Parks Dept. Reverses Noose Sculpture Censorship Decision

The public will see the altered Stand Loud, Stand Tall sculpture by artist Aaron Bell today at its unveiling at 4:00 after the Parks Department  had censored it and refused to confer with the artist.  The agency  forced the African American artist to replace an important design feature with another if he wanted to be included in the year long exhibit in Riverside Park South. Mr. Bell replaced the original noose design (bottom) with back-to-back wide-open mouths made of mesh seen on top of the sculpture (above) and being installed on Tuesday  (below).

“I feel insulted and violated by the censorship of my art,” Mr. Bell stated at a community board meeting.     (Photos: Geoffey Croft/NYC Park Advocates) click on images to inlarge.

“It’s not what it’s supposed to be,” said Mr. Bell.    The sculpture can be found in Riverside Park South at W. 68th Street by the water. 

Manhattan

By Geoffrey Croft

The Parks Department has reversed its absurd noose sculpture censorship decision, NYC Park Advocates has learned. 

The about face came yesterday as a result of a meeting between artist Aaron Bell, Civil Rights Attorney Norman Siegel, Parks Department general counsel Alessandro Olivieri, Johnathan Kuhn, the agencys’ Art & Antiquities director, and Jennifer Lantzas, the deputy director of public art. 

The meeting occured at the Arsenal, the Parks Department headquarters on Fifth Avenue. 

It was agreed that Mr. Bell will be allowed to restore the original noose element which was an important feature of the original design. Mr. Bell will fabricate the piece in the next few weeks.   

“The NOOSE: In this context it is the embodiment of all forms of hate found in society,”  Mr. Bell wrote in his artist statement.  

“Hatred directed towards LGBT communities, religious communities, racial and ethnic communities. Hatred manifested by corrupt members of police departments and corrupt governments as well as hatred manifested by bullies and egocentric politicians.”   

According to an embarrassing statement released last week Parks Department spokesperson Sam Biederman, the sculpture couldn’t be in installed as designed by the artist out of “concerns” for people who do yoga, Pilates and senior movement programs, classes that are part of Summer On The Hudson series sponsored by the Parks Department and the Riverside Park Conservancy.

Mr.  Biederman began calling people last evening about the reversal.

The sculpture can be foundi in Riverside Park South at W. 68th Street along the water. 

A rendering of Arron Bell's original design which includes a noose on top. According a Parks Department statement issued last week the sculpture above - meant as a symbol against hatred and bigotry, and inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King - couldn’t be installed as designed by the artist out of "concerns" for people who do yoga, Pilates and senior movement programs.  

Read More:

“Stand Tall, Stand Loud” Censored by NYC Department of Parks

The National Coalition Against Censorship

NYC Threatens to Ban Artist’s “Problematic” Public Sculpture
The Art Forum   

A ‘Problematic’ Sculpture Is Silenced by New York Parks Officials

New York Times - May 27, 2016  - By Ginia Bellafante

City forcing artist to remove noose from symbolic sculpture

New York Post - May 28, 2016  - By Melkorka Licea 

CITY ACCUSED OF CENSORING ‘NOOSE’ SCULPTURE 

CREATED FOR RIVERSIDE PARK EXHIBIT

The West Side Rag -  May 18, 2016 - By Carol Tannenhauser

Riverside Park South Stabber Setenced to 23 Years

Julius Graham, 44,  in State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Tuesday where he was sentenced to 23 years in prison.  On October 1, 2013 Mr. Graham went on a rampage in Riverside Park South, stabbing 5 people including an 18-month-old in a stroller.  (Photos: Michael Appleton for The New York Times)


Manhatttan

A man who went on a rampage with a broken pair of scissors in Riverside Park in Manhattan and stabbed five people, including a child in a stroller, was sentenced to 23 years in prison on Tuesday.

The man, Julius Graham, 44, pleaded guilty in April to six counts of assault in a deal with the Manhattan prosecutors, who agreed to drop attempted murder charges against him. Mr. Graham said nothing before Justice Charles H. Solomon of State Supreme Court in Manhattan imposed the sentence. Mr. Graham’s lawyer, Heather Smith, said her client was experiencing “sincere remorse.”

