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Robert Lederman
The Lederman Giuliani archives on infoshop
A NYC street
artist and intellectual, Lederman has defended the rights of
artists and vendors to sell their wares on the city streets.
He has been arrested more than 40 times and has won many favourable
court rulings and lawsuits.
On April 6,
2002, NYC cops and sanitation workers seized the carts and inventory
of several vendors and compacted them in the garbage truck.
This went further
than even Guiliani had gone in his efforts to make the streets
sterile and boring for tourists who derive comfort from homogeneity.
Below, is Lederman's
letter to Mayor Bloomberg. See also the essay on why the
establishment hates street artsists
The
Gates: New York Central Park scandal
US Court Strikes Down Capitol
Demonstration Ban
May 31, 2002, By James Vicini,
Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal
appeals court on Friday struck down a ban on demonstrations on
the sidewalk at the foot of the steps in front of the U.S. Capitol,
ruling it violates free-speech rights.
The unanimous three-judge panel
upheld a First Amendment constitutional challenge to the rules,
which prohibit "demonstration activity" such as parading,
picketing, leafleting, vigils, sit-ins and speechmaking.
The appeals court ruled the
sidewalk, leading to the House of Representatives and Senate
steps, was a public forum where tourists may view and photograph
the Capitol, and that no part of the ban was "narrowly tailored
to further a significant governmental purpose."
Judge David Tatel wrote the
sidewalk wraps around the Capitol almost without interruption,
giving pedestrians access to the entire front of the building,
which he called a centerpiece of U.S. democracy.
The case involved Robert Lederman,
an artist who demonstrated outside the Capitol in an effort to
publicize a lawsuit he and others brought to sell their work
on public sidewalks in New York City.
Two Capitol police officers
in 1997 arrested Lederman, who was distributing leaflets and
carrying a sign saying, "Stop Arresting Artists." He
later was acquitted when a judge in the city's Superior Court
found the ban unconstitutional.
Lederman then sued in federal
court, challenging the ban's constitutionality and seeking damages
for his arrest from various parties, including the two police
officers.
The court rejected the argument
by government lawyers that the sidewalk functioned as a "security
perimeter" around the Capitol and therefore justified the
demonstration ban.
"We reject the proposition
that demonstrators of any stripe pose a greater security risk
to the Capitol building and its occupants than do pedestrians,
who may come and go anonymously, travel in groups of any size,
carry any number of bags and boxes and linger as long as they
please," Tatel said.
"If people entering and
leaving the Capitol can avoid running headlong into tourists,
joggers, dogs and strollers ..., then we assume they are also
capable of circumnavigating the occasional protester," he
said.
"A single leafleteer standing
on the east front sidewalk will no more likely block traffic
or threaten security than will photographers, star-struck tourists
and landscape painters," Tatel said, noting that no effort
has been made to keep them away from the Capitol.
The appeals court ordered that
an injunction be entered barring enforcement of the demonstration
ban.
It also ruled that the two
police officers did not violate any clearly established legal
rules in arresting Lederman and enjoyed "qualified immunity"
shielding them from the lawsuit.
The demonstration ban was adopted
by the Capitol Police Board, consisting of the sergeant of arms
at both the House and Senate. Federal law gives the board the
power to adopt such regulations.
SEE:
http://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/ for the ruling Robert Lederman
v United States of America AND http://baltech.org/lederman/
Robert Lederman 201 896-1686 CELL 201 952-2127 robert.lederman@worldnet.att.net
4/10/2002
Mayor Mike Bloomberg City Hall
New York, N.Y. 10007
Dear Mayor Bloomberg,
I represent the street artists
of New York City. As you may know, I and my group A.R.T.I.S.T.
fought an eight year long struggle with the Giuliani administration
about our Constitutional rights. The full details are on the
websites listed above. We've won a number of Federal lawsuits
and are now as fully protected by the First Amendment as is  the
NY Times or Bloomberg News.
