New York Post reporter Dean Balsamini reports that he was punched by a traveler/crusty while looking into the annual migration that has seen the group camped out on the corner of Second Avenue at Seventh Street at the site of the 2015 deadly gas explosion.
Balsamini described the alleged attacker, named Zeke, as having a "farm-animal musk" and "Charles Manson eyes." Wrote Balsamini: "Crusty vs. Postie."
A passage from the article published today:
One terrified 64-year-old retiree blamed the city’s decriminalization of quality-of-life offenses.
“The fish stinks from the head,” he fumed. “From de Blasio on down. He doesn’t care. He’s too busy at the gym.”
Jose Amigon, co-owner of Paul’s Da Burger Joint, was beaten with his own broom in June when he asked a sleeping crusty to move as he swept outside his store.
Not long after I was crusty-creamed, 9th Precinct Capt. John O’Connell called me to make sure I was OK, saying, “This is upsetting to me.”
[Enz's owner Mariann] Marlowe said my Wednesday-afternoon whipping prompted action. O’Connell has stopped by her store at least three times since, and a cop is now posted on the block.
The Post has a history of conflict with the travelers. In 2015, when the travelers camped outside the new Cooper Union academic building, a group of them threatened a reporter and photographer with taunts and cookies.
Per that article:
Nine of the drifters were splayed out on bits of cardboard Thursday morning, and began hurling insults, water and bits of cookie when approached by a reporter.
“I was going to chase him down and beat the s–t out of him,” one thin, bedraggled man spat in anger.
“If I ever see you or that photographer again, I’ll kick the s–t out of you,” he threatened.
