As witnesses told Bob, police had arrested a young man in his 20s. Witnesses said that he tagged the rolldown gate at Angels & Kings.
An owner/manager type from the bar came outside and ran after the tagger, who had a bicycle. But he didn't get far.
Is all this response (I count 12 officers and detectives in the above photo) really necessary to apprehend a kid with a can of spray paint ... especially outside a bar that describes itself as having a "rock and roll atmosphere"?
[And be sure to see more of Bob's work at Nadie Se Conoce]
Well, we don't know what the manager came out with when he gave chase (what if he was armed w/a baseball bat?). And we don't know if he was bashing the kid with the said bat. Or bashing him with his shod feet. I would think that kind of scene would warrant a heavy police response.
ReplyDeleteWhat did he do when he came upon the tagger? We don't know any of this. Besides, I would think anyone who owns a place with a "rock and roll atmosphere" still don't want a shitty tag on their gate.
I am not a big fan of this bar but I kind of love the manager for going after the tagger. It was probably some NYU dropout who thinks he's Banksy.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Anon 8:18AM. I don't like the bar but I hope the manager got some good shots in, preferably with baseball bat. There's been a lot of grafitti lately.
ReplyDeletewell i certainly hope connie is happy
ReplyDeletethose paw-lees certainly are protecting and serving the public by apprehending a kid with a can of spray
ReplyDeleteI was walking by when it happened. Didn't see any baseball bats, and the accused didn't look like a Banksy type--almost looked like a crusty. Big crowd, lots of people catching the fighting on cell phones. Police response was amazing, and almost overwhelming. Agree with anon, there's been a lot of graffiti lately, and most of it's been pretty shitty.
ReplyDeleteI feel for the people who own businesses and property here in the EV and have it defaced. If it was my home or place of business and I caught the guy I would have bashed his brains in with my tiny girl fists. Really what gives this guy the right to damage someone else's property? And good for the police for their fast response. It's always like that with daytime calls. They're a lot busier at night.
ReplyDeleteTired of the graffiti outside of my overpriced apartment!
ReplyDeleteI just do not have a dog in this race. Angels & Kings contributes nothing to the neighborhood, but neither does chickenscratch tagging. And I'm with EV on the original point. Do we need that many cops on this case? I mean, was there a gun involved or something?
ReplyDeleteAre we serious??? Do we have to criticize literally everything? We should just be glad anytime a useless scofflaw is properly busted. And why not make it a big, highly visible arrest? Sends the message to the community that you can't just do whatever your heart pleases in this neighborhood. Call me crazy but I appreciate that.
ReplyDeleteI came on the scene right around the time the police did, and there was already a big crowd. Police wrestled with a guy who was shouting about "the New World Order": was that the tagger or the manager?
ReplyDelete@anon 2:22 That was the tagger, he was screaming all kinds of stuff. He wasn't just some kid with a can of spraypaint, he was definitely doing what he could to fight back against the cops, which escalated the situation and brought additional units.
ReplyDeletethank you Police and restuarant manager.
ReplyDeleteEnough with the graffiti vandals - the 70s and 80s are long gone.
I don't think its cool or original or expression.
it is vandalism and is a blight on our city.
I grew up in NYC and I honestly do not get why these morons are still doing this sh*t.
There are a few that you can see the same tags all over a specific area. If the city can pinpoint who do it, then they should have to pay for all the damages AND go in the pookey.
I'm not sure I understand the framing of this article: So just because a bar is owned by musicians means they should allow their investment to be vandalized?
ReplyDeleteWOMP
ReplyDeleteJIM JOE
these new guys crack me up
We need more graffiti. The more intimidating the neighborhood looks the less the residents will be priced out by the Duane Reade mafia. A new Son of Sam wouldn't hurt either.
ReplyDeleteHi, my name is Dennis McLynn and I co-own and manage Angels and Kings. I also live above the bar at 500 e.11th st and I am a neighbor. I'd just like to take a second to explain what happened, very simply I was returning home and saw the vandal tagging our gate in broad daylight. I attempted to hold him for the police to come and arrest him and was consequently bitten multiple times during his savage attempts to escape and taken to the hospital for serious wounds inflicted upon myself (biting transfers diseases). It's unfortunate that a rather non violent offense would escalate into such a serious incident, but we can't let thugs deface our property and community, as this vandal has been hard at work defacing multiple properties. I have fantastic neighbor relations with my immediate neighbors, and like to think of myself as an extra set of eyes and ears on the block, as I wouldn't hesitate to step into the next incident I would come across. For those of you I don't know, please stop by and introduce yourselves, I'd like to meet you as well as buy you a drink. Thanks for taking the time to read my comments, I hope to make many new friends from what was an otherwise unpleasant event. Dennis McLynn
ReplyDeleteI'd do the same thing if they pulled that crap on my gate.