When you were elected Mayor
the street artists breathed a sigh of relief thinking, finally,
here's a Mayor with a media background who can understand and
respect the First Amendment.
To our surprise, the most blatant
violation of our rights that has ever occurred took place this
past weekend in SoHo on Saturday 4/6/2002, executed while you
were Mayor.
Police officers from the First
Precinct commandeered a NYC Sanitation truck then seized and
methodically destroyed the property of numerous members of my
group by having it crushed in the truck. This was not an accident
but a carefully planned operation which is now being investigated
by NYPD internal affairs. We have photographs and eyewitness
accounts and the police have not denied that this took place.
In 1994 Rudy Giuliani began
his term in office by targeting the street artists in SoHo. Having
voted for Giuliani I urged the members of A.R.T.I.S.T., which
was then a brand new group, not to attack the Mayor but to give
him a chance to respond and set things right. I respectfully
negotiated with members of his administration, but we got nowhere.
The rest is history. I and
my group eventually became Rudy Giuliani's most persistent, most
visible and most determined critics.
I'd like to give you the benefit
of the doubt, to assume that you are not as yet aware of what
happened this past Saturday in SoHo and that once you find out
about it, you will immediately set things straight. As in 1994
the members of my group are clamoring for me to begin organizing
protests, this time against you.
I've contacted a number of
your deputy Mayors and your press secretary, Ed Skyler, who knows
me for a few years, about what happened and asked them to convey
this message to you. I hope that by now they've done so.
In 1994 Rudy Giuliani seriously
underestimated the ability of street artists to win in court
or to affect his image. He laughed us off in 1994 but by 1995
and right through the rest of his term in office he wasn't laughing.
You'll find my Giuliani portraits
and signs in media coverage of him by every media outlet in the
world. Our lawsuits against Giuliani are studied in universities
and law schools across America. Mr. Skyler can attest to our
determination once aroused.
We are now aroused.
Eight years of being abused
is enough. The City has already wasted millions of dollars on
our lawsuits with millions more still pending. How much the Giuliani
administration spent falsely arresting us and pretending to prosecute
our cases (in eight years not one case was ever prosecuted against
a NYC street artist) is probably impossible to accurately estimate.
Our current pending lawsuit,
Lederman et al v Giuliani has already been decided in our favor
by four different courts. Yet, Giuliani-like, your Corporation
Counsel is appealing yet again.
Meanwhile, throughout the City,
the NYPD is harassing street artists in ways that could almost
make us miss Rudy Giuliani. What happened in SoHo on Saturday
is just one particularly graphic example. Even at his most excessive
Mayor Giuliani never had our property crushed in a garbage truck.
Mr. Mayor, I am appealing to
you as a lifelong New Yorker who wants very much to see you succeed,
to please not ignore this issue. You've made it clear that you
are not Rudy Giuliani, which I think is a wise decision. I hope
you will not fall into the same trap of underestimating street
artists.
We may not have lots of money
but we do have an extraordinary degree of access to the public
and to the media through being on the street everyday. This coming
Saturday, weather permitting, we will be in SoHo on West Broadway.
I invite you to come down there
and address what happened. I will be on West Broadway between
Prince Street and Spring.
I also invite you to set up
a meeting between myself and one of your aides in order to discuss
the general issue of street artist harassment by the NYPD and
the specific issue of compensating those whose property was destroyed
on 4/6. Perhaps for once we can work this out without it being
necessary to file still more lawsuits.
I hope in the very near future
to be able to tell street artists and the people of New York
City that Mike Bloomberg is indeed a man who respects the First
Amendment and artists. I look forward to your reply.
Sincerely Yours,
Robert Lederman
Lederman is the source for many of
the articles on our George Bush/Bad
Business page | We have some of his famous posters on our
NYC page. Also Patrick
Dorismond | Visit Lederman's
site and get on his mailing list for a different perspective
on New York than we get from mainstream media.
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Truth can never be told so as to be understood,
and not be believ'd.