“They were screaming, ‘Get off your f- - -ing bike, you f- - -’”
A Manhattan face-painter and balloon-animal maker said overzealous cops tackled him off his bike, shoved two guns to his head and threw him in the slammer for more than four hours - all because his misplaced balloon pump looked like a bomb.
Next thing you know, they'll be frisking little old ladies in airports. Oh wait! They already do that!
Alexander "Sasha" Alhovsky said the takedown occurred in front of dozens of horrified children on Thursday at about 5.30 p.m. outside an Upper East Side playground.What a traumatic experience for the kids, not to mention the balloon maker.
"They thought I was a terrorist," Alhovsky, 36, said yesterday.For 15 years this guy's been twisting balloons into animals for kids in the neighborhood, and these guys thought he was a terrorist???
The previous Sunday, Alhovsky said, he left a rainbow-striped balloon pump in a Starbucks on 66th Street and First Avenue - and a worker called cops.
Four days later, he was cycling home from Central Park - where he's plied his trade outside the zoo entrance for 15 years - when about eight cops jumped on him from behind, he claimed.
"There was a gun in my face and another on the back of my neck," he said. "They were screaming, 'Get off your f- - -ing bike, you f- - -' . . . They were dragging me around."
All this in front of kids?!!
First chance I get, I'm leaving NY.Alhovsky was taken to the 19th Precinct station house.
Eventually, a plainclothes officer came into the room with a photo of the $850 electric air pump he had purchased online.
"I told them what I did for a living and that it was just a pump," he said. Alhovsky was then released.Alhovsky said he wants an apology from cops.
"It appears the officers took prudent steps to handle what may have been a dangerous situation," Police Chief Michael Collins said in a written statement.
posted by qrswave @ Monday, July 03, 2006
23 Comments:
Welcome to the United Police States of America. It ain't gonna get better unless we the people do something.
"prudent steps"?
Everybody knows what an air pump looks like. Police officers excepted; perhaps they only know what bombs look like.
He apparently was working at the time of his arrest which means he was wearing his clown suit. Damn, I'm never in the right place...all those crime busters jumping from behind cover to wrestle to the ground some guy in a clown suit because he didn't have a pump!
That's just too Monty Pythonish. I wonder if it got picked up on some security camera? Wonder if they returned his pump?
The war on terror is over. We lost. We are terrified. Not a day goes by where you dont hear any mention of terrorism.
Naturally, the police are absolved of any blame, no matter how badly they overreact to any situation. Shoving a loaded gun in someone's face while screaming profanities is a prundent response? These are not the actions of "heroes", a police officer possessing any real courage would not need seven other officers to crack the case of The Mis-placed Air Pump. It took the NYPD FOUR DAYS to figure out it wasn't a bomb??? In 15 years, none of these officers ever noticed the clown that works at the entrance of the zoo??
Police all over the country have used the phony war on terror as a handy excuse to radically alter how they deal with the public. Whereas police were once more a part of a community, today they are more of a paramilitary department that's policing the community. An "us against them" attitude prevails. They're detached and edgy, everyone is a suspect as opposed to being a fellow citizen and/or resident.
Man - we are so screwed if we let this BS continue.
Check out "America - From Freedom to Fascism" - it got a standing ovation at Cannes
Uncle Frank on the Jimmy Kimmel show use to be a New York Cop.
That guys a fing moron! That tells you a lot about New York Cops.
We the People have to start fighting back, by whatever means necessary.
I feel like the late William S. Burroughs, who said, "I want action. I want to get out and do something. I'm tired of sitting on my ass. I want to get out and stir up some trouble."
Well folks, you all want your big everything economy and to stuff your faces and pockets at the expense of the rest of the world. You maybe groan and moan at Bush and his big-oil and neocon puppet masters but what are you really doing about the situation - nothing that adds up to one jot I bet.
So this complacency has a rub - your country has become a police state. It is only when you suddenly find yourself getting a taste of being at the receiving end of your home grown fascism that you realise; this is not that desirable after all. Well get use to it - just like the population of Iraq has had to since your nation lied it's way to wage an aggressive war against them.
Pastor Martin Niemöller penned it well with his verse expressed against the Nazis 'First they came for the Jews'. Today it is pitched against the false targets of Islamic terrorists, tomorrow maybe the bogymen will be animal liberationists and then the next day it will be you - maybe for voicing decent, maybe for making a buck without the IRS getting their cut. Americans are compromised by their affluent society and the sneaking feeling this good life is only sustained by taking advantage of the rest of the world, so you close your eyes and minds to let it carry on.
you want to leave New York City, but where are you going to go? the cops in LA, Chicago, or down south are notorious for being even worse. And in London they'll shoot you on the subway for wearing a coat.
