Gawker
After waging war against a plague of bedbugs, the urban warriors of the Brooklyn hipster-lofts at 248 McKibben are now embroiled in a pitched battle against the New York Police Department. It's like the Masada over there. They are in big trouble for drinking up on the roof!
From the MySpace blog:
A few nights ago, myself and 4 of my friends were confronted on our rooftop by 2 NYPD officers. We were celebrating a friend's birthday, and were each drinking 1 beed. [sic] The officers told us these things:Like they gave you Chupa Chups and asked which1. We are trespassing
2. We are illegaly [sic] drinking in public
3. We could be charged with a hate crime, under suspicion. This is because the church is complaining that people are throwing glass bottles from our rooftop into their parking lot.
We all got tickets and a court summons, and were paraded downstairs and treated like little children.
The post continues to dispense some useful (and completely incorrect) advice:
The officers tried to scare us by threatening that we could be thrown straight into jail on Rikers Island (and then pointed in the wrong direction.... ) These cops are not intelligent, and that's the scary part. "Allons enfants de la Patrie!It seems that the NYPD would like to take our precious roof access from us! PLEASE remember that our landlord doesn't seem to mind that we're on the roof, as long as we respect it! Don;t blame the landlord, blame the NYPD! If you ever see people doing things on the roof that may jeopardize access for the rest of us, PLEASE PLEASE say something to them!
ALSO if and when you go on the roof, DO NOT DRINK from an open container! The NYPD will continue to profit off of us and take advantage of us as long as we let them. I don't think they can ticket you for just being on the roof. A few tips:
-Stay toward the east side of the roof and WATCH the street for police. They entered through the western most door, and if we were on the opposite side of the roof, we could have run downstairs in time. THE COPS DO NOT WANT TO HELP YOU! RUN IF YOU CAN - THEY ARE SLOW AND FAT AND DON'T HAVE KEYS to the floors!!!
-I have also on more than 1 occasion seen small children from the neighborhood in our building and on the roof. Please keep your eyes and ears open!
-The only way that the NYPD can come into our building is if they have a warrant, or if someone lets them in. DO NOT LET THE POLICE INTO THE BUILDING! If they try to come in right behind you, ask them what they are doing. Just because they have a badge and a gun does not mean that you can trust them. There have been countless cases of robberies, murders, and police brutality in this city. Don't let them take advantage of our community! Do not let them feel comfortable in our building! We are all broke enough as it is....
Comments
LIVE THE HIPSTERS ALONE!!!!!
Someone needs forward this advice to the Marcy Houses' MySpace group.
Yes, dear friend, "run from the police if you can" is always terrific advice.
You should also smear honey all over your body before you go to sleep so you get less severe bed bug bites.
Wow the persecution..I am pretty sure the landlord doesn't care about a lot since he is making such a pretty penny off all these dopes and lets them live with bedbugs.
A few nights ago. NEVER FORGET!
Always assume a confrontational stance with armed, stupid, pissed off policemen.
Not only are the cops SLOW and FAT, but they DON'T HAVE KEYS to the floors. Holy shit!! No keys to the floors!
"Don't let them take advantage of our community! Do not let them feel comfortable in our building! We are all broke enough as it is"
Oh no I think taking advantage of a community is moving in, kicking out the locals and expected special treatment in a NYC neighborhood because you are a bunch of artistic white kids .
Here I was thinking that the NYPD only took advantage of the black community in Brooklyn (if by "take advantage of" you mean "sodomize with a plunger"), but, by Jove, it looks like race is no longer an issue since the white hipsters of Bushwick are living under the shadow of the same sort of menacing police harassment that their poor black neighbors receive! Truly, gentrification brings about only the best in people.
Small children are on the roof drinking, too? I'll send this post to my cop brother. I'm sure he'll appreciate the feedback.
Are these people implying that New York finest are a bunch of corrupt bullies?
Oh. My. God.
I think I am going to faint.
Put it in a paper bag! Does anyone else watch The Wire?
Now THAT'S some GANGSTA SHIT!!! WORD to the FAUXHAWK!!!
Fucking little neighborhood kids. You know that they're just casing the joint.
@collegecallgirl: They're too busy clucking their tongues at the social commentary to notice any of the practical details.
E.G. Season Five: PHONE BOOK BODY ARMOR!
(Though, maybe that was in Oz too.)
The advice sounds like a passage from "Steal This Book".
There is nothing sadder than adults attempting to retain habits developed during four years of living in a co-ed dorm.
Newsflash, kiddies: NYPD, unlike campus security, isn't just around to protect YOU. When your drunk ass falls off the roof and lands on someone who isn't behaving like a selfish git, I hope Mum and Dad have the checkbook handy.
So do the cops get paid based on how many hipster tenaments they hassle? Because thats the only way I can imagine them 'profiting' from this precious building.
Christ, someone should forward this to whatever precienct handles their fucking retard house. That is, if the cops aren't too fat and stupid to use a computer.
