A Street Performer Crusades for the First Amendment

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/26/nyregion/26billy.html?ex=1348459200&en=d25151b441ae2bd8&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

A Street Performer Crusades for the First Amendment
Annie Tritt for The New York Times

Reverend Billy, a k a William Talen, went to court Tuesday in an effort to get harassment charges dropped. He was arrested in June after shouting the First Amendment at police officers.


By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
Published: September 26, 2007

What is the purpose of the First Amendment?

That was the question before a judge in Manhattan Criminal Court yesterday, as a street performer named Reverend Billy, a k a William Talen, faced charges of harassing police officers in Union Square Park by reciting the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Mr. Talen — the white-suited, blond-pompadoured leader of the mock Church of Stop Shopping who is perhaps best known for his crusade against Starbucks — was arrested June 29. He had joined a protest against the city’s new permit requirements for the monthly Critical Mass bicycle rally and proposed restrictions on photographers and filmmakers in public places.

He was charged with two counts of second-degree harassment, under a statute originally intended for use against stalkers. He was accused of following a group of officers while repeatedly reciting the 40-odd words of the First Amendment through a megaphone, the kind commonly used by cheerleaders.

After his arrest, Mr. Talen said, he was jailed for 20 hours, first in a Gramercy Park precinct house, then in the underground Manhattan Detention Complex, popularly known as the Tombs, where he felt compelled to live up to his stage name by ministering to the less fortunate. In the precinct house, he said, he provided pastoral counseling to a young man who was crying after he was arrested for carrying a joint in his pocket. In the Tombs, one of the medical attendants recognized him and offered to put him in a “special” cell, which turned out to be for mental patients, Mr. Talen said.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/26/nyregion/26billy.html?ex=1348459200&en=d25151b441ae2bd8&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss