1st Amendment Vending, NYC
The following is an email I received from Robert Lederman on June 5th, 2009, Mr. Lederman is President of A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists Response To Illegal State Tactics).
I (Ned Otter) am a dedicated member of the ARTIST group.
FINGERPRINTING STREET ARTISTS is about to become a law. Here is why you should care.
Below my comments is the full text of the proposed fingerprinting law for street artists and vendors, State Law #S4045. I suggest you read it very carefully and consider helping us stop this from passing. If it passes and you continue to sell art on the street or in a park, you will very likely end up with a criminal record and possibly serving time in a prison.
Immediately following the text of the bill is a link to contact the NY State Senators who will decide if this bill passes or is rejected. I hope you will take the time to write to them all. A sample letter is provided. If not you, who will do this?
The entire purpose of this law is to criminalize vending to such an extent that most people will give it up out of fear of going to prison. Based on this law, the slightest violation of any of the vending laws while selling art would cause you to be arrested and fingerprinted then prosecuted, and if found guilty, sent to prison.
The pressure for passing this law is coming 100% from the BIDs and from BID operatives in the NYC government like John Feinblatt, the partner of the DCA (Department of Consumer Affairs) Commissioner, Jonathan Mintz.
This is the BIDs latest strategy to destroy independent vending and the rights of street artists. I hope you will give it the serious consideration it deserves.
*** What you as a street artist absolutely need to know about this law *****
1. THIS LAW (if passed) WOULD REQUIRE the NYPD TO ARREST and FINGERPRINT ARTISTS FOR ALL VIOLATIONS OF THE VENDING LAW.
This law requires the police to fingerprint street artists and other legal vendors EVERY time they issued them a summons for ANY violation of section 17-307, 17-315, 20-453 or 20-465 of the administrative code of the city of New York. These are the vending laws ALL vendors, including artists, are already subject to. Some artists and legal vendors have gotten as many as ten such summonses in a single day.
In order to obtain fingerprints, the police must handcuff you and take you to an NYPD holding cell for processing. It takes a minimum of 3 hours during which time you are locked in a cell with other prisoners, photographed for a mug shot, interrogated etc. Sometimes the process takes 24 hours or more.
According to this law, your fingerprints and mug shot will then become part of your permanent record - whether you are found guilty or not. If you are summonsed/arrested again, they will be used to make the case that you are a, "repeat offender." The purpose of this is to justify giving you a substantial prison sentence. The existing vending laws already carry a potential 90 days to one year sentence for each violation.
2. What are these 4 sections of the vending law?
20-465 Is the section of the law concerning restrictions on the placement of art displays, pushcarts and stands and where vending is prohibited. It directly affects ALL street artists working on the street or in NYC Parks. Chances are if you are vending, you are violating one or more of these restrictions.
The subsections that directly affect artists and other First Amendment protected vendors include:
20' from a door; the size of your stand; distance from a corner; restricted streets; nearness to a corner, hydrants, signs, benches; required width of a sidewalk; being in any part of a bus stop, driveway, near a window or on a sidewalk less than 12' in width (unobstructed width); unauthorized vending in a park (the Parks Dept could make a new rule requiring artists to be authorized; those that did not get authorization [permission] would be arrested and fingerprinted); violating any vehicular parking rules (running your engine to keep warm, expired meter, feeding a meter, no parking zone etc); vending at any time on a restricted street; having anything under or next to your stand that is not allowed; and the all-inclusive, Exigent Circumstances.
EXIGENT CIRCUMSTANCES Exigent circumstances means that even if you are set up (on a street or in a park) in a 100% legal spot, if a police officer orders you to leave for any reason of public safety (an accident, a fire, a protest, a big sale in a store, a fight, heavy weather, construction, a corporate promotion, a political appearance or photo-op, a foreign dignitary visiting the area) and you don't immediately leave, he can summons and arrest you. In other words, this law allows the police to order you to close up just about anytime they get political or BID pressure to close you. It is used by the BIDs on a daily basis throughout NYC.
b. Section 20-453 involves vending with a license required. Based on the ARTIST court rulings, artists are exempt from this-for now. However, if any law such as Intro #846 were to pass giving the BIDs control of vending, then artists would absolutely end up subject to a license of some sort. Not having one would result in fingerprinting and jail time.
c. Section 17-315 (subsections a-l) and Section 307 (a-d) specifically cover food vending violations. These obviously do not affect artists - unless you are selling edible art.