I hope each and every resident of that building (especially the one who wrote this blog post) gets the full Abner Louima treatment to see what the difference is between 'persecution' and 'being hassled for doing stupid shit'.
I drink only from closed containers. I am very thirsty.
@City_Dater: Next thing you know, the SafeRides drivers in those yellow sedans'll start expecting you to pay them after you puke on the seat!
UNITED WE SLUR!!
"Keep doughnuts with you at all times! If the cops come after you, throw the doughnuts the other way to distract them!"
I can't decide if I'm supposed to be offended by the abuse of power or peeved that the cops can't just throw hipsters straight into Riker's.
It's a good thing the cops don't know how to use Teh Internetz. Wouldn't want them to come across this totally private BLOG ON MYSPACE.
This is why I'm leaving Bushwick.
Not because of the cops, because of the hipsters.
@c_webb: I just guffawed out loud.
I gotta say, I live right behind these dudes (on Boerum St) and despite all the whining they may do on the internet, they are infinitely less annoying than the residents of 255. 248's never been full of college kids trying to sing along at the top of their lungs to 'Stay Fly' at 3 in the morning, so loud you can hear it 2 blocks over.
Also, I've seen the cops roll into 255 six or seven times in the past few months, but never into 248.
burn Williamsburg to the ground.
The 90th Precinct covers that area. I know because I live down the street from them. They pulled the same shit with me and my friends in the middle of the day, and I don't even live in a coke filled hipster-loft.
They ended up going easy on us, but the officer in question took my name and address, my friend's name and adress, his GIRLFRIEND'S name, address, phone number, email, date of birth and about twelve other miscelanious things. Because clearly, being an attractive woman, she was the biggest threat to the neighborhood (as opposed to, say, the Bloods that hang out on Moore street).
They even joked and grinned while they did it "Boy's gettin her digits!" while her boyfriend looked like he was going to plunge a knife into the petty officer's throat.
In the immortal words NWA, Fuck the Police.
Shouldn't these cops be somewhere stopping the neighborhood kids from throwing candy?
Haven't they learned that most alcoholic beverages resemble some flavor of Snapple?
"This is a Brooklyn bound L Train. The next stop is...Haifa Street...Stand clear of the unfairly persecuted hipster please."
(Subway doors close. Hipster vomits PBR onto the floor; looks around the train).
HIPSTER: (Drool falling from lip) Just because I live in a black neighborhood doesn't mean you can treat me like I'm black! Show me some respect, dammit! This isn't Iraq! If you don't have a warrant for my arrest then don't try and tell me what to do 'cause I'll do it anyway!"
OMGZ, hipsters throwing glass!
There should be a companion piece about the Bushwick blog (BushwickBK.com) piece where a hipster commentator complains that his poor section 8 neighbors are throwing underwear.
But what I really want to know is, are the McKibbon lofts zoned for living or not?
Two thoughts:
I want to see the hiptard's reaction when they actually need some police assistance. Not too far-fetched for white kids in the ghetto.
If we are really lucky this will end the same way as the real masada standoff.
@sexbot: @Chief Wahoo: Well said both of you. There is a problem with these kids that is more disturbing than silly.
Soon to be an episode of Law & Order -- if it wasn't already (11.244)
@LolCait: don't forget the nifty back pack shield
@Papapishu: Yes, the NWA is only slightly less enlightened than MLK, right? *ugh* Please stop while you are only this far behind..
@Papapishu: No, in the immortal words of NWA, "You think I give a damn about a bitch? I ain't a sucker."
I wasn't aware that supposedly attractive women are above the law, even if they are hanging out on rooftops with you and your friends in the middle of the day.
L'ironic tee sanglant est levé.
@SharonTaint: Make that West Williamsburg.
Wow, these poor (rich) kids have it pretty rough. I mean, when I get stopped by cops in my 'hood (Bed-Stuy!) I get questioned, frisked and detained for an hour. And that's just for walking by a cop.
i've always found potlucks are a much better way to interact with your neighbors than a fucking blog. but then, i don't live in bushwick.
How disappointing. I was waiting for the whole thing to devolve into a scene from Copland.
(oh, and hey, no offense gawker!)
not like I'm defending their overreaction to the cops, but come on. I'm sure none of you have ever had a drink on the roof of your apartment building, and you'd be overjoyed if the cops gave you a summons for it.
@Clarence Rosario: Crash
I went to one party on that roof about 8 years ago. There's more strung out kids crashing up there than in Union Square Park in the 1980s. I went through almost three packs of cigarettes at that party, bumming to all the poor artsy types...the sad part is I only stayed 45 minutes.
@Atelier: Must be some whacky NYPD incentive plan - 3 hipster arrests = a free mocha-chino.
"Just try to catch me, you fat fucks! You and your tasers don't scare me!!"
@collegecallgirl: I learned the beer in a paper bag from a song by X. When my grandfather caught my brothers and I drinking out of paper bags behind the garage at a family party, he laughed till he almost cried. Then he asked for one, and told us stories about the bootleggers he worked for as a kid. Somethings are classic. Hipsters don't get it.