Giuliani speaks at art school while artists arrested outside

[ARON KAY]

benito ghouliani just cant stnad criticism...he comes off as another
mussolini in the scheme of things....forever perpetuating a police
state....drawing upon the RUDIMENTS OF FASCISM.......

ARTIS...@aol.com wrote:
>
> 5/27/98
> Mayor Giuliani Gives Commencement
> Speech at Cooper Union Art School
> While Artists Are Being Arrested
> Outside
>
> Mayor Giuliani today gave the commencement
> address to the graduating class of the Cooper Union
> Art, Architecture and Engineering School, ignoring a
> petition signed by a majority of the graduating class
> that asked him not to attend. The school, located at
> 3rd Avenue and St Marks Place in the East Village,
> was ringed by a special N.Y.P.D. Task Force in
> anticipation of a demonstration by members of
> A.R.T.I.S.T.
>
> Police attempted to force a small group of
> artist/protesters displaying satirical portraits of
> Mayor Giuliani to set up inside a police barricade
> located one-and-a-half blocks from the school, a
> location that was almost completely out of sight or
> sound of the building. The artists, led by Robert
> Lederman, then attempted to locate the protest on the
> traffic island at St Marks Place between 3rd and 4th
> Avenues where a giant sculpture of a cube is located.
> Despite this location being almost a block from the
> school the protesters were surrounded by police who
> moved two paddy wagons into place. Lederman was
> then arrested by a police captain as he was being
> interviewed by channel 4, Fox, News Radio 88,
> WBAI and other reporters. Also arrested were Jack
> Nesbitt and a young female artist.
>
> The remaining demonstrators were threatened with
> arrest and eventually forced to move an additional
> block into the police barricades. A few moments later
> the Mayor arrived as all pedestrian traffic was frozen
> within a block of the art school.
>
> The artists were held at the 9th Precinct until after
> the Mayor spoke and were released after being
> charged with Disorderly Conduct. Eight portraits of
> the Mayor were held at the Precinct after Inspector
> Haggerty, Commander of Patrol, Borough Manhattan
> South called the Precinct and ordered the paintings
> held as “arrest evidence”.
>
> This marked Lederman’s 33rd arrest for protesting
> against Mayor Giuliani’s street artist arrest policy.
> Arrested more than 13 times in the past three months
> alone, the portraits Lederman has been painting have
> been repeatedly confiscated by high ranking police
> officials. None of the officers in the 9th Precinct
> could explain why paintings of the Mayor were being