ReplyDeleteI can appreciate that some of you would like a neighborhood free of graffiti—though it really doesn't bother me—look around, people. I live a block away, and my building is tagged all the time. THIS IS NYC. Frankly I'm getting sick to death of all the attempts to clean up NY. And anyway, screw the graffiti problem, why is there still so much dog shit everywhere? Though the sentiment is revolting, I'm sort of of the same mind as the "we need another Son of Sam" to put things into perspective. Maybe then we wouldn't see so many cops arrive on the scene to apprehend a lowly tagger. Was it worth getting bitten to make the arrest? I'm not impressed. You want clean? Move to the 'burbs.
ReplyDeleteEdittrrix, as someone who has spent all 40 of is 40 years on earth here in NYC, I can tell you with almost 100pct certainty that the A) You no NOT want another Son of Sam running around NYC. Trust me on that . And B) One of the reasons why there isn't one running around is because police respond to these smaller crimes with force. Graffiti and tagging represent a time in NYC when the city and most of its residents had given up. Graffiti and tagging go hand in hand with images of sanitation strikes, blackouts that never ended, 2000 plus homicides every year, crack, etc Most of the clowns who glorify those days and want to see a return aren't from NYC and if those days did come back, they'd be running back to the suburbs with their tales between their legs like they did in the 70's.
ReplyDeleteGood on you, Dennis. I hope the bites turned out to be nothing serious.
ReplyDelete@Dennis McLynn
ReplyDeleteI think it's great that you came here to give your side.
I'm no crime expert, but a year or so ago when the police were letting the teens beat up the crustys in Tompkins Sq, I insisted that my female friends cab (not walk) to my place on 8th. Escalating violence from the homeless to single women is a very small step.
I applaud you for taking this guy down and will take you up on your offer to stop by your place. I haven't been to A&K since a friend's BDay party, and will probably never go on a Sat, but I'll drop by on a local night.
Reading these comments, I'm actually rather shocked by the response...in a good way. Usually, there's a mass of people here defending tagging and how "good" it is for the community, while the people with brains argue how my 3 year-old daughter could do a better job of "tagging". Nice to see there is still some sanity here and people recognize the difference between "tagging" and "graffiti".
ReplyDeleteYou guys are retarded 90% of the east village is midwesterners moving to trendy NYC and increasing the rent ten fold. Nobody wants you peaple here, and graffiti is a part of new york get over it. NYC is dead because of you clowns crying about this and that. Move back to nebraska were there is no graffiti if your so worried about it.
ReplyDeleteSeriously..graffiti isn't going anywhere so if you don't like it then maybe you should. Goddamn fake new yorker n00bs.
ReplyDeleteI live on this corner and saw the whole thing. Much ado about nothing.
ReplyDeleteBasquiat and Haring and Chico all tagged, I see no one complaining about their work. SAMO was heralded, people loved that stuff, and it was just text!
Some graf is art, some of it is junk, there are artists and there are vandals. I guess this one was the later, but please take the bad with the good.
Maybe you're right, anonymous—I was too young to live here in the 1970s—but I've hunkered down for about 15 years here in Manhattan and I fear the money class that's forever edging me out. If it takes some unsightly graffiti or serial killer to weed some of them out, I hate to say it, but bring it on. Oh, and if it ever happened again (unlikely) I'll be the first one squatting in an abandoned burned out building.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous 8:07 and 8:57 (obviously the same mouth-breather): JUST SHUT UP. I am SICK of morons like you flinging the same old crap that ANYONE who objects to ANYTHING is not from NY and should go back to whatever sleepy burg they came from so cretins like you can do whatever you want, wherever and whenever. Whence springs this misguided notion that native New Yorkers are up for literally ANYTHING, that irritants like noise, trash, lack of sleep thanks to floods of woo-ing, drunken idiots or bass beats pounding through our walls, crappy graffiti (not all of it is worthy), shoddy, ugly buildings replacing smaller, in-tune-with-the-neighborhood edifices or a whole host of other things shouldn't bother us like they do other people from other places? The New York of decades ago that never slept, that welcomed everybody, did not have to deal with the hordes of "fuck you" attitudinal shitheads who have moved to the city in droves, who don't give a damn how their actions impact and affect the people around them; if they had I guarantee you those New Yorkers would have had the same reactions. It's really only in the last 30 years or so that this idea has arisen that people don't have the right to protest, that by doing so they expose their provincial roots, which somehow exempt them from the right to live in this city of immigrants from literally everywhere. I'm guessing, Anon, that you yourself are not from here originally, because it's usually the insecure implants that scream "J'accuse!" the loudest. But as someone who WAS born here, and who DOES want some semblance of control over my life and neighborhood, and the things that impact both, I say again - JUST. SHUT. UP.
ReplyDeleteCONNIE=BEAU.
ReplyDeleteLisa for Congress!
ReplyDeleteOr CB3 at least? ;)
Thank you, Roger_Paw, but I did 6 years on CB3, five of them as the chair of the SLA committee; I have no desire to reside in that thankless Hell ever again!
ReplyDelete