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News :: Arts |
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As Naive Artist/'Citizen' Wakes Up To The Game, Excellent Conversation Ensues |
Current rating: 0 |
by Stanley Lawrence for Unbridled Artist Network
Email: hope4a (nospam) yahoo.com (verified) |
21 Sep 2003
|
Saturday afternoon an artist had a plan. With a US Supreme Court Decision, which backs
artists selling their art in public without a permit or license, in hand, an artist attempting
to scrape some cash together in order to avoid food stamps (and the System), was Told by
a cop to Move or have his art equipment confiscated. A discussion of grey area pros/cons
of social challenge ensued between the artist, the cop, and one bystander. |
(UAN) Champaign, IL---"The municipal soldier called police officer parked his car in the
middle of Green Street and came over and I was getting anxious right away. In short order I was
really starting to shake." So said an
artist, wanting to remain anonymous for now, who was attempting to make some extra
cash by doing caricatures of passersby and avoid getting drawing from welfare. "I had copies of
the US District Court decision in full and the report of the US Supreme Court agreement with
the lower court, and I took those out right away and showed the [officer], but he remained
unmoved and started to get a little more gruff."
Things were just starting to escalate when a bystander, who'd been a customer of the artist's,
got involved.
"Luckily, I had a pretty cool-headed witness with me who helped avert a more
tense situation. Because I was entertaining the idea of getting arrested or whatever the
soldier called cop wanted to do. Because I WOULD like to challenge this somehow and there's
already a precedent and I figured it would get thrown out [of court] really fast and then we
artists could be out here enjoying this excellent decision."
The artist is referring to a 1996 decision fought tooth and nail by New York City's Business
Community,led by the mayor at the time, Rudolph Guiliani. Over a period of about 5 years, the
challengers, a street artist's group called "A.R.T.I.S.T.", citing the 1st Ammendment, thought
that they should be able to sell their art beyond the limitations of the gallery industry or the
finite list of artists allowed by the New York's license system. Yet, all along the way, they
were met with all manner of very political games. Games which anyone who isn't familiar with the
legal shenanigans that go on just behind the scenes of law-making and enforcement would do well
to become more aware of: Repeated confiscations, arrests, destroying of art, and general
harrassment. One police officer is even quoted as saying "We don't have to follow [a court
decision at the time] because Giulliani is appealing it."
For persons educated to think that law is law, and things are done cleanly, this is clearly news
to look into.
"My new acquaintance, who had earlier engaged me in conversation about making a sort
of team business together on the Net appeared to be quite knowledgable about the gray
area Games of the Law. He started saying that the whole thing is not as straightforward as
we are led to believe, and told me that the hassle [of having my art equipment confiscated] would
hardly be worth the effort."
Actually, the officer said that he would confiscate the equipment then and that the artist could
come and pick it up later. And that he "wasn't going to arrest [the artist]."
"But that's what [my acquaintance] basically said. To avoid escalating things as much as you can.
And I don't know, it sounds pretty in line with what I've figured."
What the artist is talking about, of course, is the grey area that professionals are sometimes
caught playing behind the scenes of the presented picture. A pre-law student who also didn't want
to be named made a few comments later:
"There is a whole spectrum of subtleties that various interests play, and individual 'citizens'
need to understand, so that they don't find themselves totally used in the middle of a kind of
low-intensity war," she said. "On the one hand, you got the civil liberties groups, like say the
ACLU. They choose formal, yet alienated, ways to interact with opposition groups, lawmakers, and
the constituencies behind them, for pragmatic reasons one should better understand the context
of. And yet the information they give out to the public, such as advising people how to 'deal
with police', doesn't go over grey areas in any way that's constructive for people who are not
yet in the middle of this war."
"Where the discrepancies start surfacing is when you have some Joe Citizen, like this guy, come
in who'd like to see a law he likes be practiced. Joe Citizen is usually quite naive to the Game
being played, and if he's not careful, he can find himself in a ton of shit."
Shit like jumping right into playing hardball with the people who've designed the whole
hardball game. That's not somewhere where a naive 'Citizen' peasant wants to be if he
wants to enjoy life in a small, very conservative city.
"Smart people pick their fights carefully if they can," the pre-law student said.
"Yeah, that's like what my acquaintance said, too," said the artist in a later conversation. "He
said I'd do better by myself to go to the City Council and bring this stuff up. And not jump
right into this heavier thing where I'm immediately totally Defiant."
Now, to be fair, the artist was carrying on a not exactly "business-like" conversation with
his new acquaintance (whom he'd just drawn and gotten a $10 tip) for a Nice Saturday
Afternoon in an environment near the University which wants to attract Nice, middle
class families.