I confer with all the aforementioned comments.. all are relevant.. a common quote attributed to both a philosopher and statemans, who both neither had by any means anything in common) follows: the fascism that America has spread abroad for so many years will come to rest on their own people some day... (quasi ditto).. hmm.. FEMA... HOMELAND SECURITY.. It#s so Owellian et al.. it's like a bad joke for the generation that was warned... and now.. Gen XXX is out .. no one believes it#s happening.. It's virtually Identical to what the NAZIs did in the 30's yet transposed to the 21 century... Who's read Bertrand Gross "Friendly Fascism" lately... Hmmm ??...
people are to scared, buckiling down on anything their scared minds may think is a device of terror.. when they in return are teroizing god hearted people (I mean christ, he makes ballon thingys for kids ).. ahh, just my two cents .. when are we going to step up and have a revolution.. when my spelling gets better?? :)
Yes this actually happened in New York, imagine my shock. Truth is the cops in New York do not like Clowns, especially f---ing Clowns.
Every one knows that Cops are hired because of their strong backs and weak minds. During their training they constantly hear "those clowns this" or " that f---ing clown that" so naturally they have an attitude for clowns.
I have always read that there is a time when those with brains and a backbone will dismiss the cities, sell off what they can, leave behind that which is not necessary to survival and move out past the urban blight.
No wonder whole sections and townships throughout the midwest now sport million dollars homes for families of only three people. The folks who buy those things don't even wave at neighbors when they go down the road.
I say, if you don't like what is happening in your cities, show some backbone and force changes by staying where you are and MAKING change happen. Whatever happened to the america y'all blather about? It ran down the gutter with your spines!
It took courage for our grandparents and great-grandparents to immigrate to America, and for a generation of two that courage still existed... genetically. We have devolved into a nation of cowards, led by a coward, governed by cowards and policed by cowards.
I work on a base in Iraq, where I spend most of my time, and a ton of taxpayer's money assuring that soldier's shower and toilet water is adequately chlorinated. (yes I am a KBR employee, a rare liberal one)
Well, what pastor Martin Niemöller
realy told is "First they came for the communists..."
Everybody knows what an air pump looks like. Police officers excepted; perhaps they only know what bombs look like.
If you think that is bad the idiot pigs in Denver apparently don't even know what a soda can looks like. Not only that the man the pigs murdered was disabled and lying in bed. http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=04/07/13/6669475
Of course the pig got away with the murder.
The police had the 'device' for four days but still thought it was a bomb? How is that possible? They’re spending millions on bomb experts, counter-terrorism, etc. in NY and they don’t bother to test the bomb? Can anyone be that incompetent? I assume that they already knew there was no bomb, but they just wanted to “kick some ass”, maybe shoot some poor dupe like their anti-terror pals in London got to do on the underground.
Massive response to the most insignificant provocation, that’s one of the hallmarks of a police state.
Recall when the Utah cops used a 100 officers and a SWAT team to break up a "rave" concert?
http://publicdefenderdude.blogspot.com/2005_08_01_publicdefenderdude_archive.html
Or how about a year ago when the Fresno cops sent a helicopter and 3 cop cars to arrest an 11-year old girl who had thrown a rock at a little boy? They charged her with a felony and held her for 5 days as a prisoner!!
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20050715-1632-ca-littlegirlassault.html
When I was 11 another kid hit me in the head with a rock (lots a blood, many stitches) and no one thought to call in a f---ing helicopter & SWAT team and charge the other kid with a felony! It was a couple of 11 year olds messing around with rocks and adults responded appropriately. Now it’s all hype, hysteria and overkill.
See these guys have all this military equipment, all this lethal training and they're just itching to employ it against anyone and everyone. Anyone who looks at them cross-eyed is the enemy. The fake 'terror war' is the perfect rationale for the rapidly crystallizing police state. I read Bertrand Gross’s book “Friendly Fascism” years ago. It was excellent although at the time I thought he was overreacting. I should read it again. Obviously I was wrong.
Don't worry though, if you keep your head down, keep working longer hours for less pay, keep shopping, keep your mouth shut, you’ll probably never see the wrong end of a cop’s automatic weapon. You’ll be able to cheer on the great victories in the ‘war on terror’--like the bust of those 7 feeble-minded guys down in Miami recently who were coached, set-up, and led by an agent provocateur from the FBI. There will be many, many more great victories in the ‘war on terror’ to come—just you wait and see.