On Oct. 1, 2013, Mr. Graham shattered a peaceful morning in the park along the Hudson River on the Upper West Side when people were jogging, walking, strolling with their children, or just sitting in the warm sun. Wielding blades from a broken pair of scissors, he attacked random victims for no apparent reason. He stabbed and slashed two female joggers, a man walking his dog, a father and the 18-month-old son he was pushing in a stroller, prosecutors said. The child was saved when a bystander wrestled Mr. Graham to the ground and held him until the police arrived.























Deanna Koestel, a jogger who was stabbed by Mr. Graham, recalled the attack in court. “Those images and memories will haunt me for a lifetime,” she said.


“This is one of the most frightening types of cases that I have ever seen,” Justice Solomon said. “It’s a completely random attack.”  Before the sentencing, one of the joggers, Deanna Koestel, described the horror she felt when Mr. Graham plunged the scissors into her back several times, puncturing her lung twice and dislocating her shoulder as she fell. A marathon runner, Ms. Koestel said she had three surgeries and months of painful recovery. “Those images and memories will haunt me for a lifetime,” she said.


 Ben Loehnen, who was attacked while walking his dog, said he felt lucky to be alive. “The immediate experience was surreal,” he said. 

Another victim, Ben Loehnen, who was attacked while walking his dog, said he felt lucky to be alive. “The immediate experience was surreal,” he said. Without warning, Mr. Graham stabbed Mr. Loehnen twice in the chest, the blade just missing his heart and spine, but causing so much damage that surgeons were forced to remove his spleen and part of his pancreas during a five-hour operation. He said forgiveness was difficult. “I hope, Julius, that you and I both find kindness and peace in the years ahead,” he said.



Riverside Park South - Police officers guard the 59th Street entrance near the crime scene the morning of October 1 2013.  Five people were attacked a few blocks north along the Greenway just before 8:00am by a 43-year-old emotionally disturbed Julius Graham.  (Photo: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates) 


A third victim, James Fayette, sent a letter to court, which an assistant district attorney, Shanda Strain, read to the judge. Mr. Fayette described his fear and panic as Mr. Graham punched the scissor blade into his chest, collapsing his lung, and then slashed his 18-month-old son’s arm and back. “I now know evil,” he said.

Mr. Fayette said his worldview compelled him to forgive Mr. Graham, “but know I do it very reluctantly.”

The Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., said the sentence was a just outcome. “Julius Graham turned a peaceful New York City morning into a nightmare for five strangers,” Mr. Vance said in a statement.

Read More:

Julius Graham, 43, Indicted For Stabbing Five People In Riverside Park South
A Walk In The Park -  October 29, 2013

Multiple People Stabbed In Riverside Park South including 2-year-old: Homeless Man In Custody
A Walk In The Park  - October 1, 2013  - By Geoffrey Croft

Julius Graham, 43, Indicted For Stabbing Five People In Riverside Park South

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., today announced the indictment of Julius Graham, 43, for stabbing five people,  including an 18-month-old child,  in Riverside Park South on October 1st.

Manhattan

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., today announced the indictment of JULIUS GRAHAM, 43, for stabbing five people in Riverside Park earlier this month. The defendant is charged in New York State Supreme Court with five counts each of Attempted Murder in the First Degree and Second Degrees, among other related charges.

“Julius Graham is accused of embarking on a stabbing rampage on a peaceful autumn morning when hundreds of New Yorkers were out enjoying a public park,” said District Attorney Vance. “He not only injured five people, including an 18-month-old child, but destroyed the sense of safety and respite that all New Yorkers have a right to feel in their city parks. Thanks to a heroic good Samaritan and the police officers who responded, more innocent bystanders were not hurt.”

According to the indictment and statements made on the record in court, at approximately 8 a.m. on October 1, 2013, GRAHAM attacked five strangers in Riverside Park near West 64th Street. Using two blades from a broken pair of scissors, GRAHAM randomly approached and stabbed five people in a matter of minutes. A bystander apprehended GRAHAM, and was able to hold him until NYPD officers arrived on the scene.

Assistant District Attorney Shanda Strain is handling the prosecution of the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Kerry O’Connell, Chief of Trial Bureau 80, and Executive Assistant District Attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Chief of the Trial Division. Assistant District Attorney Germaine Corprew assisted with the case.

