NEW YORK - A New York performance artist was arrested on harassment charges last week for reciting the First Amendment through a bullhorn in Manhattan's Union Square. On Monday, Bill Talen, who also goes by "Reverend Billy," returned to the scene of his arrest and demanded that police repent for their actions.
"It feels so good to be back on the very spot where I was denied my First Amendment rights by reciting the First Amendment," he told reporters.
Talen was accompanied by women who sang a hymn version of the amendment, while other activists distributed amateur videotape of his arrest on Friday. He was also joined by civil rights attorney Norman Siegel, who called on prosecutors to drop the charges.
"The arrest was a false arrest," Siegel told the Associated Press. "What Reverend Billy did last Friday night does not constitute illegal conduct."
According to the report, the amateur videos show Talen preaching the "44 beautiful words of the First Amendment" to a congregation of police officers, during a Critical Mass bike ride last week. The monthly event is often policed aggressively by the NYPD.
Talen is shown being warned by one officer and when he persists, he is immediately handcuffed. He was held overnight before being released without bail.
According to the report, Talen has spent several years using his mock persona as a fire-and-brimstone evangelist to rail against consumer culture. No stranger to controversy, he was arrested earlier this year on misdemeanor trespassing charges for protesting at a Starbuck's.
Police officers allege that Talen harassed them by "repeatedly shouting at such officers through a non-electric bullhorn."
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