NYU inc. an independent student media project at NYU, posted this little anecdote about the advertisement on their blog.
On the afternoon of Tuesday, October 4th… Kristin (from our very own nyuinc.org) and Andy Cornell were discussing the inane advertisement. Andy then said something to the effect of “let’s write something on it!” and asked Kristin for a marker. As seen in this image Andy then wrote “NO MORE STUPID ADS ON CAMPUS.”
Well, we do go to NYU and we do live in New York City, hence no such innocent act of disgust with corporate insanity could go by unpunished. Andy was quickly yelled at by a young man with a camera and asked if he “knew that that was vandalism?” Both Andy and Kristin ignored the young man, assuming him to be an aggravated NYU student simply trying to cause trouble. However, the man did not cease in bothering Andy. In fact, he told Andy that he was under arrest for an illegal act of vandalism upon the fake, useless, port-a-potty.
Andy then walked down the block towards me, with the “officer” in toe. The deputy officer, as he was later known, then revealed to us that he was a volunteer policeman trained by the NYPD who had the authority to hold Andy for arrest. And he did just that – the officer, whose name is still unknown, brought Andy to the NYU Public Safety office, called the police, and held him there until the uniformed NYPD officers arrived.
Once the officers reached “the scene of the crime,” they told Andy that he could be arrested, but allowed him to clean up the graffiti instead. However, once he was finished cleaning the inane ad, he was issued a summons.
I wonder how legit this thing is? According to NYC law on obstruction of pedestrian traffic, etc. Cos sometimes its fun calling 311 and filing complaints against corporate law offenders, theyre people too! Right?
Maybe someone should use the tactics of the Billboard Liberation Front, and do a porta-potty “improvement” that alters it without damaging it in any way. Like, for example, cover the whole thing with an attractive crocheted porta-potty-cozy. If you don’t permanently alter the object, you’re not engaging in vandalism.
Or you could get a whole bunch of people to stand around it with very tall hats, obstructing the public view of the eyesore. What’s the guy gonna do, arrest all of you?
totally bizarre. a volunteer cop? is that even possible? i doubt the guy is there 24 hours a day, so maybe a nighttime paint-balloon excursion could take care of this little eyesore once and for all…
semi-related: the guards at nyu used to try to arrest kids who chalked sidewalks around campus, but chalking is semi-legal and security guards are not allowed to physically restrain people so the kids usually got away with it. at some point maybe a year ago guards called the police on an aids activist who did elaborate chalk messages all the time, and s/he fought the school and got an official statement from the administration allowing chalking.
Oh–this thing. I saw it the other day, and noticed the guy with the video camera across the street as well.
My initial reaction was, “You’ve got to be kidding me. Is he actually there to videotape the fake porta potty for hours on end so that ‘funny’ footage of people attempting to look inside/use it can later be spliced together into a commercial?”
Never did it cross my mind that said person would actually attempt to play fake cop. Unbelievable.
harharhar…..sorry, i’m from ex Eastern block….and i admire humility of your students….but – if something like this happened around here, this fake porta-potty would misteriously caught fire during the night.
Hi all,
Just to clarify some of the points made above: The ad company had a permit for the porta-potty from the city, through the office that coordinates the TV and movie industry. The sidewalk is considered NYC not NYU property. The porta-potty guard was an “auxilary” NYPD officer. According to the real NYPD officers, auxiliaries volunteer to go through some NYPD training, and upon completion they are legally entitled to hold people for arrest. They actually have NYPD ID and stuff. This dude was completely paid by the ad company, however, which means that companies can pay to hire non-cops with some of the rights of cops to do private policing for stupid shit like this. Finally, the porta-potty was out and guarded by Mr. Man from 9 am to 9 pm, and then it got loaded on a locked truck at night, making more “problems” difficult, though certainly not impossible.
Not sure if this thing is still a problem for y’all, but… even if the thing is “guarded” all day long, it’s hard to believe that you couldn’t just wait for the dude to take a pee-break or get otherwise distracted.