District Attorney Vance thanked members of the NYPD’s 20th Precinct.
Defendant Information:

JULIUS GRAHAM, D.O.B. 9/10/1970 Bronx, NY

1 The charges contained in the indictment are merely allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Charges:

• Attempted Murder in the First Degree, a class A felony, five counts
  
• Attempted Murder in the Second Degree, a class B felony, five counts
  
• Assault in the First Degree, a class B felony, six counts
  
• Attempted Assault in the First Degree, a class C felony, one count
  
• Assault in the Second Degree, a class D felony, two counts
  ###
  Additional news available at: www.manhattanda.com 
  
  
  Read More:
  
  
  

  Multiple People Stabbed In Riverside Park South including 

  2-year-old: Homeless Man In Custody

  A Walk In The Park - October 1, 2013 - By Geoffrey Croft

  
  

Multiple People Stabbed In Riverside Park South including 2-year-old: Homeless Man In Custody

UPDATE:

Riverside Park South - Police officers guard the 59th Street entrance this morning near the crime scene.  Five people were attacked a few blocks north along the Greenway just before 8:00am by a 43-year-old emotionally disturbed person police idenfied identified as Julius Graham.  (Photos: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates) click on images to enlarge.


Suspect Julius Graham being wheeled from the 20th Pct. to Bellevue Hospital.  (credit: CBS 2)

Five people were stabbed and or slashed including a 2-year-old girl in a horrifying attack early this morning in Riverside Park South. 

Police say Julius Graham first stabbed a 36-year-old female jogger was in the back, he then stabbed a 36-year-old  man walking his dog.  He then stabbed a 32-year female jogger in the neck and then moved on to a 35-year old father pushing his 2-year-old son in a stroller. The horrific spree moved over several blocks and lasted less then ten minutes.    

The man was apprehended at the scene and taken to Bellevue Hospital. A pair of scissors was recovered at the scene that police say was the weapon used. 

Eight people have been violently assaulted on the Manhattan Greenway over the last five weeks alone.  Last week, a mother walking with her  8-month old child in a stroller was assaulted  on the Greenway in Ft. Tryon  Park.  She fought off her assailant with a bike pump.  In late August a gang targeting bicyclists attacked two on the Greenway in Ft. Washington Park.

This afternoon Police Commissioner Ray Kelly attempted to downplay crime in parks.  

- Geoffrey Croft



Manhattan

The NYPD Crime Scene Unit. 

An emotionally disturbed man wielding scissors stabbed or slashed five people on Tuesday, including a father and his toddler, in a park along the Hudson River on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, the police said, according to the New York Times. 

A bystander wrestled a man to the ground as police officers rushed to the scene and placed the suspected assailant in custody, according to the authorities.

The suspect was identified as Julius Graham, 43. Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said Mr. Graham was carrying identification from Texas, but had been living in a homeless shelter in the Bronx as recently as a week ago.

According to a sequence of events given by Mr. Kelly, the seemingly random rampage started just before 8 a.m. near 65th Street and Riverside Park South, and lasted less than 10 minutes, when Mr. Graham approached a 36-year-old woman jogging under some trees on a riverside path and stabbed her in the back.

A minute or two later, he attacked a 36-year-old man who was walking his dog. At first the man thought he had been punched in the gut, but then saw the blood and realized he had been stabbed.

The incident occurred along the Manhatttan Greenway In Riverside Park South near the Westside Highway.

Then Mr. Graham attacked a 32-year-old woman jogging farther south along the path, which winds its way through plantings, benches and public sculptures. She was stabbed in the neck.

At this point, Mr. Graham confronted a 35-year-old man as he was pushing his 2-year-old son in a stroller.

The father was stabbed in the chest as he tried to fend off the attacker.

“The man is attempting to protect his son, and his son is slashed in the arm,” Mr. Kelly told reporters after a Police Department event in Pelham Bay Park, in the Bronx.

The stroller remained in the park surrounded by yellow police tape.

As the attacks played out one after the other, it quickly became clear that the normally peaceful park had been transformed into a scene of violence.

