here we go again!

its a rite of passage to get roughed up
by the pigs.
welcome to nyc stupid!

i don't get it.

in video 2, why the fuck does it matter who the cop voted for?

i hate my generation. jesus. what an odd, odd group of people we are, going so far out of our way just so that we can feel vaguely oppressed.

"hipsters." discuss!

anon 9:18 got it...

the bottom line is this - celebrating is one thing, but when you are blocking streets, drinking in public, and standing on/ scratching up/ denting other people's properties, it is the police's job to restore order.

these guys come in riot gear because they were trying to disperse a MOB. you had your fun, and then the cops came and said to go home, which is what you should have done. instead, people get testy (because they are in a mob, so they feel protected) suddenly people take some defiant stand and claim you are being oppressed. ridiculous.

WTF did you expect to happen!

I don't blame the cops at all for doing their jobs. Obama wins the election and the idiots think it gives them the right to drink in the streets. WTF. Get a life.

I grew up in NY, so I'm not a big fan of the NYPD, but I these lame hipster rich kids need a beat down every now and then so they can talk about how 'hard' it is in the streets, the pulse of the city is in Williamsburg... (SIKE!)

It upsets me when hipsters who moved here a few years ago and will undoubtedly move away to Portland (or wherever) in a year or two stage public protests claiming to "take back our streets". Most NYPD officers are locals--they grew up in the neighborhood, they live nearby, they are raising their families here. The absurdity and the arrogance of twenty something resident-tourists with no long-term investment in NYC "taking back the streets" from indigenous communities never fails to amaze me.

If a cop, or a bunch of cops, are telling you to get off the street, why wouldn't you do an about face and walk swiftly? I'm not the biggest fan of cops, but these kids were walking a fine line in agitating these dudes. I am sure you wouldn't be too happy if you had to work an extra late shift babysitting out of town idiots roaming the streets. The last thing I would want would to do would be a condescending asshole to these obviously angry cops. Great you got his badge number. Stop acting like an asshole. In that fracas the only native new yorkers were probably the cops.

cops can type! yay cops!

Boy the level of animosity and resentment over people who live in that area is astounding. Are you upset with the forces at work in the process of gentrification or the individual kids/hipsters/artists/people themselves? Couple that with a strange erring on the side of the police, whose primary role always and forever is to protect the private property of the wealthy and suppress working people ('justice' obviously being incidental if you pay any attention to the news), and you have a really ignorant and frightful stew. Is there anyone even nominally progressive in their politics on this site anymore?

All this hot air about 'natives' vs 'hipsters' and you'll probably vote for Bloomberg "cause he seems to know what he's doing."

-Starrett City '85 to Staten Island '91 to Bay Ridge since '02 so go fuck yourself.

10:16:
"Couple that with a strange erring on the side of the police, whose primary role always and forever is to protect the private property of the wealthy and suppress working people"
Really? Probably the most absurd comment i have heard on these boards. Ever. I am rich, and don't really like cops, but thinking that their main job is to protect the wealthy while suppressing the poor is idiotic.

Yep. Cops are only meant to protect to rich. That's why they get paid crap.

If you're being asked to clear an area, what's the big deal? Why not just do it? What's lip service gonna do?

Have I ever been harassed by cops? Yes.

Was it when I was minding my own business? No.

Cops are macho scumbags who like to beat people up without consequence. End of story.

@Roshan how do you know that these "hipsters" moved here a few years ago? How do you know that some of them haven't been here for many years? Also, by the way, the police in the riot gear are not from the neighborhood of Williamsburg or Greenpoint; they were brought in from other areas. The non riot gear police were our local 94th precinct guys. So, check your facts. Nevertheless, some of us are here to stay and not tourists, as you say. So, enough with your manufactured resentment, please. Indigenous? really?

just fyi, everyone that was arrested that night, and actually charged / sent through the system, has lived in NYC for quite sometime and is between the ages of 30 & 40 - hardly youngsters - hardly new 'rich kids' - hardly hipsters... one was actually raised in Greenpoint and happens to probably be older than most of the people on this board, one has lived in NYC since 96, the other about the same. So, please, do a little research before bashing on the people that are having to deal with something you'll probably be lucky enough to never have to deal with.

