http://amny.com/…

Are the strings attached to subway strumming getting tighter?

Veteran transit musicians say police harassment has grown to disturbing levels in recent months, leading some to fear that independent performers could be driven out of the subways.

“It’s a game to drive you crazy,” said Mark “Shakerleg” Nicosia, 34, a subway drummer who has been ticketed repeatedly this year.

The musicians, also known as buskers, report they have been banned from certain areas of the platforms and have been ushered out of the subways even before setting up their equipment. While anyone can legally play in the subway, artists suspect police are targeting musicians who have not been officially sanctioned by the MTA under its Music Under New York program.

“It’s a blitz. I’ve been written up in so many ways,” said Ron Wingate, 43, a guitarist who has performed in the subways for eight years.

Playing in the subways was illegal for decades, but a judge reversed the ban in 1985. NYC Transit allows performers to play acoustic on subway platforms and with amps on mezzanines. Volumes can’t be “excessive” and artists must not block pedestrians or play near construction, according to transit rules.

More often then not these musicians are harmless. I walk past at least 3 a day. There are some I really enjoy like the accordion player in the tunnel between Port Authority and Times Square. Others are awfully annoying… but what are you going to do? It’s a public area. Well it’s government owned/subsidized… often you will be told by the NYPD and PAPD that it’s in fact private property. No real owner means clear and fast rules are impossible without conflict.

I wish the musicians luck in combating this crackdown and will try to film any ticketing events I come across. I’ve been harassed by the PAPD for supposedly creating a disturbance before in Grand Central yet musicians can blast arbitrary music and Christians and Jews for Jesus can hand out literature which mostly ends up on the ground and yell about “the Lord” and the end times. Due to that difference I always used them as examples of the ridiculousness of the claim we were causing an out of the ordinary disturbance. Should the NYPD/PAPD/MTA continue to crack down on musicians and others my counter example will be lost… though I will likely gain allies.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/

In medieval English law, the crime of “high treason” included the offense of “compassing” (or imagining) “the death of our lord the king, of his lady our queen, or of their eldest son and heir.”

The equivalent practice in imperial America consists of making any comment, however flippant or implausible, that can be construed by professional paranoids in federal employ as expressing even a transient interest in harming the holy person of the President.

As American statism curdles into outright totalitarianism, it’s becoming a crime in some jurisdictions to express violent or hostile intentions toward the state’s armed enforcement agents.

Antavio Johnson of Lakeland, Florida was recently sentenced to two years in prison for a purported crime described as “corruption by threat of public servant.” His “offense” was to record a rap number (the word “song” is inapposite) entitled “Kill Me A Cop,” in which the parolee mentioned by name specific police officers with whom he quite obviously had serious grievances.

Johnson’s rap offering was posted last February on the MySpace page of Hood Certified Entertainment, a record label catering to a particular slice of the hip-hop market.

It’s never a good idea to harbor, much less express, a desire to murder another human being (the Sermon on the Mount describes this as a sin as grave as the act itself). But in a society in which freedom of speech is supposedly protected by law, this cannot be considered a crime.

Furthermore, it’s not necessary to threaten or even to criticize the police in order to find one’s self in jail facing charges of “threatening” those poor, cringing little creatures.

Elisha Strom, a 34-year-old blogger from Virgina, is currently in the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail on a charge of seeking to “coerce, intimidate, or harass” police officers by publishing the address of an undercover narcotics agent on her blog, “I HeArTE JADE.”

The title of that blog refers to the Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement (JADE) task force, whose personnel and activities have been subjected to whimsical mockery therein.

If convicted of the offense, which is a sixth degree felony under the recently revised state statute, Strom would face a mandatory six-month jail sentence.

Mrs. Strom became interested in the doings of the JADE Task Force because one of its members was involved in the arrest of her husband Kevin, who was found guilty  of possessing child pornography. She points out that the statute’s applicability depends on proving that the personal information she published — which is publicly available — was provided to readers with the intent to “harass” or “intimidate” a given police officer.

http://www.azcentral.com/…

Police officers accused of drunken driving. A female officer’s alleged promiscuity and infidelity. A commander whose critics labeled his son a child molester.

Jeff Pataky said he uses negative complaints and anonymous tips to fuel his blogging crusade against Phoenix police. A headline on his Web site suggests rewards would be provided for “dirt” on police indiscretions.

Pataky, a former software sales and marketing executive who now focuses his energy shoveling content on www.badphoenixcops.com, said he believes his online criticism of the department – along with past criticisms of police investigations – led officers to serve a search warrant at his home last week.

Police officials said Wednesday that a Phoenix detective prompted the investigation after complaining about harassment, though they declined further comment.

Pataky said he felt the investigation was a response to a lawsuit he filed on Monday in U.S. District Court saying he was maliciously prosecuted by police in 2007 after his ex-wife accused him of harassment, a case later dropped. In his lawsuit he’s asking for an unspecified amount for damages. City officials declined to comment on pending litigation.

Pataky’s blog is known in law-enforcement circles for its off-color language that, according to the blogger, is aimed at Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris, Maricopa County Andrew Thomas and other public officials.

“Too bad. They need to get over it,” Pataky said. “They are held to a higher accountability.”

Pataky said he edits the blog and works with four or five people who receive tips from a variety of sources, including sworn and retired officers.

Investigators confiscated computer material and other items from Pataky’s north Phoenix home, which he considered a threat to quit writing.

“We have heard internally from our police sources that they purposefully did this to stop me,” Pataky said. “They took my cable modem and wireless router. Anyone worth their salt knows nothing is stored in the cable modem.”

Phoenix Assistant Chief Andy Anderson said the harassment case is unique because of the connection to an unaccredited grassroots Web site. He said the blog is one part of the case, though he did not provide specifics of the ongoing investigation.

I’ve not gone as far as Pataky here on this blog but I have been harrassed by the local police due to the reporting I’ve done with regard to acquiring gun permits. I have no doubt this was a personal attack.

Such quality customer service. If only they had split the people into 3 lines this never would have happened I’m sure. Or maybe it’s the old white uniforms they may have been wearing. They need the darker blue ones with badges to feel the confidence not to harass the fliers.