"Yeah, we'd gotten a bit out of hand, I suppose, talking like one of those old-style barber
shop places. Getting a little 'too uppity' for local sensibilities, probably. One phone call via
the cell phone and..." he said with a grimace.
The artist had set up in front of a vacant building--what used to be the Wendy's. "I was
doing caricatures, and had already drawn a few, and made a little money, when I found
myself in the middle of some pretty wild conversation, me cussing and being kinda loud,
and all. Since the area is really conservative in the daytime, with wealthy-type families
walking through and all, I know I was kinda getting out of hand...But I should have
gotten only a warning, at most."
The experience did prove somewhat fruitful in the end, though.
"What was great about the whole thing was that even though I followed the cop's order to
leave from Champaign City 'Public' Property, we began having a pretty surprising
conversation--me, my new acquaintance, and him. Usually I try to prepare myself to tell a
cop who 'just wants to talk' that I 'Do Not Consent'. Because, you know, that is one of
the ways they are trained to manipulate and to carry out their mandates. So here I was,
telling this older, hardened-looking cop who was hiding his eyes behind some mirrored
sun-glasses, some things that I'd long wanted to say, and not giving a fuck, man! It was
really kinda crazy now that I look back at it, but I was all pumped up from two
EXCELLENT parties the previous night!"
"Anyway, I ended up saying two things that I wanted to say to cops for a long time, but
never had the balls to say. I told him that my view is that cops are given a certain
manipulative type of information in their academies and publications--as I've personally
noted and read, by cops like Norma Jean Almodovar, ex-LAPD-- and that because of
this, they are in a worse quandry than usual; they are really the **scapegoats**, the group
that takes all of the public's VENTING and ANGRY energy, and it doesn't have to be
that way. But everybody's hyped-up to be at war with each other. And the cop concurred,
and didn't push the issue of my leaving, seeming to kind of enjoy the conversation we
were having." Or perhaps he was 'taking intelligence'? "But what got me at that point,
and I should have figured that, was that he said he was prepared to accept that as part of
his job. So that was interesting to hear it that way."
Usually, like perhaps most people, this artist had felt too intimidated to speak his mind to
cops.
"I usually don't even have the guts to look at their badge number, much less their name. But for
once there was something strange in the air, and I felt like I could speak my heart. I told him
that I see cops like municipal soldiers, and that like federal soldiers there is dissent within
the ranks and that more cops ought to stand up for their own HEART, because they're getting
unnecessarily run over the coals a lot of the time by the way the System plays them."
Seeing this reporter's confused look, the artist added: "Well, if
you had been there it would have all made much more sense."
To many hardened people (people who've been dragged through the system by their
balls) this attempt to speak with a municipal 'soldier', or implementer of policy, on the
street might sound really really naive. And the artist admitted that he understood that to an
extent, but that he still thinks that social challengers would do well to try to be oriented to a
grey area approach somehow.
"When I said that cops are people under the uniforms, the cop concurred, and that seemed to cool
the situation down. But I told him that, of course, the uniform also tools
them--tools who they really are and the ideals they had when they first joined the 'force'.
And they are themselves manipulated into subordinating their individuality to the alleged
'necessities' of their method of training. Unless they are able to wake up, themselves, to
how they are tooled and understand where the openings are that they can exploit for their own
sanity." The artist's own grandfather was a cop who'd died at age 48, though he declined to tell
the cop.
Basically it comes down to something like what John Stockwell said when he spoke
about how he, a lesser-ranking c.i.a. officer, was dealt with by a higher ranking "superior". His
superior told him that he was "getting a little too big for his britches" and that he should stop
and think about the 'reality' that the c.i.a.'s policies are made by people who have 'the whole
picture'. And mystifications like that. Well, at the time Stockwell acquiesced, but on his own
he began to study the situation and what he came up with made history.
This example brings light to the insight that it doesn't matter what part of
the 'Service' one works in, the same techniques are used to keep federal or state or
municipal soldiers (cops) in line and subordinated. Putting a damper on thinking for oneself. At
the same time, the artist was concerned about how radicals might view the situation:
"I suppose that anarchists would say I'm really a damn fool for wanting to be constructive with
these kinds of people who aren't allowed to be much more than a kind of robot. But what
alternative have they come up with? All I see them doing is critiquing things and not giving real
ideas of how someone in this kind of circumstance, who needs money to pay for really basic
necessities, can go about this."
Upon asking an anarchist, we got this reply:
"Look, this guy is being tooled by the idea that he has to buy into capitalism--that he has to
have money. He COULD be asking for donations, or doing barter. Even if its his car that he needs
gassing up, he could barter with someone and have them pay for it. So, his whole paradigm could
be fucked with, man!"
