R.T.I.S.T. were early participants in the NoSpray Coalition and are currently plaintiffs in the lawsuit to stop Giuliani from poisoning the City with toxic nerve gas in response to West Nile Virus.
Our hand-painted Giuliani portraits and ARREST GIULIANI signs provided visual punctuation for eight years of demonstrations by cabbies, homeless advocates, community gardeners and vendors. Likewise, it was our signs that were prominently featured and became a subject of commentary during protests in support of Abner Louima, Patrick Dorismond and Gidone Busch.
Members of A.R.T.I.S.T. were arrested on the very first day of Reverend Sharpton's One Police Plaza Diallo protests long before the politicians now running for office made their obligatory appearances there.
The Mayor and his surrogates insisted on mischaracterizing our art as police bashing in their comments about the Diallo protests all the while knowing that it was Giuliani we were comparing to Hitler and the KKK - not the NYPD.
Our artwork continues to embarrass Rudy Giuliani to this day as the visual backdrop to his divorce lawyer's vicious attacks on Donna Hanover as depicted in recent editions of the NY Times, NY Post, Newsday and People magazine.
Unlike many of the interest groups we stand in solidarity with, we are not asking you for favors. We don't want funding from you. We don't want a raise. We don't want special benefits, services or a place to live. We don't want you to create a new law on our behalf, give us an appointment to a government position or name a street after us.
Our sole demand from you will cost no public money and take no effort whatsoever on your part - other than writing the requested position statement. Satisfying our request will ultimately benefit every single person living in New York City and positively influence the course of First Amendment law in all 50 states for decades to come.
All we ask of you is this:
Do nothing to abridge full First Amendment protected freedom of speech, neither ours nor anyone else's in this City.
If elected, don't put your lawyers, aides and Commissioners to work devising permits for free speech. A permit means giving permission. If permission can be given it can just as easily and arbitrarily be denied or taken away. Needing the Mayor, the Parks Commissioner or the NYPD's permission to speak, protest, gather publicly or sell protected expression is the exact opposite of free speech. The history of such permits is universally a history of denying free speech to those lacking political connections, those with an unpopular viewpoint or those who want to criticize the government.
Likewise, don't try to sell or make us bid for a freely given right the U.S. and NY State Constitutions protect as the most fundamental one. That means no artist permits, lotteries or licenses, no bidding for artist concessions and no warrants for vending locations.
Lastly, don't turn over to corporations and real estate interests the exclusive right to use the public streets and parks of this City as Giuliani has done. Make your deals with JP Morgan/Chase Bank, Disney, Sony et al but don't ever forget that it is the people of this City who own those parks and streets.
And please note for the record: We are not now and never were against the NYPD maintaining public order, supervising demonstrations, directing traffic at rallies or preventing attendees at such events from violating legitimate NYC laws. Neither are we opposed to narrowly tailored reasonable time, place and manner restrictions on street artists or other First Amendment-protected speakers which legitimately aim to protect public safety. What we are opposed to is the pretense of using public safety as a justification for repression, censorship, privatization and corporatization of public spaces.
If you can give us written assurance that you will respect these rights we are willing and ready to work on your behalf - or not - whichever you prefer. In earning our livings on NYC sidewalks we talk to thousands of people each day. A sign affixed to every street artists' display urging New Yorkers to vote for you can have a significant impact.
Likewise, if you are going to violate these basic rights or refuse to state on the record that you will uphold them, we will tirelessly work to expose you at every opportunity, as we have done with Mayor Giuliani. There's no shortage of cardboard that can be painted with your likeness and setting up a widely publicized website about your real agenda is a mouse click away.
In his own twisted way it was Rudy Giuliani who taught us the importance of direct political action and of using art as a weapon in the struggle for freedom. To give him credit for something he really did accomplish - for a change - it was Rudy Giuliani's repression that awakened us to political consciousness.
Like soldiers returning from an eight - year - long war, we'd like to go back to our peaceful pursuits, quietly making and selling art and supporting our families. To maintain friendly relations, all that's needed is to leave us alone. However, like soldiers who have been trained in combat, we are ready at a moments notice to pick up our weapons - cardboard though they may be - and return to the fight.
We are willing to overlook your past actions - or lack of them - concerning First Amendment rights if now you can make a positive statement in this regard, but move against us at your peril. Let Giuliani's mistaken notion in 1994 that he could erase us from this City's streets be a part of his so-called "legacy" you pay particular attention to.
And don't forget, there are 100,000 artists in NYC. Abridging our rights could be hazardous to your political health.
I look forward to your response and request that you address the specific issue of permits for free speech rather than issuing a meaningless statement about supporting free speech generally - as the Mayor himself does from time to time. Non-responses and generic responses will be considered a response in the negative and handled accordingly.
Sincerely Yours,
Robert Lederman
President of A.R.T.I.S.T.
(Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics)To a Directory of Mr.Lederman's Essays
Robert Lederman is an artist, writer and activist and is also the President of the street artist advocacy group, A.R.T.I.S.T.
Click here for an archive of A.R.T.I.S.T. related news articles on the Freedom Forum websiteHis essays and Op-Eds have appeared in hundreds of alternative publications as well as the Daily News, Penthouse, Africa Sun Times, Street News and The Shadow.
Lederman was falsely arrested 41 times for his anti-Giuliani activities and was never convicted of any of the charges. As a result of the arrests, he's won four Federal lawsuits and overturned three laws.
He is best known for having created hundreds of paintings of Mayor Giuliani as a Hitler like dictator which were carried in demonstrations throughout the eight years of the Giuliani administration. Images of his paintings and articles about his arrests and lawsuits have appeared on all of the major television networks hundreds of times as well as frequently appearing in the NY Times, Daily News, NY Post, Newsday, Newsweek, People, The Washington Post, LA Times and NY Magazine.Robert Lederman,
President of A.R.T.I.S.T.
(Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics)
robert.lederman@worldnet.att.net
For a detailed exposition on the West Nile issue
http://www.nospray.org/
For an article on the Manhattan Institute go to
http://www.konformist.com/2000/rudyg.htmIf you would like to help oppose the spraying,
please write to the
No Spray Coalition
PO Box 334
Peck Slip Station
NYC, NY 10272-0334
or call the No Spray hotline at (718) 670-7110.Any funds you can send to help continue the lawsuit
and this work are greatly appreciated.Important Note:
Mr. Lederman has explained that his articles posted here are not to be taken as official statements by the No-Spray Coalition of which he is a member or of the "No-Spray" lawsuit in which he is a plaintiff.Blue Collar Pundit Essays
Searching for the Breach in
Alice’s Looking Glass WorldMy America
Oh Say, Can You See?
FREEDOM!
War isn't Hell!
God is Starting to Scare Me!
It's All Part of the Plan!
Turning the World Wide Web Into
a Tower of Politically Sanitized BabelAnd by clicking here, you'll see an old suggestion (May 2003) of how Democrats could/should have protested the Republican convention and G.W. Bush.
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