JUSTICE FOR STEVE BUSCEMI BUT NOT FOR THE ORDINARY CITIZEN IN NEW YORK CITY by Larry Baumhor

JUSTICE FOR STEVE BUSCEMI BUT NOT FOR

THE ORDINARY CITIZEN IN NEW YORK CITY

 

by Larry Baumhor

“Hooray for Hollywood
 -- That screwy ballyhooey Hollywood


   Where any office boy or young mechanic


   Can be a panic...”

   ...and become a movie star, treated like royalty with special privileges. This was the case with Steve Buscemi who was clobbered in the face by a homeless man on the street in New York City. Buscemi suffered an eye injury but was not seriously hurt. Judge Marisol Martinez Alonso sent assailant Clifton Williams, to Rikers Island jail on $50,000 cash or $150,000 bond, court records show, and charged him with second-degree assault, a felony punishable by up to seven years in prison.

   My assailant was arrested and released. He was ordered to appear for two court hearings. He never appeared in court. What was the assistant district attorney thinking when he was released?

   My defendant has prior drug charges. Please leave a comment as to why Steve Buscemi’s attacker is in prison and my assailant is roaming the streets like a predator. I spoke to the assistant district attorney and she wants me to testify before a grand jury to upgrade the charges from a misdemeanor to a felony.

   They may never catch the man who knocked me out causing a brain injury and leaving a permanent scar on my cheek.

 

 

Clifton Williams is led out of the 13th Pct in Manhattan Friday, May 17, 2024, after his arrest for punching actor Steve Buscemi in an unprovoked attack. by Robert Mecea, NY Post

 

   It was just another day. I was walking East on 25th Street near 6th Ave to the Chelsea Flea Market when I shot a photo of two homeless men in front of a shelter, diagonally across the street where I sold vintage photography at The Garage Antique Flea Market for fifteen years. The Garage was razed in June 2014, knocked out by a real estate developer who built two luxurious hotels, back-to-back on 24th and 25th Streets.


   I often shot photos of homeless people from this shelter. I mean who has not taken a photo with their cell phone of a homeless person? Although I have a Sony camera with a strap around my neck, a little more obvious than a cell phone.
   After I shot the photo of the two homeless guys in front of the shelter someone yelled “Delete the photo!”

   “The Supreme Court has ruled I have the right to take photos of people in public under the First Amendment.”  You can also photograph law enforcement. “In sum, under the First Amendment’s right of access to information the public has the commensurate right to record— photograph, film, or audio record—police officers conducting official police activity in public areas.

   “As a form of expression, photography is protected in the U.S. by the First Amendment to the Constitution. But photographers are often forced to defend their right to take pictures (and record video) in public places.

   “Taking photographs and video of things that are plainly visible in public spaces is a constitutional right—and that includes transportation facilities, the outside of federal buildings, and police and other government officials carrying out their duties.
     

   “Unfortunately, law enforcement officers have been known to ask people to stop taking photographs of public places. Those who fail to comply have sometimes been harassed, detained, and arrested. Other people have ended up in FBI databases for taking innocuous photographs of public places.”

 

 

 Street Photography and The Law (in New York)

   “There seems to be some misinformation out there about the constraints the law places on street photography. I am here hopefully to clear some of them up, particularly as the law relates to photography and New York. As a general matter, you do not need any permission to take anyone’s photograph with a normal camera so long as you are in a public place that you have authority and permission to be in. This means in plain English that if you’re on the street, and your subject is on the street, it’s fair game.”
   I walked across 6th Ave on 25th Street heading towards the Chelsea Flea Market. I stopped almost in front of the Showplace on 25th Street facing southbound and out of nowhere a homeless guy wallops me on my cheek. Stunned wasn’t the word!


   I didn’t know what happened and I turned around and saw the homeless guy running towards 6th Ave. Even as a kid, I never remember getting hit like that. And for a split second, I felt pride. Someone hit me, I thought. Subconsciously I thought, it must be important. After all, Marlon Brando broke Ron Galella’s jaw.
   I told my friend to call the police and ran after the homeless man, on 6th Ave yelling “Police, police, police!” And down went Baumhor! The guy stopped running came back towards me and gave me a shot to my face that knocked me out unconscious in the middle of 6th Avenue. Not one car stopped as if I was an animal. I’m just as upset about no one stopping as I am at the monster who knocked me out. And let me ask you this: I’m 69 years old and do not know how to fight, on dialysis waiting for a kidney transplant, had a massive heart attack four months ago with three stents placed in my right artery, and double bypass open heart surgery in August of 2022.

   I got up wobbling not knowing where I was at, my face and eye swollen like a balloon. Walking to where I don’t know. I had enough sense to call 911. Four police cars with about eight officers arrived, a fire truck, and an ambulance. The FDNY and NYPD were very kind and attentive. I sat in the ambulance with an icepack on my face while a guy from the FDNY took my vital signs. The officer wanted me to go to the hospital for further evaluation. I refused. I have a horrible fear of hospitals, a little neurotic too. Thank you NYPD and FDNY!

   I walked to the Chelsea Flea Market and my friend gave me her chair and icepack. I start taking photos again while sitting down with an icepack on my face. I felt my face blowing up.
   I was dazed, confused, and delirious. And my eye started turning purple and closing shut. I looked like a Zombie and I stopped strangers on the street asking them to take photos of me with my camera.
   “Larry, thank God it was not worse. A few weeks ago, my friend who was a presence at the Garage Antique Flea Market, Jon Mann, was hit in the head by a homeless man with a brick while walking across the Manhattan Bridge. He died. And nothing has been written about his attack in the newspapers,” Leonard Finger.
   I took a cab to Penn Station to Trenton, NJ, where I grabbed a cab that drove me to my apartment in Philadelphia. My eye was getting worse. On Sunday, September 3, 2023, I had a cab take me to the local hospital where they gave me a CAT scan. The doctor came into the room and said a blood vessel in your brain is slightly bleeding. I looked at her like she was nuts. “What are you talking about,” I said scared out of my mind.

 

 

 Larry Baumhor’s CAT scan of his brain

   “We want to keep you overnight for observation and take another CAT scan tomorrow.”

   “No, no, no, no,” I responded firmly. “I have a fear of hospitals and cannot stay overnight. I live nearby and I’ll come tomorrow.”

   “This is serious Mr. Baumhor; you can get headaches, eye aches, and trouble walking. Although I think it will heal on its own there’s no guarantee and you can die.”

   “Listen to me, with all due respect, my brain is the only thing I like about myself, I can’t mentally stay over. I’ll monitor myself and come back tomorrow for another CAT scan.”

 

Larry Baumhor at Nazareth Hospital in Philadelphia, PA

   I took a cab home thinking I was going to die. “Pick out an urn I said to myself,” I called my friend Harris and told him you’re the executor of my will and I’m not going to survive this. My 50-year-old archive of writings and photography must be preserved. It’s in my will. The end is near and I face the final curtain.”


   I went back to the hospital the next day and the CAT scan showed the same results, slight bleeding in my brain vessel, said the doctor.  “You have a subdural hematoma.” That sounds important, I thought to myself. “Stop taking your blood thinner Halperin and Brilinta. Come back in a month for a follow-up CAT scan.”

 

Larry Baumhor’s CAT scan of his brain showed a subdural hematoma

   “If you have vision changes, headaches, lightheadedness, dizziness, loss of consciousness, weakness, numbness or tingling, chest pain, shortness of breath difficulty breathing contact us.”
   On Thursday, September 7, 2023, I spoke to NYPD Detective Simpson O’Neal regarding my case. They have a video of the assailant hitting me on 25th Street. And now he’s looking at the video on 6th Ave when the monster attacked me and knocked me out. God bless the NYPD. I love these guys and women!
   The detective is going to arrest him for Felony Assault. The detective will contact the Assistant District Attorney to confirm the charges. Everything is hush-hush. I’m not allowed to see a photo of the assailant until the case is closed.
   Williams the assailant who punched Buscemi is charged with Assault in the second degree a class D felony. The maximum possible sentence is 7 years in prison. Because assault in the second degree is also classified as a violent felony, the judge is required to impose a minimum sentence of 2 years in prison.
   The man who knocked me out was immediately released from prison, and charged with felony assault. He was informed by the court to appear at a hearing. He didn’t show up and he didn’t appear for a second hearing. He’s roaming the NY streets ready to attack another innocent person.
   Buscemi’s defendant Williams is in Rikers Island prison on $50,000 Bond. There was no bond set for my attacker, but then again I’m not a movie star. It’s hush-hush, the police and the DA will not inform me of who my assailant is; no media coverage.
   Do you see the preferential treatment given to a movie star compared to an ordinary citizen? I informed Cara O’Conner the assistant DA representing my case of my contempt for double standard justice. I asked to speak to District Attorney Alvin Bragg. But Mr. Bragg is too busy with Hollywood legal cases to call me.

“Hooray for Hollywood
 -- That screwy ballyhooey Hollywood


   Where any office boy or young mechanic


   Can be a panic.”

 

 

Larry Baumhor in the FDNY ambulance after the assault