The takeover of public space for commercial promotion may be offensive, but it is usually legal. Occasionally, however, it is not. On Friday, March 14, it bordered on the criminal.
That’s where I come in. I was the victim.
As a Times reporter, I tend to focus quickly on illegal marketing campaigns. Microsoft, for instance, once slathered Manhattan in butterfly decals, only to retreat apologetically a day later. The Museum of Arts and Design briefly blanketed its Columbus Circle building with a billboard for “The Da Vinci Code,” until learning it was illegal. An H & R Block sign on Ninth Avenue seemed to show that a company familiar with the tax code doesn’t necessarily understand the administrative code. And don’t get me started on the floating Dirtpile.com billboard.
So I sensed a story on the evening of the 14th, when I came across two or three young men stapling posters for a new hip-hop album to lampposts,
traffic signs and sidewalk scaffolding on Broadway, between 21st and 22nd Streets.
“Rocko / Self Made / You Just Do You … Umma Do Me / In Stores 03.18.08,” each red and black poster said.
It is unlawful, the city’s administrative code says, for anyone to “attach or affix by any means whatsoever any handbill, poster, notice, sign” on lampposts, traffic signs and sign poles or “other such item or structure in any street.”
I began photographing the poster operation. After about two minutes, one man asked me why I was taking pictures. “Because what you’re doing is illegal,” I replied.
He answered, “Breaking cameras is illegal, too, but if you don’t stop taking pictures, I’ll break your camera.” He modified “camera” with an adjective I am not permitted to repeat here. I identified myself as a reporter from The Times. “I’ll break your camera,” he said, using that adjective again, “and you can print that in your paper.”
I distinctly remember thinking, “No, I can’t.” Then, rather than antagonize him further, I started taking pictures of the poster-covered scaffold pipes across Broadway.
The approach came so swiftly, I cannot even say whether it was from in front or behind. But I do remember a furious face inches away from mine as the man said he had warned me not to take any more pictures.
The next few minutes are — as they say — a blur. I was suddenly on my back on the sidewalk, near the curb, trying to hold on to my camera and fend off my assailant, with my right leg pressed against his chest.
I defer here to the eyewitnesses. The first is from a 32-year-old student who works in film production. Requesting anonymity, he sent me this e-mail account:
I turned around and saw you falling backwards, raising your arms to defend yourself from the lad who was grappling with you. The kid was shouting something like, ‘Didn’t I tell you!’ From where I stood, it looked like he was pummeling you with his fists. I pulled out my cellphone with the intention of taking some video (for evidence, not for YouTube) but in the few seconds it took me to do that he had yanked your camera free and I remember the way he raised it up over his head before smashing it into the street. After smashing the camera, I remember him walking toward me while tearing up your notebook (don’t remember how/when he got his hands on that). He passed me, I saw you on the ground (uncertain how badly you might have been hurt) and that’s when I called 911.
Frank Zannino, 47, a senior software developer at an investment bank, recalled:
I saw the perp try to grab the camera from the victim, tugging and pushing until the victim fell on the sidewalk, still trying to hang onto his camera, until finally the perp got it away from the victim, pulled off a piece from the camera and threw the piece and camera violently to the pavement.
Bob Makarowski, a 50-year-old technology instructor, heard loud, abrasive and “definitely adversarial” yelling:
When I looked across Broadway, I saw someone slouching. A few seconds later I heard more yelling and then I saw two things flying across Broadway. Upon closer inspection I saw that one of the devices was a lens, which I picked up. The other device was a camera, which someone else had picked up. I asked them to give it to me and then I went across the street to give it back to whomever the owner was.
The student said he saw the man get into a car, which Mr. Zannino identified as a silver compact with New Jersey plates. Mr. Makarowski handed me my Nikon D40 camera and lens. Separately.
I held my breath as I opened a small panel on side of the camera. The memory card was still snugly installed. My pictures, at least, were safe.
My injuries were minor. A finger of my right hand was numb for a while, but I have since regained feeling. I have a four-inch-long bruise on my right knee. That seems to be it.
The police came quickly, though not in time to arrest anyone. I filed a complaint. The responding officer characterized the events as “criminal mischief” — intentionally damaging someone else’s property. It can be a misdemeanor or a felony.
I’m not inclined to press charges. While my assailant’s actions were frightening, they resulted in part from what he interpreted as provocation: that is, my taking pictures after he had explicitly warned me not to. He did not take my wallet, cash or briefcase; something he could easily have done while I was on the ground. Nor do I recall him using much more force than was needed to wrest the camera from me. He didn’t kick me gratuitously when I was down. He did what he threatened to do, but no more.
In the greater scheme of things, my quarrel isn’t with him, anyway. It’s with the suits who made the decision in the first place to undertake an illegal marketing campaign.
Who are they?
Rocko’s label, Island Def Jam, said through a spokesman that it had “ceased this type of postering some time ago and had nothing to do with what transpired here.” Island Def Jam Music Group is part of the Universal Music Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Vivendi.
Rocko’s management company is Emanon Musiq Management of Atlanta. (“No name,” spelled backward.) I left a telephone message and sent an e-mail inquiry on Thursday. On Friday, a woman answering the phone at Emanon said the people I needed to talk to were “out of the office this week” and that she had forwarded my messages.
I am still awaiting a return call.
As my agitation subsides, my gratitude grows; first, of course, for the fact that I was not seriously injured, then for the fact that so many strangers came forward to help me that night. The student, for instance, retrieved the shreds of my notebook and stayed until a friend of mine arrived on the scene to collect me. I asked why they had bothered.
“Because it was right to do so,” Mr. Zannino said. “Wish I could have done more.”
Here’s what Mr. Makarowski said:
Having been the victim of numerous crimes and injustices, I vowed to myself to always do whatever I could to prevent and/or stop crime and injustice wherever it occurred. (Jeez, David, I sound like a hand-wringing liberal!) Anyway, I guess this comes back to my personal philosophy of trying to improve the world, help people and, in general, raise the general ethic level of society.
And the student seemed to understand what moved me to take these pictures in the first place. “While I’m a fan of certain forms of ‘street art,’ (i.e., Banksy and his ilk),” he said, “I can’t stand the abuse of public space for advertising purposes, especially when it’s sanctioned by big corporations.”
Update: More than 200 readers commented on this below, and dozens objected strongly to my saying that I was not inclined to press charges. Perhaps I did not make it clear enough that the point is moot in any event. No one has been arrested or identified as a suspect by the police. Given the minor nature of the incident and my own reluctance to advance the matter, the police have effectively closed the case.
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