Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Video: 2011 Begins Appropriately on Staten Island Ferry
By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 7, 2011
Modified Jan 7, 2011
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 7, 2011
Modified Jan 7, 2011
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
We may be hurtling toward an uncertain, unsustainable future in which the sky and everything in it is falling (currently: big frozen clumps of moisture, run!), but it's nice to know that some things never change. There's just something perversely comforting about this video of two guys fighting at 5:30 a.m. on New Year's Day on the Staten Island Ferry: No matter how dreadful things get, you can always count on a couple of macho dudes to roll around on the floor together after a night of partying—and for the NYPD to discourage the loser from filing a police report. The fisticuffs start around the one minute mark:
It is impressive how quickly cops were able to intervene; we haven't seen police respond so immediately to trouble since they saved Prospect Heights from that maniac drinking a beer on his stoop. The cameraman, Byron Huart, tells the Staten Island Advance he was taking the ferry because he wanted to take a celebratory cruise around New York Harbor. He explains, "The video, it was not supposed to be a fight video. It was supposed to be celebrating my New Year's cruise." Instead, his video celebrates everlasting endurance of drunken belligerence.
The man in the black hat seen getting his ass handed to him "declined to prosecute" after talking with police. And at the end of the video, you'll notice a man showing police the blood oozing from his head and demanding to press charges. But NYPD spokesman Detective Joseph Cavitolo says this man was not involved in the fight captured on the video, and his injuries stemmed from a separate incident. Ooh, separate incidents!
Tagged
fight
new year's day
new year's eve
staten island ferry
video
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Deer are all over New Jersey roads looking for sex, state officials warn
Mid-October through mid-December is deer mating season, which can be a danger to drivers as the sex-seeking creatures cross roadways throughout the Garden State.
By
Rosemary Misdary
Published Oct 16, 2026 at 4:22 p.m. ET
Man messaged 'I got straight poison' before giving NYC college students fentanyl, feds say
A transcript from an April court hearing sheds new light on what transpired at Fashion Institute of Technology.
By
Samantha Max
News
Man messaged 'I got straight poison' before giving NYC college students fentanyl, feds say
A transcript from an April court hearing sheds new light on what transpired at Fashion Institute of Technology.
By
Samantha Max
Inside the plan to fix the nearly collapsed Pfizer Building, 1/64th of an inch at a time
By
David Brand
School bus carrying autistic students got lost in Brooklyn for 4 hours last year
By
Jessica Gould
NYC’s bridges can last 'forever,' if we take care of them
By
Clayton Guse
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .