Contact - Artists & Downloads - Video
Current / Previous
Tue 11th Sept, 2012 Many people have expressed an interest in the events of the weekend, so I'm making this page specifically to tell that tale. I'll be updating the page from the bottom on this occasion so that the story runs consecutively, and this information stays at the top. |
My Weekend Part 1 Right, where do I start. Been in New York a week today, having a great time & all that, played a couple shows, drank a couple beers, general unembellished bonza. Fri night started with an Albert Goold show where I was joined by good friends from Rutgers & afterwards headed out into the Lower East Side for some dancin'. Bar scene was explored & dancin' was had, but later we encountered trouble getting into certain joints 'cos doormen recognised me from the previous evening's revelries where Shoe was played to some excess & funky shapes thrown were in danger of triggering a moves revolution. So I just started dancing outside & a doorman demanded I get off 'his sidewalk', so I danced into the street, did he own the streets too? Immediately a crowd gathered around me & a few girls started dancing with me, attracting attention from all four corners of the crossing where people were filming the scene. There was a lot of cheering & various shouts of encouragement; fine moves were celebrated & I began asking more people to join me, shouting things like 'Come on, America, land of the free, dance with me!' or some such speech, which deteriorated into shades of bitterness when I saw rows of faces glued behind camera phones & people too nervous about consequences to join me & become a part of what was happening. They hid behind the glass of their smart-screens, and I began to realise that they would rather watch the events unfolding from a safe distance rather than be a part of something - they wanted a show. So somewhere in my mind I decided to give them one, I wanted to show that I was free & that they could be, also. I was also pretty drunk & was thoroughly enjoying myself, I took my shirt off & slammed it on the floor, a predominantly comedic idiosyncrasy of mine, and people started shouting for me to strip, and of course I've no problem at all with that, so all my clothes came off & the place erupted. I tried to clear my mind & enjoy the dancing but I also wanted people to join me, these streets are ours, I wanted to start something special right there where people could cross a line within themselves & realise that we're all the same. But thoughts & emotions were confused, I started shouting at people who seemed so shocked by a naked human, "Well who are you?" What makes you so different from me, your Jordans & your I Heart NY shirt? Who's free here? I tried to get back to the dancing but it became increasingly apparent that I was just a performing monkey to most people there, so I began to walk back to my clothes & this is when the police car came round the corner. People were shouting "Run away!" but I just put my jeans back on & waited for the officer to reach me. And this is where you find me in the photographs below, taken by a random person on the street whose name, I've since found out, is Samantha, thank you. 
What happened can be seen very clearly in a video that Andrew found online, which has since been removed by YouTube. Two officers approach me, one engages my attention in calm conversation while the other walks behind my back & without warning throws me very forcefully to the floor. Even I was shocked by the video, I hope to get hold of the footage to share it with you. And believe it or not, this is where the story really begins. Having been thrown to the floor, the cops descended on me, inflicting multiple minor injuries (which could have been much more serious if I wasn't such a bad-ass) while shouting 'stop resisting' - words that rang in my mind at the time as I lay still on the ground while they made a mess of arresting me. Andrew says there were between 20 & 30 officers on the scene, and from the video you can see a cop grabbing an innocent guy by the throat, apparently just for having an acoustic guitar. They were truly out of control, I had just stood there & waited for them to come over & talk to me, the violence was completely unnecessary. Now then. Allow me to skip a little time here before I return once more to the event. On Sunday, my name was called from a small room adjacent to the jail cell that held myself & twelve other men. I entered, and sat down to hear the charges brought against me by the arresting officer. The first charge was for resisting arrest. Not only did these people unnecessarily assault me, they also expected to get away with fining me for it. The cop who shouted 'stop resisting' knew there were a lot of witnesses with cameras, he shouted it loud & clear for that reason. What A Prick. His name is Ryan O'Shea & he is not one of New Yorks finest. Our tale will return to that small room soon, but now back to the street. There was a big ole' cheer from the crowd as I was walked in cuffs to a cop car, and all I could say in return was 'You weren't with me, man' - something I regret saying because in retrospect I can see that they were all on my side & in a way celebrating my freedom from a distance.. or something. In any case, they were doing what they wanted, as was I. Fuck it, those guys were great, I love you guys! I can be a right prick sometimes. Anyway where was I, oh yeah, battered & handcuffed in the back of a shitty cop car. Eddie came over to the vehicle to see if I was ok, and tried the door of the car expecting it to be locked, but it opened & she asked if I was ok. At that point, one of the many, many policemen who hadn't been paying attention came charging over, handcuffed Eddie & put her in the back of another car. She was under arrest for aiding an escape, if you can believe that. They told her that I was going to be locked up in a nuthouse, but that she had committed the serious crime of aiding an escape. Silly innit. I arrived at the joke shop cop cave where Eddie had already been taken, and we stood next to each other in handcuffs & started singing together. We must have gone though at least 3 or 4 songs before pausing to think of more, and the cops at the station started saying 'keep singing, sing another song for us' which made it a lot less fun so we just said fuck you & joked about what a crap job they were doing. I looked over at the door & saw Andrew there, with Sam & Colin, my friends from Rutgers, and I remembered that they were supposed to be staying at our place that night, they'd come to get the keys to the apartment off us! Oops, sorry chaps. The police took our wallets & belongings, Andrew watched as they counted the money out of mine, and we were put in adjacent cells. And I gotta say right now that I'm finding this exhausting to write & need some time before I can begin again, and share what happened next. I gotta live in the now for a spell, I'll let you know when I finish the story. In the meantime, onward, plenty plenty plenty to look forward to. Love & liberation!! |