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Sexual Assault Near City Hall Park

NYPress — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 21:03:51 +0000

A 28-year-old woman was sexually assaulted near City Hall Sunday morning. According to police, the woman was on Park Row near Beekman Street, across from City Hall Park, around 4:45 a.m. The attacker followed her from the subway, grabbed her by the throat, held her down, pulled down her pants and attempted to rape her.

Photo of suspect, courtesy NYPD

Several nearby construction workers heard the woman scream and rushed to help; the attacker fled. The victim was taken to an area hospital where she is in stable condition.

The suspect is described as being in his mid-20s and was last seen wearing a red Adidas jacket over a black hooded sweatshirt.

Anyone with information regarding this crime is urged to contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-8477(TIPS). All callers to Crime Stoppers remain anonymous and all calls will be kept confidential. You may also submit tips to the Crime Stoppers website by visiting:
www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or text your tips to 274637 (crimes) and enter TIP577.

Tourist Attacked by Man With a Hammer in City Hall Park

NYPress — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 17:26:12 +0000

Photo Courtesy of Wiki Commons

Here’s one visit to New York that did not end well. Yesterday, a tourist from Barcelona was attacked by a man in a suit and tie in City Hall Park, reported Gothamist. The weapon of choice? A hammer. According to witnesses, the attacker—who supposedly “looked normal”—repeatedly struck the man with the claw end of the hammer.

The attacker, 43-year-old John Yoos, screamed about Nazis and various American presidents while striking the man, according to police. Witnesses took Yoos down to the ground and held him until police arrived. The victim suffered a fractured skill and defensive wounds, but is in stable condition according to the NY Post. His wife witnessed the whole disturbing incident.

The attack is reminiscent of another random act of violence two weeks ago on the Upper East Side, in which a crazed homeless man stabbed a young woman walking down the street. Hopefully this recent spate of summer violence calms down soon.

—Alissa Fleck

VIDEO: Manhattan BP Scott Stringer Proclaims a Day in Honor of Justin Bieber

Laura Nahmias — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 17:49:13 +0000

Photo courtesy of City & State

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer is a Belieber.

He met the pop sensation at J&R Music World across from City Hall Park to proclaim today “Justin Bieber J&R Appreciation day in the borough of Manhattan.” Bieber is in town after a concert he had last night at the Apollo Theater.

Outside the store, hundreds of screaming teenage girls waited inside police barricades for the opportunity to get their copies of Bieber’s album autographed. The so-called “hipster cop” Rick Lee was outside patrolling the barricades.

Stringer, asked what it was like to meet Bieber, said “it was very cool.”

He doesn’t own any of Bieber’s records, but he is a Bieber fan, he said.

“I don’t give proclamations to people I don’t belieb in.”

Giant Ketchup Bottle Pops Up in City Hall Park

NY Press — Wed, 30 May 2012 16:23:16 +0000

The Public Art Fund Strikes Again
If you were passing by City Hall Park last Wednesday, you may have witnessed Mayor Michael Bloomberg casually eating popcorn in front of a 30-foot-tall ketchup bottle. Rest assured, your tap water has not been contaminated. Bloomberg was simply there to give the inaugural speech for Common Ground, the Public Art Fund’s newest exhibition.
Centered around the themes of public space and monuments, the exhibition features the works of 10 international artists and can be found in City Hall Park until Nov. 30. In his brief speech, Mayor Bloomberg commented on “Daddies Ketchup,” Paul McCarthy’s 30-foot-tall sculpture, hoping that such works of art would “make us think and encourage us to laugh.”
On a slightly more serious note, curator Nicholas Baume said the exhibition was “an homage to the power and potential of the spaces we share, our common ground.”

Text by Laurent Berstecher. Photos by RYAN MCCUNE/ PatrickMcMullan.com

Nicholas Baume, Christian Jankowski, Matthew Day Jackson, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Justin Matherly, Susan Freedman

Justin Matherly

Daddies Ketchup by Paul McCarthy

The Choir

HIV/AIDS Protesters Arrested Near Zuccotti Park on World AIDS Day

Marissa Maier — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 22:08:34 +0000

Roughly 10 people associated with a rally to support housing funding for those living with HIV/AIDS were arrested this morning at the intersection of Broadway and Park Place. Occupy Wall Street members teamed up with the rally’s organizers Housing Works, VOCAL-NY and Health GAP to celebrate World AIDS Day, while also protesting Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s recent cuts to HIV/AIDS housing and services. While Mayor Bloomberg hosted his annual World AIDS Day breakfast uptown, a crowd of around 100 protestors ambled up Broadway chanting, “No More Budget Cuts on Our Backs,” “Bloomberg Billionaire” and “AIDS Hurts, Housing Works.”

The marchers seemed to diverge into two sections. While a majority made their way into City Hall Park, a group of roughly 20 protesters stood at a crosswalk, stopping traffic. While cabs, buses and vehicles honked their horns, the crowd remained, eventually dispersing to reveal about 10 AIDS activists chained together, donning dark green Robin Hood-inspired tunics and caps with the words “Take It Back” written across a symbol of a bag of money.

“Keep walking, you will get arrested if you do not stay on the sidewalk,” shouted organizers of the rally to most of the crowd. The group of protesters teemed on the edge of the sidewalk where Park Place and Broadway meet.

“I guess those are the people who were planning to get arrested,” one woman, who preferred to remain anonymous, said to a fellow demonstrator. Asked if this was preplanned through the organizations as a whole, the woman replied, “No, but I do think it has become a part of our culture for some people to socially martyr themselves.”

The New York Police Department arrived with a van, and proceeded to arrest the chained protesters.

While the protesters seemed to diverge into two groups, they shared a common complaint and mission: to demand Mayor Bloomberg drop his opposition to the NY State Millionaires Tax and to call upon Senator Charles Schumer to support a Financial Transaction Tax on Wall Street in order to generate money for HIV/AIDS housing and other services. According to a press release distributed by Housing Works, Mayor Bloomberg has cute more than $10 million for HIV/AIDS in the past year.

At his World AIDS Day breakfast, however, Mayor Bloomberg highlighted the work the city has done to help New Yorkers know their HIV/AIDS status. Both Mayor Bloomberg and the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) President Alan D. Aviles accepted an award from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the event. According to the city, HHC has tested more than 1 million New Yorkers for HIV since 2005, the year that public hospitals and health centers began to offer HIV testing as part of their routine medical care for people ages 13 to 64.