Robert Zott Photo
Cops tackle Bill Saunders to the ground.
Saunders shows his scar after his release from police custody.
(Updated with new video.) The punk band The Lost Riots wailed away on Pitkin Plaza Saturday night — until the cops showed up and put the event’s organizer in handcuffs on charges of inciting a riot.
Two cops ended up in the hospital for minor injuries suffered in the incident.
Before they left, the crowd hurled taunts at the cops. They received pepper-spray blasts in return, according to witnesses.
The arrest took place at Ideat Village, an underground alternative to the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, which at the same time as the Ideat theatrics Saturday night had a mellow crowd on the Green one block away listening to Roseanne Cash.
The incident grew out of an ongoing feud between Ideat Village and the management of 360 State Street, the apartment tower right on the edge of Orange Street’s Pitkin Plaza.
Spurred by an email message sent by their building’s manager earlier that day, 360 State tenants called police to complain about the noise from the Lost Riots show. Several tenants called, according to Lt. Jeff Hoffman, the police department’s supervisor of patrol.
“The music was extremely loud,” Hoffman said.
The cops showed up around 8:30 p.m. They found the Lost Riots playing and some 50 people listening.
The police asked festival organizer Bill Saunders for a permit for the event. The festival had a permit from the city to play music until 10 p.m., the result of well-publicized negotiations over the years.
But Saunders was unable to produce the document. He told the officers that his partner and co-organizer, Nancy Shea, had the permit. Saunders went looking for Shea, but couldn’t find her. She later said that she was taking care of another festival event around the corner at the Orbit Gallery on Court Street.
Saunders took the microphone to alert people to the police presence. He suggested the cops might have to arrest other people if he got arrested.
The cops moved to put him in custody. He walked away.
“Next thing I know, Bill was on the ground,” said eyewitness Curtis Packer, who owns the nearby Bru Café.
People present at the scene claimed they then saw the officers tackle Saunders. They said the organizer began bleeding from the head.
The officers then took Saunders to a van. A crowd followed them, yelling taunts. (Click on the play arrow to watch a video by one crowd member; and below another one, shot by Kriss Santala Crowder.)
Several witnesses, including Packer and fellow Bru employee Ty Mac, said the police then pepper-sprayed them.
“I’m still trying to get it off my eyes,” a woman who declined to give her name said at the scene afterwards.
Earlier that day, festival organizers had posted on Facebook an alleged email from Lauren Lenox, the general manager of the 360 State Street apartment tower that borders Pitkin Plaza. The email encouraged the building’s residents to file noise complaints against the festival.
Saunders was released on bail shortly before midnight. He was charged with interfering with police and inciting a riot.
The officers, Segui and Matt Marcinczyk, ended up in the hospital.
Police Chief Dean Esserman said he called the officers at home Sunday morning. He said they’ve been released from the hospital and are OK.
He praised their conduct Saturday night.
“I told them they handled themselves with remarkable discipline. I’m glad they were all right,” Esserman said. “They were clearly taunted. They did not let this guy or the crowd get the better of them. I can’t imagine a police officer handling the situation better.”
Inciting The Lost Riots
Nicolás Medina Mora Pérez Photo
Saunders and Shea after Saunders’ release.
Interviewed soon after his release, Saunders gave his version of the story. He had a small bruise on his forehead and a number of larger ones on his arms and legs. Several people who said they were present at the scene, including artists Robert Zott and Katro Storm, backed up his story.
According to Saunders, the officers told him when they arrived that they were going to “shut the event down, because [they] didn’t have a permit and were being too noisy.”
Saunders then took the show’s microphone.
“We’ll wait for Nancy, the music is going to continue, and the police are going to have to be patient and enjoy the punk rock music with everybody else,” Saunders recalled saying.
Zott, who was present at the time, added that Saunders also said: “If the police officers have a problem with that, they are going to have to arrest a lot of people.”
After that, Saunders asserted, a female officer — identified later as Officer Betsy Segui— repeated that the festival was going to be shut down. Saunders began to walk away.
“If you walk away, I’ll arrest you,’” Saunders said that the Segui told him.
Saunders asked on what charges would he be arrested.