As for 'storming' the community meeting - there were about a total of 12 individuals there that night connected with this incident. They arrived and signed in and stood in the back just like everyone else that wasn't able to get a seat.

The one good thing to come out of this whole mess is that the Police have offered the arrested individuals and others involved to have a smaller / one on one type of community session to voice concerns and hopefully, make the neighborhood better for everyone.

The issue here is a few hot headed cops - not the entire force. Most of the officers were doing their jobs quite well, but a handful got out of hand and went after people. It's a mess that can hopefully be resolved before another 40k people move into the neighborhood over the next few years.

Oh jesus. not this again.

anyone who voted for obama should've been beaten

If you are a New York City police officer, chances are you have already failed as a human being.

^^^ if you were next to me I'd shove my finger down my throat so I could throw up in your face

Fortunately, that will never happen. Why? Because I only exist on the Internets!

In all seriousness, Up The Empire is a great band. Why would the cops fuck with that guy?

Hey remember that cop that tackled the bicyclist at Critical Mass in NYC (google: world's worst pat pogan). I played high school football with him freshman year. Seems many cops know anything but empathy - jox cox 4 lyfe.

Some of the cops work for Pitchfork and they didn't like the Up The Empire album/

on sort of a related note:
countdowntovictory.blogspot.com

Before these videos, I had only seem photos and read reports...both of which portrayed the cops in a horrible light. Seeing these videos actually severely changes my opinion on the situation.

Yeah, there were a few hotheads who certainly should've acted more responsibly. The citizens were being aggressors and agitators, however, for failing to obey an officer's orders, which is an arrestable offense. Remember that in all of the situations where the cops acted irresponsibly, they COULD HAVE just arrested those people (which may have arguably been even MORE forceful).

these "old time" residents who sided with cops are most likely bigoted and racist. they should be ashamed of themselves.

no one who lives with their eyes open can defend this NYPD with the constant never ending litany of abuses that is reported plus our own first hand experience with nasty, above it all, im holier than though and untouchable.

the celebrations that night up in harlem were far more civilized. imagine that! we flooded the streets after obama's speech and the cops allowed everyone to pass without incident.

the reason? no one was drinking in public.

those cops could have handled the situation better but the crowd, instead of dispersing immediately, seemed to want to provoke the police.

the problem begins when asshole drunks use any occasion to be obnoxious. election night was beautiful, one of the calmest evenings in recent memory. it's too bad that a handful of drunks wanted to get their ordeals posted on youtube.

p.s. it's not about "you".

cops snatching cell phones from people = not cool.

a crowd of people taunting the cops = not cool.

which came first? the chicken or the egg?

Has anyone polled the storefront owners about their impressions of that night? Were they worried? Or the residents of Bedford Ave.?

If this happened on my street, I'd have sided with the police.

I am the person being arrested in the final video.

I was at this event for all of 10 minutes and left when the riot cops arrived. I saw this being ugly on BOTH sides and wanted no part of it.

About an hour after the streets were dead and this thing was 100% over I stepped out to smoke a cigarette. There were no civilaians around and about 50 cops.

I was standing in front of the Charelston smoking when I was approached by an officer and told to "FUCKING MOVE!" This shocked me as I was the only person on the sidewalk. I did not say anything and took a walk to the end of the block and back and when I returned was told to move again. I CALMLY and POLITELY explained that I had moved and was returning. This enraged the officer and I was arrested on made up charges of sitting on a fire hydrant. I spent 20 hours in jail. I had many belonings stolen or thrown away by the police. I was not read my rights. All and all it was a pile of bullshit.

I do think the situation on Bedford was filled with a lot of out of control hipsters but what I saw from who was in jail and what they were there for it seems as if the cops arrested anyone they did not like the look of rather than kids drinking in the street.

In my 8 years of living in NYC, I've never had a run in with the cops, despite being a rowdy drunk. Somehow I've been arrested in Jersey a handful of times even though I spend very little time there. From my point of view, NYPD won't f*ck with you if you don't f*ck with them. Not the same experience in Jersey.