Section 17-307 covers violations relating to food vending. Admin. Code 17-307(a) Unlicensed Mobile food vendor Admin. Code 17-307(b) Unpermitted Mobile Food Unit Admin. Code 17-307 Lack of permit for commissary or distribution place Admin. Code 17-307(d) Vending of unapproved items Admin. Code 17-311 Fail to display license and/or plate Admin. Code 17-312 Fail to notify of change of license information Admin. Code 17-313 Failure in bookkeeping requirements Admin. Code 17-314(a) Fail to permit regular inspections Admin. Code 17-314(b) Failure to give supplier/depot/commissary information Admin. Code 17-314 Sale of unauthorized foods without written approval Admin. Code 17-314(d) Fail to surrender license, permit and plate Admin. Code 17-314.1 Sale, loan, lease or transfer of license, permit or plate Admin. Code 17-315(a) Vendor on sidewalk less than 12 ft., or not at curb Admin. Code 17-315(b) Cart touching or leaning against building Admin. Code 17-315 Items not in or under cart (except waste container) Admin. Code 17-315(d) Vending pushcart or stand against display window or 20 ft. of entrance Admin. Code 17-315(e) In bus stop, or 10 ft. of drive, subway, crosswalk, etc. Admin. Code 17-315(f) Violation of parking rules and regulations Admin. Code 17-315(h) On median strip, not intended for mall or plaza Admin. Code 17-315(i) Vending within Parks jurisdiction without Comm. approval Admin. Code 17-315(j) Failure to move after notice of exigent circumstances given Admin. Code 17-316 Transfer of food to unlicensed food vendor for resale Admin. Code 17-315(k), (l) Vending at time/place prohibited
Below is the text of the law (it's before the NY State Senate, NOT the NY City Council) Following that is a news article and a letter I wrote a few weeks ago on this.
*** MOST IMPORTANTLY below that are links to the contact info for all the NY State Senators. ---------------------------
FULL TEXT of THE PROPOSED LAW
S4045 SQUADRON No. Same as Criminal Procedure Law TITLE....Requires fingerprinting of persons charged with violations of certain local laws governing food and general vending 04/08/09 REFERRED TO CODES SUMMARY: SQUADRON, HASSELL-THOMPSON, C. JOHNSON Amd S160.10, CP L Requires fingerprinting of persons charged with violations of certain local laws governing food and general vending. BILL TEXT:
STATE OF NEW YORK
4045 2009-2010 Regular Sessions IN SENATE April 8, 2009
Introduced by Sens. SQUADRON, C. JOHNSON -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Codes AN ACT to amend the criminal procedure law, in relation to fingerprint- ing persons arrested for or charged with violations of certain local laws governing food and general vending The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 160.10 of the criminal procedure 2 law, as amended by chapter 762 of the laws of 1971, paragraph (d) as 3 amended and paragraph (e) as added by chapter 344 of the laws of 1976, 4 is amended to read as follows: 5 1. Following an arrest, or following the arraignment upon a local 6 criminal court accusatory instrument of a defendant whose court attend- 7 ance has been secured by a summons or an appearance ticket under circum- 8 stances described in sections 130.60 and 150.70 of this title, the 9 arresting or other appropriate police officer or agency must take or 10 cause to be taken fingerprints of the arrested person or defendant if an 11 offense which is the subject of the arrest or which is charged in the 12 accusatory instrument filed is: 13 (a) A felony; or 14 (b) A misdemeanor defined in the penal law; or 15 A misdemeanor defined outside the penal law which would consti- 16 tute a felony if such person had a previous judgment of conviction for a 17 crime; or 18 (d) Loitering, as defined in subdivision three of section 240.35 of 19 the penal law; or 20 (e) Loitering for the purpose of engaging in a prostitution offense 21 as defined in subdivision two of section 240.37 of the penal law; or 22 (f) A violation of section 17-307, 17-315, 20-453 or 20-465 of the 23 administrative code of the city of New York. 24 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall 25 have become a law.
