MANHATTAN (CN) - Street musicians say in Federal Court that a New York City cop illegally booted them from Grand Central Station, then left insulting comments under their YouTube videos through an account linked to racist and homophobic rants.
Brothers Heth and Jed Weinstein, who have played on streets and subways since 2004, defend their work in a 15-page complaint. They sued the City of New York, P.O. [Police Officer] Valdez [Badge No.] 5482, and an Officer Doe.
"Busking is a perfectly legal, honest profession," the complaint states. "It is not lucrative. The defendants make up to $400 per session, but usually less than $20,000 a year. This is what they love to do, however, and they even published a memoir about it in 2011."
The memoir, "Buskers," is subtitled "The On-the-Streets, In-the-Trains, Off-the-Grid Memoir of Two New York City Street Musicians."
The Weinsteins say that New York's transit regulation 1050.6 (3)(4) protects their right to play on subways, so long as they keep it under 85 decibels.
"Notwithstanding that performing on the mezzanine within a certain decibel level is permitted and legal, police officers in the city have historically and continually enforced 1050.6 (3)(4) to their whim, to the great frustrations of musicians, some of whom go hungry when the police tell them to pack up and move along," the complaint states.
The Metropolitan Transit Authority manages a program, "Music Under New York," or MUNY, to assign subway mezzanines at certain times of day.
"In reality, though, the contention that one must obtain a permit from MUNY to perform on the subway - so long as the performance is on the mezzanine and does not exceed decibel levels - is a polite fiction, and one that police officers in New York are not consistently trained in," the complaint states. "Therefore, some officers recognize the certificates, others won't, and others recognize them arbitrarily based on their musical taste."
The Weinsteins, who perform as Heth and Jed Community Rockers, say they got a permit in 2010, when Police Officer Isaac Valdez started taunting them during their act. They say Valdez insulted them about their age, clothes and long hair, saying, "You guys look like a dirty version of the Goo Goo Dolls."
(Officer Valdez's first name was reported by the Gothamist.com.)
On Sept. 21, 2011, the brothers say, Valdez picked on them again, when he saw one of them wearing a rainbow shirt for gay pride.
The Weinsteins say they asked what law they were breaking.
The complaint states: "In response Valdez grabbed his badge, turned it toward them and said, 'That's the law right there.'
"Plaintiffs, exasperated at the treatment they had received from Valdez and his partner over the past year, responded, 'Oh you think because you have a gun and
a badge you can make up the law?'
"Valdez responded, threateningly, 'You're lucky I have a gun and a badge, because if I didn't it would be a different story.' This was his way of being tough and saying that if he weren't on duty he'd beat them up." (Footnote omitted.)
(Valdez's unidentified partner, "Officer Doe," allegedly allowed the abuse.)
That night, the Weinsteins visited their YouTube account, and say they found that Valdez, under the handle "idgv8314," left the same insult he had directed at them in person.
