Copwatch Patrol posted a video on X. The video shows at least six RIOC public safety officers at the scene of an alleged music video. One threatened arrests, although there was no clear justification.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
Public Safety and The Music Video
The scene was eerily reminiscent of past overreactions. A couple of years back, PSD officers pinned a small female truck driver against a glass wall in The Deli. Her “crime…?” A parking dispute. PSOs, including Deputy Chief Anthony Amaroso, allegedly confronted a USPS driver last year. They reportedly pulled him out of his official vehicle on Main Street. Unspecified charges against him were dropped 24 hours later.
The thing all three incidents share is a near total lack of transparency. We still have no detailed information about the assaults on the truck drivers. We do not expect transparency on this one. At PSD, transparency doesn’t extend beyond the water cooler.
About the latest PSD embarrassment
Public Safety enjoys near total immunity within RIOC‘s structure. No public or private accountability occurs. The music video confrontation will not be an exception.
“What I do wrong?” the videographer appeals. “I was just shooting a music video.”
Any PSD response was not captured in the Copwatch Patrol video. But at least a half-dozen Public Safety officers rushed to the scene because the videographer didn’t have a permit.
An officer is overheard saying, “Move when I tell you to move.”
A female answers, “I did.”
This was also about a parking violation.
Some of the PSOs seem amused, milling around uselessly. Roosevelt Islanders are more likely embarrassed. A reasonable response would have been a parking ticket or two and a warning. “Get a permit next time.”
Tourists flood Roosevelt Island daily, smartphones and other video devices rolling. Why a music video at 4:00 o’clock on a Saturday afternoon provoked a PSD crisis is unknown.
Who Does This?
At the June 18 meeting of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation’s Real Estate Development Advisory Committee, President and Chief Executive Officer B.J. Jones acknowledged that there had been no progress finding a tenant for the long-discussed medical space on Main Street. Hudson/Related Realty LLC had told him that filling the space, along with other vacant storefronts, was proving more difficult than expected.