Asked what the artist plans to do from here, he replied: "I'm certainly going to pursue the
less heavy side, and see what going into a city council these days is like." Interested in
helping this artist in gaining ground for artists to sell their art on the street in general?
Send an email to us and we'll forward it to him.
for more info on US Supreme Court Decision and the full text of the US District Court Decision:
www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyrej.html
There's also a info from "sacredlight.to" website. |
See also:
http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyrej.html
|
Comments
|
Easier To Read Version (sorry) |
by Stanley Lawrence
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
21 Sep 2003
Modified: 08:59:20 PM |
(UAN) Champaign, IL---"The municipal soldier called police officer parked his car in the middle of Green Street and came over and I was getting anxious right away. In short order I was really starting to shake." So said an artist, wanting to remain anonymous for now, who was attempting to make some extra cash by doing caricatures of passersby and avoid getting drawing from welfare. "I had copies of the US District Court decision in full and the report of the US Supreme Court agreement with the lower court, and I took those out right away and showed the [officer], but he remained unmoved and started to get a little more gruff."Things were just starting to escalate when a bystander, who'd been a customer of the artist's, got involved.
"Luckily, I had a pretty cool-headed witness with me who helped avert a more tense situation. Because I was entertaining the idea of getting arrested or whatever the soldier called cop wanted to do. Because I WOULD like to challenge this somehow and there's already a precedent and I figured it would get thrown out [of court] really fast and then we artists could be out here enjoying this excellent decision."
The artist is referring to a 1996 decision fought tooth and nail by New York City's Business Community,led by the mayor at the time, Rudolph Guiliani. Over a period of about 5 years, the challengers, a street artist's group called "A.R.T.I.S.T.", citing the 1st Ammendment, thought that they should be able to sell their art beyond the limitations of the gallery industry or the finite list of artists allowed by the New York's license system. Yet, all along the way, they were met with all manner of very political games. Games which anyone who isn't familiar with the legal shenanigans that go on just behind the scenes of law-making and enforcement would do well to become more aware of: Repeated confiscations, arrests, destroying of art, and general harrassment. One police officer is even quoted as saying "We don't have to follow [a court decision at the time] because Giulliani is appealing it."For persons educated to think that law is law, and things are done cleanly, this is clearly news to look into.
"My new acquaintance, who had earlier engaged me in conversation about making a sort of team business together on the Net appeared to be quite knowledgable about the gray area Games of the Law. He started saying that the whole thing is not as straightforward as we are led to believe, and told me that the hassle [of having my art equipment confiscated] would hardly be worth the effort."
Actually, the officer said that he would confiscate the equipment then and that the artist could come and pick it up later. And that he "wasn't going to arrest [the artist]."
"But that's what [my acquaintance] basically said. To avoid escalating things as much as you can. And I don't know, it sounds pretty in line with what I've figured."
What the artist is talking about, of course, is the grey area that professionals are sometimes caught playing behind the scenes of the presented picture. A pre-law student who also didn't want to be named made a few comments later:
"There is a whole spectrum of subtleties that various interests play, and individual 'citizens' need to understand, so that they don't find themselves totally used in the middle of a kind of low-intensity war," she said. "On the one hand, you got the civil liberties groups, like say the ACLU. They choose formal, yet alienated, ways to interact with opposition groups, lawmakers, and the constituencies behind them, for pragmatic reasons one should better understand the context of. And yet the information they give out to the public, such as advising people how to 'deal with police', doesn't go over grey areas in any way that's constructive for people who are not yet in the middle of this war."
"Where the discrepancies start surfacing is when you have some Joe Citizen, like this guy, come in who'd like to see a law he likes be practiced. Joe Citizen is usually quite naive to the Game being played, and if he's not careful, he can find himself in a ton of shit."
Shit like jumping right into playing hardball with the people who've designed the whole hardball game. That's not somewhere where a naive 'Citizen' peasant wants to be if he wants to enjoy life in a small, very conservative city.
"Smart people pick their fights carefully if they can," the pre-law student said.
"Yeah, that's like what my acquaintance said, too," said the artist in a later conversation. "He said I'd do better by myself to go to the City Council and bring this stuff up. And not jump right into this heavier thing where I'm immediately totally Defiant."
Now, to be fair, the artist was carrying on a not exactly "business-like" conversation with his new acquaintance (whom he'd just drawn and gotten a $10 tip) for a Nice Saturday Afternoon in an environment near the University which wants to attract Nice, middle class families.
"Yeah, we'd gotten a bit out of hand, I suppose, talking like one of those old-style barber shop places. Getting a little 'too uppity' for local sensibilities, probably. One phone call via the cell phone and..." he said with a grimace.