EXPLANATION Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD10580-01-9 SPONSORS MEMO: NEW YORK STATE SENATE INTRODUCER'S MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT submitted in accordance with Senate Rule VI. Sec 1
BILL NUMBER: S4045 SPONSOR: SQUADRON TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the criminal procedure law, in relation to fingerprint- ing persons arrested for or charged with violations of certain local laws governing food and general vending
PURPOSE: To provide for the fingerprinting of persons arrested for or charged with violations of local laws governing food and general vending.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS: This proposal would amend subdivision 1 of section 160.10 of the Crimi-nal Procedure Law ("C.P.L.") to authorize police officers and other appropriate officials to take the fingerprints of individuals arrested for or charged with a violation of sections 17-307, 17-315,20-453 or 20-465 of the Administrative Code of the City of New York. EXISTING LAW: Section 160.10 of the Criminal Procedure Law
JUSTIFICATION: In New York City - particularly in certain neighborhoods, unlicensed food and general vendors overwhelm the streets and sidewalks, causing both pedestrian and vehicular traffic congestion. These vendors unfairly compete with local merchants, as well as with properly licensed vendors, all of whom are adversely affected by their presence. Despite the size of the problem, however; police, prosecutors and the courts are unable to manage the problem without the authority to fingerprint. Courts have held that fingerprints may only be taken with explicit statutory author-ity (see, g, People v. O'Rourke, 83 Misc.2d 51 (N.Y. City Criminal Court 1975)).
This lack of authority to fingerprint those who violate the vending laws has been particularly troublesome in several ways: for example, it has been the experience of the New York City Police Department that many illegal vendors repeatedly break the law, rarely appear before the court when released on desk appearance tickets, and frequently present false identification when arrested. In those cases in which they do make an appearance, the court has no way of knowing the number of times such vendors may have been charged with the same offense in the past, and might only impose a nominal fine. The problem is slightly different with respect to licensed vendors who disobey time, place and manner restrictions: they are definitively iden-tified but they pay the nominal fine that may be imposed as a sentence and they consider it a cost of doing business. They then return to the same illegal location or erect the same illegal vending display. For licensed and unlicensed vendors, the City's alternative remedy is to issue a notice of violation, a civil enforcement process involving a summons returnable to the Environmental Control Board, which can result in the imposition of substantial civil penalties. Even in this forum, unlicensed violators rarely appear and are frequently judgment proof. Licensed violators, too, may avoid the penalties arising from adjudi-cation in view of the difficulty of collecting fines and recovering suspended or revoked licenses until expiration. It is important to note that this bill should not be construed to apply beyond street vending. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY: New Bill. FISCAL IMPLICATIONS: None. LOCAL FISCAL IMPLICATIONS: To be determined. EFFECTIVE DATE: Ninety days after it shall have become a law.
***** CONTACT INFO FOR NY STATE SENATE *****
Everything you need to contact all NY State Senators is at this link
HERE IT IS: http://www.nysenate.gov/senators Next to each photo it says "contact"
Click "contact" and paste in your letter, addressing it to each one by their name, Dear Senator .........
Write to, FAX and CALL them ALL but especially put the pressure on the main sponsors:
*** Senator Daniel Squadron squadron@senate.state.ny.us Albany Office: 946 Legislative Office Building Albany, New York 12247 518-455-2625 District Offices: 401 Broadway, Suite 1901 New York, New York 10013 Tel: 212-298-5565 Fax: 212-431-7836 Brooklyn District Office: Borough Hall, Room 240 209 Joralemon Street Brooklyn, NY 11201 Phone: (718) 802-3818
*** Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson hassellt@senate.state.ny.us District Office 959 E. 233rd Street Bronx, NY 10466 Tel: (718) 547-8854 / Fax: (718) 515-2718 Albany Office 612 Legislative Office Building Albany, NY 12247 Tel: (518) 455-2061 / Fax: (518) 426-6998
*** Senator Johnson johnson@senate.state.ny.us District Office: 151 Herricks Road, Suite 202 Garden City Park, NY 11040 P: (516) 746-5923 F: (516) 746-5926
Albany Office: 814 Legislative Office Building Albany, NY 12247 P: (518) 455-2622 F: (518) 426-6894
You can also get (and save) their direct email address here.
Make your letter short and to the point. You must include the name of the bill or they won't have a clue what you are talking about.
It is bill # S4045 which Requires fingerprinting of persons charged with violations of certain local laws governing food and general vending.
********** Fingerprinting Artists: The REAL Agenda Behind fingerprinting Vendors is an Artist License by Robert Lederman
One of the things I've learned in 15 years of fighting the city is that you cannot take anything city officials say at face value. Every public statement and every proposed vending law has multiple levels of meaning. Frequently, the real meaning is the exact opposite of the surface meaning or explanation.
