Disney
and Marvel apparently aren't interested in helping the NYPD restrict the hordes
of costumed characters preying on tourists in Times Square
BY THOMAS TRACY ,
CHELSIA ROSE MARCIUS , CORKY SIEMASZKO
The city’s top cop
said Thursday they got the cold shoulder from Disney and Marvel when they tried
to enlist them in the fight against the costumed characters preying on tourists
in Times Square.
NYPD
officers keep an eye on tourists as they stand guard at Times Square
“They want no part of
it,” Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said on the John Gambling radio show.
“We've encouraged Walt Disney, ‘Put your characters out on Broadway free of
charge so people don't have to worry about their kids being groped,’” he said.
“We said to them, effectively, ‘Since you control the rights of them, put them
out in front of the Disney Theater.' They want no part of it.”
Disney spokeswoman
Zenia Mucha declined to address Bratton’s complaints directly but said she
shares his frustration.
“We have been working
for years in trying to get legislation that would require registration and the
identification of these costumed characters,” she said. “We consider this to be
a public safety issue.”
There was no immediate
response from Marvel.
Bratton’s remarks came
a day after police announced they were seeking volunteers to serve in a special
unit that will “address crime and quality-of-life” issues in Times Square.
The NYPD move followed
a series of Daily News stories that exposed the aggressive costumed characters
and their jiggly competition — the painted topless ladies in Times Square.
Bratton called the new
Times Square unit “part of a much larger refocusing of the department.”
“We're going to be
assigning veteran officers who will all be given special training on the issues
in the area,” he said.
Bratton said the unit
was in the works for some time but was fast-tracked after the media began
focusing on the desnudas and how their kind of panhandling can be “easily
spread to other parts of the city.”
That said, Bratton
added, “there’s only about one crime reported every day” in Times Square.
“The Times Square
issue is one of disorder,” he said.
Bratton also took a
shot at Times Square artists like Andy Golub, whose specialty is using naked
people as his canvas.
“What he is
effectively doing is flaunting the first amendment,” he said. “Well, it may be
an artistic expression, but it repulses the average person, and this is what
we’re dealing with.”
Golub defended his
work and said what he’s doing is “art for art’s sake.”
“We're not collecting
money, we're not soliciting,” he said. “This is fine art, it has nothing to do
with money, it has nothing to do with making a profit. It's to expand peoples’
ideas of what art can be.”
The
NYPD's efforts come after a series of Daily News stories that exposed the aggressive
costumed characters and their jiggly competition — the painted topless ladies
in Times Square
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2 comments:
It's about time that women are allowed to be topless by their own choice and not be arrested. A fat man can legally walk around on the street and/or a public event (with his plump breasts hanging out) and people find it ok. However, a women does it and she is arrested and shamed. Humans should grow up. There are plenty of nudist family's that can show that children can mentally/emotionally handle topless women. Grow up humanity!
WHY NOT :-)
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