The artist had set up in front of a vacant building--what used to be the Wendy's. "I was doing caricatures, and had already drawn a few, and made a little money, when I found myself in the middle of some pretty wild conversation, me cussing and being kinda loud, and all. Since the area is really conservative in the daytime, with wealthy-type families walking through and all, I know I was kinda getting out of hand...But I should have gotten only a warning, at most."The experience did prove somewhat fruitful in the end, though.
"What was great about the whole thing was that even though I followed the cop's order to leave from Champaign City 'Public' Property, we began having a pretty surprising conversation--me, my new acquaintance, and him. Usually I try to prepare myself to tell a cop who 'just wants to talk' that I 'Do Not Consent'. Because, you know, that is one of the ways they are trained to manipulate and to carry out their mandates. So here I was, telling this older, hardened-looking cop who was hiding his eyes behind some mirrored sun-glasses, some things that I'd long wanted to say, and not giving a fuck, man! It was really kinda crazy now that I look back at it, but I was all pumped up from two EXCELLENT parties the previous night!"
"Anyway, I ended up saying two things that I wanted to say to cops for a long time, but never had the balls to say. I told him that my view is that cops are given a certain manipulative type of information in their academies and publications--as I've personally noted and read, by cops like Norma Jean Almodovar, ex-LAPD-- and that because of this, they are in a worse quandry than usual; they are really the **scapegoats**, the group that takes all of the public's VENTING and ANGRY energy, and it doesn't have to be that way. But everybody's hyped-up to be at war with each other. And the cop concurred, and didn't push the issue of my leaving, seeming to kind of enjoy the conversation we were having." Or perhaps he was 'taking intelligence'? "But what got me at that point, and I should have figured that, was that he said he was prepared to accept that as part of his job. So that was interesting to hear it that way."Usually, like perhaps most people, this artist had felt too intimidated to speak his mind to cops.
"I usually don't even have the guts to look at their badge number, much less their name. But for once there was something strange in the air, and I felt like I could speak my heart. I told him that I see cops like municipal soldiers, and that like federal soldiers there is dissent within the ranks and that more cops ought to stand up for their own HEART, because they're getting unnecessarily run over the coals a lot of the time by the way the System plays them."
Seeing this reporter's confused look, the artist added: "Well, if you had been there it would have all made much more sense."
To many hardened people (people who've been dragged through the system by their balls) this attempt to speak with a municipal 'soldier', or implementer of policy, on the street might sound really really naive. And the artist admitted that he understood that to an extent, but that he still thinks that social challengers would do well to try to be oriented to a grey area approach somehow.
"When I said that cops are people under the uniforms, the cop concurred, and that seemed to cool the situation down. But I told him that, of course, the uniform also tools them--tools who they really are and the ideals they had when they first joined the 'force'. And they are themselves manipulated into subordinating their individuality to the alleged 'necessities' of their method of training. Unless they are able to wake up, themselves, to how they are tooled and understand where the openings are that they can exploit for their own sanity." The artist's own grandfather was a cop who'd died at age 48, though he declined to tell the cop.
Basically it comes down to something like what John Stockwell said when he spoke about how he, a lesser-ranking c.i.a. officer, was dealt with by a higher ranking "superior". His superior told him that he was "getting a little too big for his britches" and that he should stop and think about the 'reality' that the c.i.a.'s policies are made by people who have 'the whole picture'. And mystifications like that. Well, at the time Stockwell acquiesced, but on his own he began to study the situation and what he came up with made history.
This example brings light to the insight that it doesn't matter what part of the 'Service' one works in, the same techniques are used to keep federal or state or municipal soldiers (cops) in line and subordinated. Putting a damper on thinking for oneself. At the same time, the artist was concerned about how radicals might view the situation:
"I suppose that anarchists would say I'm really a damn fool for wanting to be constructive with these kinds of people who aren't allowed to be much more than a kind of robot. But what alternative have they come up with? All I see them doing is critiquing things and not giving real ideas of how someone in this kind of circumstance, who needs money to pay for really basic necessities, can go about this."
Upon asking an anarchist, we got this reply:
"Look, this guy is being tooled by the idea that he has to buy into capitalism--that he has to have money. He COULD be asking for donations, or doing barter. Even if its his car that he needs gassing up, he could barter with someone and have them pay for it. So, his whole paradigm could be fucked with, man!"
Asked what the artist plans to do from here, he replied: "I'm certainly going to pursue the less heavy side, and see what going into a city council these days is like." Interested in helping this artist in gaining ground for artists to sell their art on the street in general?
Send an email to us and we'll forward it to him.
for more info on US Supreme Court Decision and the full text of the US District Court Decision:
www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyrej.html
There's also a info from "sacredlight.to" website. |
|
