How It Is

Matt and I have been playing in the NYC subways as part of the Music Under New York (MUNY) program. We had to submit a CD, be selected to audition, and then be selected for inclusion. about 200 artists submitted for the 20 available slots. Everybody who plays down there is great at what they do, and we are honored to be a part of the program.

Generally speaking the NYPD officers we've encountered have been in our corner. We have a case full of money and I think they keep an eye out, give us thumbs up when they like the music or even drop a buck in the case. There have been times when things have gone down and suspects have been apprehended in the station when we're playing, mostly pretty minor situations. We haven't seen any big crimes go down or big bad guys get caught, but there have been minor situations. It is my feeling that generally the police officers pride themselves on being able to do their difficult job in as invisible and transparent a way as possible. They want people to feel safe and I think they mainly make people feel safe by keeping things "normal." They catch a lot of bad guys without any of us seeing or noticing, which is no small feat. They keep things cool and diffuse a lot of sticky situations. They are "part of the neighborhood" in the subways, so to speak. We've played in stations where it was obvious there was some tension and trouble brewing and the cops have never asked us to stop playing and they've never seemed anything but ok with us being there, and I've always felt pretty sure that if it was unsafe they'd tell us so and try to get us out of harm's way if possible. (and I'd be grateful for the heads up.) They seem to have our backs and yet stay totally out of our way. One time some police officers asked to see our credential and they were extremely polite about it and then just said thanks and carry on. Mostly the cops, both NYPD and MTA, are friendly and try to blend in to the neighborhood, while keeping an eye on things. Overall the cops have really earned my respect and trust.

We recently, in the thick of the holiday season, set up to play, as scheduled, at the 50th Street Rockefeller Center Station, on the mezzanine level. We figured it would be a good, busy time to play that station. We were a few songs in when a cop came and told us we had to shut down. When Matt presented our credential she wouldn't read it and he had to read it to her. She said she didn't care and that we had to shut down and that amplification was illegal in all NYC subway stations. (We had just, on our way there, passed a blues singer, a Jazz group, and a Native American musician all using the same amps we use at other locations.) In the end Matt was told that we could play without the amps, leave, or she'd arrest and fine us. That station was too loud to sing for three hours in without a microphone so we left. When we asked why we had to shut down we were told they were "checking bags." When pressed she explained that the police were searching passengers bags randomly. She also told us that our permit to play at that location and time didn't matter because if there was "police business" the police could override that and make us leave, and that we were only allowed there in the first place by the "courtesy of the police" and didn't have a "right" to be there. She was impolite, inflexible, dismissive, and treated us like we were committing a crime and she was letting us go.
It cost me $25 in train & subway fare and parking to be there. I had authorization from the Metropolitan Transit Authority to be there. We are a part of the cultural landscape of New York. (Generally 20 to 30 tourists photograph us per 3 hour set, because we are such a part of the New York City they want to show to the people back home.) When I got home I looked up the codes for subway performers in and out of the MUNY program. Amplification is absolutely legal in any of the mezzanine areas MUNY schedules us at. (the few exceptions to this are in the MUNY handbook and Matt and I avoid those locations anyway because we'd blow our voices out...) So the statement that "it is illegal to amplify anywhere in the subways" was false. The statement that the police could shut us down if there was "official police business" was true and normally we'd have no problem complying with whatever the police told us to do because like I said before they are clearly and thankfully in our corner. So what remains is a question:

Do we want to live in a society where randomly searching tourists bags constitutes "normal police business" and where that type of search overrides our civil rights? This type of search is done under the philosophy that fear keeps society safe. This is a new para-military style of policing. It is disrespectful to the NYPD. It is disrespectful to New Yorkers going about their business. It is disrespectful to tourists and those tourists go home and tell their families that New York City must not be safe because they are searching people's bags. We subway performers are a part of the cultural landscape of New York and what this cop was telling us, in essence, was that in order to effectively keep NY safe the police needed to remove the cultural lanscape so that they could have a clean, empty area to police. This is unacceptable, unnecessary, and most of all a great disrespect to the many NYPD officers we run into every day who keep the city, INCLUDING its cultural landscape, safe so we can all enjoy the New York we've come to love, not a police state. This is the New York that most of the cops also love and take pride in. To ask our local police to be the goons of Homeland Security is an outrage and a disgrace to their honorable badges. The government expects us to believe that searching people's bags at Rockefeller Center is keeping us "safe from terrorists." It looks a whole lot to me like putting on a show.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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