For example, every proposed anti vending or anti street artist law now before the City council (there are 24 at last count) has an opening sentence warmly praising the contribution that street artists and vendors have made to the City of NY. Like the legal disclaimers in TV ads for pharmaceutical drugs, the ad claims the drug is wonderful and will make you feel absolutely terrific, but the disclaimer admits it may actually cause death, paralysis, suicide, cancer or brain damage.
Fingerprinting Illegal Vendors
Case in point, the effort to pass a new law requiring that all arrested vendors be fingerprinted.
At the last public city council hearing on vending, NYPD and other high level City officials testified that the most important new law that was needed would be one to require fingerprinting of all vendors who were arrested. They claimed such a law was desperately needed because at present, "no vendors are fingerprinted and they cannot therefore track 'repeat offenders'." A few days ago a NY State Senator held a press conference to introduce exactly such a law (see news article below).
Sounds fairly reasonable, right?
Even dedicated vending advocates will find it hard to disagree that illegal vendors who are arrested should be fingerprinted. There's only one problem with this proposed law. Since 1906, EVERYONE arrested in NYC is fingerprinted. Whether you are brought in to a police station on murder charges or for loitering on a park bench, you are fingerprinted. Panhandlers who are illegally arrested are fingerprinted. If you get caught stealing a candy bar or robbing a bank, you are fingerprinted. Even political protestors are fingerprinted.
For Proof EVERYONE arrested is fingerprinted by NYPD SEE: http://criminaljustice.state.ny.us/stdpractices/arrest2e.htm http://law.justia.com/newyork/codes/criminal-procedure/cpl0160.10_160.10.html http://www.nyclu.org/node/540 http://www.experts123.com/q/when-did-the-n.y.p.d.-begin-to-use-fingerprinting.html
The reason for the practice of the NYPD fingerprinting everyone arrested is so they can compare your fingerprints to those of suspects wanted in serious cases. Lots of people use a fake ID to hide their real identity, especially criminals. The only sure way for the police to know who they have in custody is by taking fingerprints, which they email or fax to an office in Albany.
It takes about 3 hours to verify your identity this way (a computer matches them at very high speed), which is why an arrest in NYC almost always takes at least three hours to process.
So, if you are observing high level NYPD and other city officials, (including the Mayor's Criminal Justice Coordinator, John Feinblatt), pushing for such a law, you have to wonder what the REAL agenda is. How would high ranking NYPD officials, city councilmembers and the Mayor's Criminal Justice Coordinator not know the fact that everyone arrested in NYC is already fingerprinted?
The answer is, they do know it, but there is a hidden agenda.
The key to unlocking that agenda, is the person behind this push for a fingerprint law, John Feinblatt.
Feinblatt helped found and run the first Community Court, financed by the Times Sq BID and the Fifth Avenue Association BID. This "criminal court" on 54th Street totally sponsored and run by private corporate interests (BIDs), now hears more vending cases than any other court in NYC. It is run like a production line factory - vendors in, guilty pleas accepted, community service and/or fines imposed, vendors out. I've been a defendant in that court a number of times as have many other ARTIST members.
This "court" is to justice what the Bush administration was to democracy, an insult to everything the US Constitution stands for.
An Artist License
So, if BIDs are actually behind this proposed new law, a law that seems to have no genuine reason for existing (since EVERYONE arrested is ALLREADY fingerprinted) what is the hidden reason for it?
I believe it is an artist license in the form of fingerprinting anyone BEFORE they can sell art.
This is not at all as far-fetched as you might think. Previous proposed legislation sought to fingerprint all licensed vendors, including disabled vets, before they could vend.
Because licensed vendors already must submit to all kinds of severe limits on their activities, few people objected to such a requirement. Artists however, are quite different.
We won lawsuits that resulted in us being exempt from any license or Parks permit. We need no approval or pre screening before we can sell art. There are no set limits on our numbers, unlike all other vendors. If we violate the vending rules, we get summonses but can never be denied our right to continue vending, unlike all other vendors who can lose their license for as few as 3 summonses.
The BIDs are desperate to control street artists because we are the single biggest obstacle to the total privatization of vending. Unless they can impose some form of license on us, they will never succeed.
Their plan seems to be to pass a law requiring fingerprinting after arrest; then they will claim they also need to fingerprint us BEFORE arrest, so they can compare the fingerprints to verify our identities.
ARTIST POWER!
Robert Lederman
To the editor re: Book em Danno! Bill to fingerprint illegal vendors, Villager 5/6/09
As the President of one of the largest vending advocacy groups in NYC (ARTIST) and as a street artist/vendor who was falsely arrested more than 40 times, I can assure you this bill is as counterfeit as any of the handbags and DVDs it pretends to be targeting.
Every single time I was arrested I was fingerprinted. In some instances I was fingerprinted 2 or 3 times for the same arrest and a number of times I was also digitally face scanned. I've never met ANY vendor, legal or illegal, who was arrested and was not fingerprinted. Some of the very NYPD officials who are claiming that no one is fingerprinted, personally fingerprinted me.
Like every proposed vending bill now before the City Council or the NY State Assembly, this bill is filled with disinformation, outright lies and cover stories for the real agenda - the total privatization of vending by corporations and BIDs (Business Improvement Districts). John Feinblatt, the individual pushing for this bill, is a longtime BID employee who started the BID operated, Community Court on 54th Street to unconstitutionally try vendors.
Robert Lederman artistpres@gmail.com For accurate info on the vending controversy, SEE: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NYCStreetArtists/ Villager Volume 78 - Number 48 May 6 to 12 , 2009 West and East Village, Chelsea, Soho, Noho, Little Italy, Chinatown and Lower East Side, Since 1933
Villager photo by Josh Rogers State Senator Daniel Squadron came to the World Trade Center site two weeks ago to announce new legislation that would crack down on illegal vendors.
Book em Danno! Bill to fingerprint illegal vendors By Julie Shapiro New legislation by state Senator Daniel Squadron would allow the city to fingerprint street vendors who break the law.
Residents and community leaders have been calling for the measure for months, hoping it will help judges crack down on illegal vending. Under current law, the city can fingerprint vendors who are selling counterfeit merchandise, but not those who are just vending without a license, which is a violation of the citys administrative code.
Without fingerprints, the city does not have the records to track repeat offenders. So, when an unlicensed vendor comes before a judge, the judge does not know if it is the vendors first court appearance or if the vendor has been caught multiple times. "We have an ineffective system," said John Feinblatt, the city's criminal justice coordinator. "We can't distinguish between the good guys and the bad apples."
Judges regularly let illegal vendors off with community service or small fines, which vendors see as the cost of doing business, Squadron said. But under the legislation, judges would be able to administer harsher penalties for problem vendors, he said. With no deterrent, illegal vendors will do it again and again and again," Feinblatt said. "Illegal vendors undermine the entire system," Squadron said while announcing the legislation on Thurs., April 23, on Church St. across from the World Trade Center site, where illegal vending has been rampant.
Illegal vendors block sidewalks, cause congestion, divert traffic from local businesses and make it more difficult for legal vendors to work, the senator said.
A dozen vendor advocates flooded Squadron's press conference, waving signs in protest of the legislation. They asked Squadron pointed questions about the current system, in which the city strictly limits the number of food and general vending licenses. The advocates from the Street Vendor Project and other groups called the limits outdated and said the city's rules leave people with no choice but to vend illegally to make a living. Squadron replied that there are two separate questions: what the law should be and how to enforce it. His new legislation addresses enforcement, and he said he would talk to the advocates another time about the changes they want.
Squadron's bill does not make illegal vending a more serious crime, but rather includes vending without a license or vending in an inappropriate place among the list of more serious offenses that permit fingerprints to be taken.
Ali Issa, an organizer with the Street Vendor Project, said Squadron's legislation sidesteps the causes of illegal vending and does nothing to solve the larger problems. Issa is also worried that the fingerprints will be used against illegal immigrants, though Squadron promised that would not happen.
Ivet Bandirma, executive director of Esperanza del Barrio, another group that protested the legislation, said the city already arrests and fines legal vendors unfairly, and she does not want to give the city any more ammunition. Bandirma echoed other advocates who said that until the city increases the number of vending permits, illegal vendors will continue to dominate the streets. "We know it's illegal, but that's not their fault," she said.
The City Council has not been receptive to increasing the number of vending licenses, though Councilmember Alan Gerson has pushed for that measure as part of a broader package of vending reforms. The Street Vendor Project and other groups rallied on City Hall's steps on Tues., April 28, hoping to win the Council's support.
The residents who attended Squadron's press conference to support his legislation did not appear swayed by the vendors' objections.
"It's a different issue," said Ro Sheffe, chairperson of Community Board 1's Financial District Committee.
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