Disney, Marvel 'want no part' of NYPD's battle against Times Square costumed characters, Bill Bratton says

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.

 Bill Bratton 

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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