A bystander who saw the father being attacked confronted Mr. Graham, according to the police, and was able to wrestle him to the ground, keeping him subdued until the police arrived at 8:04 a.m.

“He did a good job,” Mr. Kelly said.

The bystander, who declined to give his name before being whisked away by police officers, told reporters that the real hero was the father.

The attacks occurred on a sunny autumn morning as the park was crowded with joggers, bikers, people heading to work or out for a stroll.

Shurita Fields, 51, who was at work at a Sanitation Department center at 59th Street beside the Hudson River, said several people came running out of the park, screaming that there was a madman stabbing people.

Ms. Fields ran toward the scene with her supervisor and saw a man in a gray sweatsuit lying facedown on the ground, another man keeping him pinned down.

As officers converged on the scene, one of the victims was trying to make sense of what had just happened.

“She was screaming,” Ms. Fields said of the victim, “and was holding a coat over her neck. She told me she was stabbed. She was hysterical, crying.”

Ms. Fields did her best to reassure her that everything was under control.

“I told her, ‘Listen, just calm down; someone’s coming to help you,'” she said.

The police declined to give the identities of the victims.


Victims - l to r: James Fayette, Jennifer Lipps, Ben Loehnen, Deanna Koestel, Luke Fayette (Facebook- Courtesy CBS2)

The father who was stabbed in the chest was transported to St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center in Manhattan where he was in serious condition, according to Fire Department officials. The four other victims were transported to Roosevelt Hospital in Midtown, including the child. All were expected to survive, the authorities said.

Mr. Graham was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center for evaluation and remains in custody.

Riverside Park, which stretches four miles from 72nd to 158th Streets along the Hudson, remained shut down all morning as police officers canvassed the area for witnesses.

The police also cordoned off an area known as Riverside Park South, north of 63rd Street.

Aerial footage from news helicopters showed police officers huddled around the abandoned stroller.

Mr. Kelly said that every year the police responded to some 90,000 calls regarding emotionally disturbed people.

On Friday, in another seemingly random park assault, a mother fought off an attacker in Fort Tryon Park, which is also along the Hudson, several miles north of where the attacks on Tuesday took place.

In that attack, in Washington Heights, a man approached the woman as she was pushing her 8-month-old baby in a stroller. The attacker had a broken bottle and grabbed the woman but she fought back and hit him several times with a bicycle air pump, the police said. The mother and her child escaped unharmed. There has been no arrest in the case.

Mr. Kelly said the police were investigating whether the cases were connected and reassured residents that attacks in city parks were rare.

“Parks are very, very safe,” he said. “We see something like this happen and it concerns everybody, we understand that. But the amount of incidents of crime in parks is minuscule.”

Read/View More:

Five Are Injured by an Attacker With Scissors in Riverside Park
New York Times - October 1, 2013 - By Marc Santora and J. David Goodman

2-Year-Old Boy, 4 Others Hurt In Upper West Side Scissor Attack

WCBS - October 1, 2013 

Deranged man’s Riverside Park attack leaves toddler and 4 adults stabbed or slashed

WPIX -  October 1, 2013 -  By James Ford     

Advocates call for more park security after Riverside stabbing

AMNew York - October 1. 2013 -  By Dan Rivoli

Attack in Riverside Park: 5 wounded in NYC bike path stabbing, slashing

The Associated Press  -  October 1, 2013

Scissors-wielding attacker subdued by passerby at Riverside Park; five injured  

New York Daily News - October 1, 2013 - By Edgar Sandoval,  Tina Moore, Erik Badia and Larry Mcshane  

Man Wielding Scissors Stabs 5, Including Toddler, in 9 Minutes at Upper West Side Park: Officials

WNBC - October 1, 2013 - By Shimon Prokupecz, Katherine Creag and Marc Santia 

Madman stabs 5, including tot

New York Post - October 1, 2013 - By Jamie Schram, Kevin Fasick and Kirstan Conley  

Multiple stabbings in Riverside Park

Fox NY - October 1, 2013 

(UPDATE) Multiple people stabbed in Riverside Park,  suspect in custody

Metro NY - October 1, 2013 - By Danielle Tcholakian 

Four People Stabbed in Riverside Park

New York Times - October 1, 2013 - By Marc Santora