I recall reading a fascinating account of the arrest and prosecution of a couple of dozen Soviet mining engineers in the 1930s during the early Stalinist purges. They were accused of being saboteurs (read “terrorists”) by the NKVD but insisted that they were innocent. The police apparently finally told them, “We know you’re innocent but political circumstances require your convictions. It will be best if you confess.” Some of those who quickly confessed were spared with prison sentences. Others who continued to insist on the falsehood of the charges were shot.
Does Alberto Gonzales really believe that those Miami clowns were going to blow up the Sears Tower and FBI HQ in Miami if not stopped? The template seems to be to send out police agent provocateurs to sucker the gullible and simple-minded into doing or even saying something (conspiracy!!!) they shouldn’t, and then proclaim another great victory over the forces of darkness and chaos. It’s an old technique, of course. It’s being used against all dissenters including environmental “terrorists”:
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/FBI_confidential_informant_also_said_to_0608.html
Or take a close look at the case against the Lodi “terrorist” cell:
http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/2/2006/1353
Anyone contemplated a cost benefit analysis of the “war on terror”? Apparently we can spend trillions, gut the Bill of Rights, and engineer a police state, all to protect us from an almost non-existent threat. Even if you entirely swallow the official account of 9/11 the U.S. response makes absolutely no rational sense. And that’s because the “war on terror” has almost nothing to do with stopping terrorism.
Yes, the correct on the Niemoller quote follows:
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
Oh, wait, someone’s at the door…
Hey, thanks everyone for leaving comments and great links.
For a second there, I felt like I was alone in my reaction.
If enough people express outrage we can bring about change.
Dingo,
How correct you are. The pigs are out to get whoever they can get because they are power and control freaks.
You may also want to check out this site about police murders of citizens-http://flyservers.com/members5/policecrime.com/police_brutality.html
And if you want to read something else shocking check out this from the website that occurred in Colorado (although I actually don't think this is worse that shooting a disabled man lying in bed as I discussed in an earlier comment). Even stranger yet I used to know a family member of the pig mentioned in this story:
"Gregory L. Smith Jr. (18): Shot dead by Denver Police officers at 12:55 am, Wednesday, January 30, 2002. Denver Police were called by Gregory's mother because her son's behavior was violent and possibly suicidal. After police arrived, Smith, who was in the basement pulled out an open pocket knife, police on the landing above Smith opened fire, striking Smith five times. There were six Denver Police officers at the scene. Smith's mother and sister dispute the police account saying no warning was given and that Smith was not advancing on the police. Autopsy results showed no drugs or alcohol in Smith. Officer Bob Silvas, one of the shooters, has killed five men during his career and has an extensive record of excessive violence, including domestic violence".
Not only that though the pigs also had the option of using tasors. Back in the late 70's the officer mentioned Silvas shot an unarmed man/teenager as well.
Everyone should also check out this link (http://flyservers.registerfly.com/members5/policecrime.com/police.html)from policecrimes.com. It tells you what your rights are and how to protect yourself from the pigs.
Please see the truly heinous case of unvindicated police abuse of Fouad Kaady; many articles at: http://publish.portland.indymedia.org/en/2005/10/327377.shtml
This 27-year-old young man was shot dead by two local police on a bright, sunny day last Sept. After his car caught fire, Fouad lost control and ran two other vehicles off the road before crashing into some nearby woods. He was next seen walking- incoherent, burned, bloody and naked - down the middle of the (rural) road not far from where he crashed.
Police and paramedics had been called to assist the other vehicles that had crashed, and several witnesses called and requested aid for Fouad. Two cops arrived first and found Fouad sitting on the side of the road, rocking and mumbling incoherently. Witnesses described him as looking as if he'd been doused with red paint, and that "the skin was hanging from his arms." Did I mention - he was naked, too?
The cops demanded that he lay face down on the (hot) road, and when he didn't comply - didn't even acknowledge them - they decided to fully discharge their tasers on him.
He leapt up, "like an animal in pain", ripped out the taser barbs and, in a panic, jumped to the highest place in sight - the patrol car roof.
The geniuses in blue, BTW, had left a loaded shotgun on the hood of the car unattended, as well as the door to the squad wide open where the other's shotgun sat, also loaded and unsecured.
Though Kaady jumped passed both guns and onto the roof, where he stood deliriously "snarling and yelling," these two brave, healthy, fully armed and trained men "feared for their lives" and shot a horribly injured man down in cold blood.
Of course the grand jury, internal police investigation, and generally, the media, found the cops not guilty of anything - not even violating their own policies regarding gun safety.
These two still patrol our streets today.
Pigs never have to do any time for the murders they commit just like the people they are paid to protect who are the rich white males, especially the corporate terrorists.
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