Cops can push people around in Williamsburg because they know hipsters are too pussy to riot. Let 'em try that sh** with 5K people in Ft. Greene.

Were the cops surprised thousands of people stormed Bedford after the Obama victory?

C'mon, there weren't that many people with beers or bottles would have been thrown!

Williamsburg is just on a later celebration schedule than other celebrating nabes like Harlem. Hipsters will party till 5 in the morning, even.

^^^ They were completely surprised and unprepared. Captain Fulton explained at the community meeting that he had no idea the crowds would get so big. He also seemed to be completely clueless to the fact that celebrations like this happened all over the city with no incident... asking a person from NAG to "Name two other places in the city, besides Harlem, where there were Celebrations this large." To which she replied "Fort Greene and Park Slope." Captain Fulton was not prepared for that answer and said that he will need to "look into that."

nypd cops are pretty chill if you dont antagonize them... jersey cops are fucking pigs. regardless, you will never win with cops until you are willing to fight back. every great revolution has been through violence. if a cop pushes you, push back.

yeah as a degenerate bburg resident who was there, and in some of the videos, I can honetly say. The cops did their jobs.

Cops are assholes, they are supposed to be assholes. They arrest murderers and rapists and you can't expect them to deal well with a bunch of liberal arts school grads screaming in their faces about "rights".

This was a riot situation, they did what they had to do.

I wish i'd been at the 94th (where ive spent my fair amount of time) i would have spoken up un behalf of the cops.

fuck all ya'll

pretty chill?! you mean when they are not raping your asshole with a baton, or shooting you in the face for cutting them off on the stop sign? do you read the newspapers?

forgot about getting knocked off your bike for no reason and then have false charges filed against you.

anon 1253, no one was drinking on the streets in harlem? you mustve been in a different harlem than i was, because there were plenty of brown paper bag 40s present

How many other places in the city did this exact form of spontaneous celebration happen? Union Square, East Village, Times Square, Harlem.... those I know of, most likely more.

In our nations capitol, a spontaneous parade of thousands formed and traveled way over 20 blocks through the streets of DC ending in front of the White House. No arrests.

How many of these celebrations got met with cops in riot gear?

None. Only on Bedford Ave.

You hipsters are messing up my neighborhood (Williamsburg)and have been for the past 6 years. I'm going to setup a protest against this. Who's with me?

Most NYPD officers do not live in the five boroughs. Most of them live in the suburbs. Most cops live in Long Island or New Jersey.

fucking stupid white rich gentrifiers. they are so fucking ignorant and need to move back to new england and the midwest respectivly. they do not belong in NY

oh god. this is probably the most pathetic thing i've ever heard, especially considering the cops barely ever touch those williamsburg kids. like ever. and the fact that they provoked the cops in the first place. standing on someones car, with uncovered alcohol at 3 a.m is basically begging a cop to pull you off the car.

everyone knows Williamsburg sucks.
new topic please

my car was vandalized on election night in the east village by a bunch of rich hipster hooligan kids similar to the ones in these videos. You know, the ones with PLO scarves and Donahue eye glasses. Over 4000 dollars in damage was done to my car. I worked a long and hard shift that night. Where did my wages end up? In a fucking deductible!!!!
We all wanted to celebrate and have a good time that night but when people get out of hand what do you expect? Thank you Obama but no thanks to these fucks!
"Fuck the cops!" really?? " who did they vote for? " ??? " Why are you being arrested? " " this is what happens when you give someone a helmut and a badge. " really?
This guy filming and asking these questions is ridiculous.. It's evident buddy.... wake up!!! I'd like to give you five minutes to ask me these questions and see how I react after the two weeks I've dealt with.. We'll see how mellow these cops were..I'm sure there wasn't any sort of provocation done by either one of these two getting arrested either. right!!! missed that part of the video. The guy in the pirate hat was asked to back off three times and still he had to be reminded. I'm surprised he wasn't booked. peaceful young liberal democrats at work.. love my generation... "START SPREADING THE NEWS"

Based on these videos, I don't see any successful civil rights lawsuits coming.

These kids need to get some real problems

5:07 AM FOR MAYOR '09!!!!