Robert Zott Photo
Officer Segui responds to taunts from the crowd.
“We are arresting you for public disturbance, for inciting a riot,” Saunders claimed that Segui (pictured) said.
“So I continued to walk away,” Saunders went on. “At which case both police officers jumped me and threw me to the ground, and I began yelling out, ‘I’m being arrested!’ ‘I’m being arrested!’
“Then everyone started massing on the situation,” he went on. “They put me in cuffs, they put me away — and the masses followed.”
Saunders said that the officers then took him to police headquarters on Union Avenue. He did not see the alleged pepper-spraying.
The festival organizer had kind words for the people who processed him at the police station, but not so about the officers who arrested him.
“They were all belligerent. They were all young. There were no senior officers,” he said. “The woman cop … was just a nasty fucking, pardon my French, twat, which I did call her.”
When asked to confirm whether he had used that kind of language when he spoke to the officers, Saunders said that he had.
“Yeah, absolutely!” he said. “After I was handcuffed, and the circulation is running from my hands, you better believe it.”
“Much Ado”
Sgt. Anthony Zona, the supervisor on the Saturday night patrol shift, called the incident “much ado about nothing.”
Zona, who arrived after Saunders’ arrest, said someone called the police to complain about a noise complaint. “They said it was off-the-charts loud,” he said.
When officers arrived, they asked Saunders to see the permit for the event. “He didn’t have it readily available,” Zona said.
Saunders then went to the microphone and told the crowd words to the effect of: “If they arrest me, you should get arrested,” according to Zona.
He confirmed that Officer Segui arrested Saunders for interfering with police and inciting a riot.
“An hour later,” Zona added, “someone showed up with the permit.”
Robert Zott Photo
“Everybody was videotaping. Some guy started screaming obscenities” at police, said Zona, who whipped out his cell phone and video-recorded the crowd, as well.
The cops had the situation under control, he said. He said he was unaware of any pepper-spraying.
Ongoing Beef Over Noise
This year marks the 12th anniversary of Ideat Village. Ideat Village brings together visual and performing artists with emerging rock bands in a freewheeling celebration of underground art and music. It’s the scrappy DIY counterpart to the more polished and sprawling International Festival of Arts and Ideas.
Over the years, the city has received noise complaints from neighbors, who say that the music at Pitkin Plaza gets too loud late at night. Ideat organizers reply that Pitkin Plaza is a public square in the downtown of a culturally active city, and that people who move there should be aware that they are in for some lively nights.
The disagreement came into public veiw last year last year, after people began moving to the then-new 360 State Street apartment tower. The tower’s management wanted the festival shut down, or at least moved to a different location. The incident spawned a debate about the nature of public space. Many argued that cancelling the festival would give preference to the interests of a developer over a grassroots attempt to bring culture to a formerly blighted part of downtown. Others argued that the festival was intruding on people’s right to rest.
In the end, 360 State backed down—and agreed to support the festival having amplified music until 10 p.m. at night.
But not this year. Lauren Lenox, the building’s general manager sent tenants an email in advance of the event asking them to file noise complaints.
“Please call the Police … and lodge a noise complaint to the dispatcher,” the message reads.
The message reveals a strategy for getting festival booted from Pitkin Plaza in the future —the tower management’s original goal.
“Please be aware,” the message goes on, “that I have been advised that if calls are not made and logged into the New Haven Police Department computer system, it is hard for the city to review the permit for next year to determine if the Pitkin Plaza is the best city space available for the IDEAT Village festival.”
“If you attempt to call the police,” the message states, “and there are any issues with dispatchers being rude or unhelpful, the police chief has asked that the caller ask for the dispatcher’s identification number and name, not the time of the call and provide me with that information so I can notify the police-department.”
The festival’s organizers posted the full message on Facebook. You can read it here.
Reached by cell phone Sunday, Lenox, who works for the building owner MEPT, a union pension fund, said she hadn’t known about the incident Saturday night. She was out of town at the time, she said.
She said she has “absolutely no comment. I don’t want to get caught up with this.”
Told her email message would be quoted in this article, she responded, “Why would you do that. It was a private email.”
Paul Bass contributed reporting to this article.
There is never a dull moment in New Haven.