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DIY Meets NYPD in Market Hotel Non-Raid
By
Jen Carlson
Published Jun 16, 2009
Modified Jun 16, 2009
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Jun 16, 2009
Modified Jun 16, 2009
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An interesting police strategy is described in this otherwise "non-story" on Free Williamsburg, which overall delves into a rumor that someone is out to bring down the Market Hotel, a Todd P venue in Brooklyn. The promoter has now addressed the rumors that were in the original story, which focused on a "raid" that took place last Friday and included baseless accusations that he was "being brought up on a slew of charges including weed and underage alcohol distribution."
Moving along, Todd P explains that last Friday some plain clothes police officers did enter the building "and made the kind of groundless threats that police tend to make, claimed the building was 'condemned' (not true in any way)... asking where the 'drugs and guns' were." After leaving, they returned within minutes with 12 uniformed rookies "because they thought the whole thing was interesting to gawk at," but they never shut the place down.
So what was going on? He explains, "I've been doing parties in semi-legal places for many years and I can tell you what was going on. On eve of every Puerto Rican day parade, and every Dominican Day parade, 1 Police Plaza directs the precincts to troll their ghettos and look for rowdy social clubs to raid and arrest the proprietors. It's a similar strategy to the one the NYPD used on the eve of the Republican National Convention, when they arrested everyone involved in the Critical Mass bike ride. Their idea is to round up the possible troublemakers before any large gathering, arrest them and take them out of the equation, as well as to send a message to the rest of the community that the cops are in charge." The cops left when they didn't find what they were looking for, so no worries, you can still go to your concerts until there's a massive Disaffected Hipster Day Parade the NYPD needs to worry about.
Tagged
brooklyn
cops
diy
Market Hotel
nypd
raid
todd p
venue
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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