Man forcibily ejected from Yankee Stadium

According to Gothamist, a man was forcibly ejected from Yankee Stadium, apparently without legitimate reason, by the police (surprise).

His crime?

Getting up to go to the bathroom while God Bless America was playing during the 7th inning stretch. Oh yeah, he's also a self-proclaimed atheist and a Red Sox fan.

It doesn't surprise me that a couple of cops could be a bit overzealous about something like this. Sadly, it's pretty a pretty common occurrence when police try to assert control over things that are not under their authority or not even any of their business. Even if the guy was mouthing off about God or America as he got up to use the restroom (as the police will surely claim in their defense), isn't that his right to do so?

What does surprise me is that apparently the Yankees have an unwritten policy of locking down the stadium during God Bless America, which has been played during the 7th inning stretch every game since 9/11. At least that's what I've gathered from reading the comments at Gothamist. So, the Yankees demand patriotism and public displays of religious allegiance from their fans and guests?

Click here to read a more complete story.

Let's go Mets!

Making NYPD accountable - more video evidence

In the wake of the video of an NYPD police officer pushing a cyclist off of his bicycle, I present to you more video evidence of the police violating constitutional rights as they assault cyclists and fabricate charges against riders in Critical Mass.

Police Brutality Pt. 2 - Bicyclist Attacked by NYPD Officer

This is getting a lot of coverage in New York right now but I'm not sure about the rest of the country so I will post it.

As if they don't piss off enough minority groups on a daily basis the NYPD is now on the shitlist of Bicyclists across the globe. At a rally in Times Square a rookie cop speared (a la Goldberg) an innocent guy off his bike and into the crowd for no apparent reason. The biker, a 29 year old grocer at the Union Square green market was arrested and charged with assault, resisting arrest and a slew of other bullshit crimes. The officer claimed in his police report that the biker tried to attack him but this video clearly shows otherwise. Now bike activists across the country are mad as hell at the NYPD and demanding retribution. 

Police Brutality

I saw a crazy act of police brutality on Friday afternoon around 2:30 PM in front of my studio in Brooklyn. I was on the phone with Seb Demian discussing the new composed score he is making for WEAPONS and as I was talking and looking out the window (2nd floor) a blue minivan pulled to a stop in the middle of the street right in front of my building and a guy, white or perhaps light skinned Hispanic dressed in normal street clothing, jumped out of the van with a Glock 9mm pistol on his hip (in a holster) and pulled the gun out and pointed it at a tall, thin Muslim, very light skinned, almost looked Hasidic, wearing the traditional robe and Kufi with a super long beard. At first it looked like the cop was going to shoot the man and they exchanged words back and forth and the Muslim put his hands in front of his face like he was scared but didn't run. Then the cop suddenly attacked him, threw him against a parked car and proceeded to beat him and rough him up a little bit, talking shit in his ear and putting his hands behind his back as if he was going to arrest him. This went on for about 20 seconds, meanwhile I'm watching and telling Seb the blow-by-blow account over the phone and he can't believe what he's hearing. Finally the cop shoved the guy and ran back to his minivan, jumped in and drove off. The Muslim guy ran down the block in the opposite direction, looking very scared and confused. He didn't seem to be bleeding or too badly hurt so I guess he's okay. This happened in broad daylight and there were at least a half dozen witnesses. I didn't see what happened in the moments before the cop jumped out of his minivan and can only imagine there was some sort of altercation.