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Street Vendor Review Panel Orders Artist Arrested 6/24/99
The latest public hearing of Mayor Giuliani’s Street Vendor Review Panel was
interrupted today when City Council Member Noach Dear angrily disrupted the
proceedings and insisted that Robert Lederman, President of A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists’
Response To Illegal State Tactics), be removed from the hearing room.
Dear arrived an hour late to the hearing and immediately began verbally attacking
Lederman’s protest signs which depict Mayor Giuliani as a Hitler-like dictator.
The City Council Member loudly and angrily complained that the signs were an
insult to his relatives killed in the Holocaust and told the panel he would
not stand for them being in the room. Lederman, who is also Jewish, responded
by telling Dear he was censoring free speech, that by supporting a fascist he
was an embarrassment to the Jewish people and that he was a key part of the
Mayor’s plan to eliminate vendors.
Dear is the chair of the City Council’s Transportation Committee which, in
conjunction with the Street Vendor Review Panel, is in charge of the entire
vending issue. Dear also sits on the Street Vendor Review Panel and is required
by law to attend all of its hearings although this was the first time he has
made a personal appearance before the panel.
As the room erupted in turmoil the Panel’s acting chair, Andrew Schwartz, ordered
the police to arrest Lederman, who was charged with Obstruction of Governmental
Administration, Disorderly Conduct and Trespassing. NYCLU Executive Director
Norman Siegal witnessed the arrest and attempted to intercede on Lederman’s
behalf but was rebuffed by the police.
Lederman was booked at the 1st Precinct and later released. This was Lederman’s
38th arrest for protesting against the Giuliani administration. Lederman was
also the main plaintiff in a Federal lawsuit that street artists filed against
the Mayor and which was decided in favor of the artists in 1997 by the U.S.
Supreme Court. Since that decision, street artists in New York City have the
same First Amendment protection as the publishers and sellers of newspapers
and books.
Robert Lederman, President of A.R.T.I.S.T.
(Artists’ Response To Illegal State Tactics)
255 13th Street
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11215
(718) 369-2111
e mail ARTISTpres@aol.com
http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html
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