Robert Lederman Squares Off Against Police and Parks War on Occupy Artists

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Check out this story on Jerry Ashton’s Huffington Post blog

Loooooong before a single Zuccotti protestor waving a cardboard sign decorated with protest art was ever arrested, Robert Lederman had been there – done that.

Looooong before Mayor Bloomberg’s boys-in-blue cracked down on the Sidewalk Art of the Occupier, Robert Lederman had already skewered Mayor Giuliani and the illegal acts of NYC’s Finest and its so-called “Park Service.”

Listen to this insightful interview with a man who, for almost two decades, has engaged in legal struggles against restrictions on free speech and artistic expression.  Although the target of sustained attacks by two mayors and two park commissioners and being falsely arrested 44 times, he has won five federal lawsuits on the rights of free speech in public spaces.

(And how was the “State” rewarded for those false arrests?  His successful lawsuits have made it legal to sell art on the street without a license, in NYC Parks without a permit, and to protest without a permit on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.)

The Artist As Criminal

I first heard of Lederman from another Veteran of the Wars, David Everitt-Carlson (http://huff.to/Iu7XDY), a Union Square Occupier who has become the latest target of police “attention” (read: harassment).  In researching ways in which to defend himself, he came across Lederman’s name and track record and immediately sought him out as a mentor and supporter.

As Lederman sees it, “David’s situation is a microcosm of the macrocosm that the entire public – and not just artists – that are experiencing in the parks.  That is, a crackdown on free speech, on the right of assembly, and on civil liberties generally by implementing severe new restrictions.”

Robert, himself a painter, printmaker, musician and video artists, has an active suit against the NYC parks (Lederman et al V Parks Department) which is wending its way through the courts.  Now that the Occupy Movement and accelerated park service and police crackdowns on artists has attracted his attention, you can expect a few more battles.

The Privatization of Public Spaces

I asked Lederman why the parks are being sanitized, and his answer:  “The entire purpose of this is to make the public parks inaccessible and unuseable for constitutionally protected activities.  At the same time, all public parks are being turned over to private corporate interests for advertising and promotional purposes.”

Want more details?  Robert Lederman can be reached at artistpres@gmail.com, on Twitter as @artistpres, on YouTube as NYC Street Artist Videos, and at the A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists’ Response To Illegal State Tactics) at http://yhoo.it/819tSY.