We've received permission to post a couple of videos from yesterday.
This first one does a good job of showing what Artspace members had to endure the entire time the picketers were there.
Language warning.
A few things to note, along with the crudity and constant noise. They are using the raised bed as their own personal space again. These beds were built for accessible gardening, not for people to be constantly sitting on and leaning against. You can also see the camp under the tree across the street. They are on private property, and while all of Artspace is private property, with SAIL in a single unit, with its own entrance, the official picket line is the high rise, not the townhouses. Every time they are on the townhouse side, they are off the picket line.
Note also the contempt they are showing to Artspace members, from mocking one with "blahblahblah" and targeting another by name - a member who is not in view, but has since mentioned that her 5 yr old son was with her when the picketer began using foul language.
The picketers were playing ball in the street in various other areas, including further up the block towards 95th St. There, one of the picketers was seen pausing to thrust herself in front of a pedestrian on the townhouse side, forcing unwanted interaction on him. As he tried to continue on his way, he had to go through the camp under the tree, the picketers also forced their engagement on him, including making comments about not dropping his briefcase, in mocking tones. He just tried to ignore them and get through as quickly as possible.
They also were disrupting traffic. For being only a block long, this is a very busy street, so their being on the road like that was very disruptive, even if they did not overtly block anyone.
One of the ball players at that time had what looked like a small cow bell hung from his waist, making noise as he ran around in the street. Every now and then, he would pause to shake it some more for extra noise.
As stated previously, they are very knowingly and deliberately using noise as a weapon against Artspace members, as well as our neighbours. This is a blatant act of violence against the more vulnerable members of our community.
Language warning again in the next video.
This video was sent in by a member with a dashboard holder. The passenger had intended to use her phone to record out the window and had it out, but was distracted enough by what was going on that she didn't notice the video wasn't recording.
In the beginning, you can hear the horn honking. The picketer was walking back from 95th St - they're not even bothering to be where they are supposed to be. The member's report of this incident describes how, as they were starting to back up, a vehicle pulled in behind them, partly on the parking lot, partly on the sidewalk, to turn around, appearing to do so to avoid the picketers.
While the car was turning around, the individual with the horn walked into the parking lot (private property), up to their window, thrust the horn into the window at the passenger's phone and honking it in a deliberate act of harassment and auditory assault. You can then see him go farther onto private property and, from his face, quite proud of his actions.
He can then be heard to refer to his honking as "music", then to the banners and signs from Artspace members as "profanity" - he then immediately uses profanity.
None of the banners and signs contain profanity, of course, including the the one they keep harping on, which has GTFO spelled out for them. They complain about that, too.
The irony of someone behaving the way his is, telling Artspace members that they should be ashamed.
The only people who should be ashamed of themselves is the picketers.
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