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Well, this just got really bizarre -- though it's pretty unclear to me exactly what's going on here:
A replica Statue of Liberty swiped from a Brooklyn coffee shop has turned up in a shocking YouTube video that shows it blindfolded, beheaded and then smashed to pieces.
The slogans "We don't want your freedom" and "Death to America" float across the screen in the chilling clip - reminiscent of real terrorist videos.
The NYPD's computer sleuths are investigating who posted the video. They could call in the FBI if they feel it's more than a sick joke, sources told the Daily News on Wednesday.
The manager of Ditmas Park's Vox Pop - known as much for lefty politics as java - said she couldn't sleep after watching the footage.
"I'm scared. I'm hoping I don't have to fear for my life but I feel very nervous," Debi Ryan said.
"This was clearly politically motivated. Whoever did this is trying to shut us up. They were targeting what we represent."
The 8-foot fiberglass figure vanished June 21 from the sidewalk in front of the Cortelyou Road coffeehouse. A $250 reward and "Find Liberty" rally failed to spark its return.
The YouTube clip, dated July 4, was sent anonymously to the Daily News on Tuesday and to Ryan the next day.
"Liberty is the holy masquerade of the decapitated, so we decapitated it in the struggle for a truly free unity," the vandal wrote in the email.
The minute-long clip, titled "Liberty Vox Pop Death," opens with the American flag followed by a scene of Lady Liberty blindfolded.
A gloved hand is shown sawing off the head off and bashing the head with a baseball bat. The screen flashes the message: "We don't want your freedom."
The video ends with a black-clad faceless vandal grabbing the smashed head by the crown and holding it up to the camera before the message, "Death to America."
21 Comments:
Why? Simply why?..
I'm confused that the Daily News article links this to gentrification-related neighborhood tensions, as this has bad hipster art project written all over it.
Wow. That was seriously weird. Love the video game fireworks at the end, though.
That's pretty intense.
This is ridiculous. It's obviously just some hipster and I think they should be prosecuted for as much as possible...theft, vandalism, etc.
Looks like bad art to me. I think bad art should be prosecuted, where ever you find it!!
erectile dysfunction rears its ugly head yet again. someone obviously isn't getting any to have this much time on their hands.
That's pretty lame to go through all this trouble and put the owners through this. I hope they find who is being such an immature terror.
As I am sure you have all heard by now, the Statue of Liberty that stood proudly in front of Vox Pop has been destroyed. The Statue was used in a disturbing video posted on You Tube. I am not sure why they chose our statue to perpetrate this crime, but a crime it is. It has been stolen and destroyed and used as a message of hate and this situation is being taken very seriously by our law enforcement agencies. Whatever their intent may have been, the outcome is clear. I have every confidence that the miscreants will be found and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. While I believe in the right for everyone to say what they think, whether I personally agree with it or not, I do not believe they have the right to destroy someone else's property to do it.
Vox Pop is a community owned coffee shop. We offer fair trade coffees and teas, organic foods, live music, poetry readings, independently published books and a gallery of local artist works. We strive to create a welcoming, open space for people to meet, relax and discuss the world around them. Our broad range of programming includes children's story hour and movement classes, independent film screenings, workshops on sustainability and meditation and even bicycle repair. I am saddened that they chose to target our neighborhood space.
In spite of what you may have read, I am not in fear for my life, I do not feel personally targeted and I don't believe it was trying to shut us up. If they were targeting what we represent, then I guess they were targeting community. Because, to me, that is what Vox Pop represents. And I for one will not let this incident change that. I loved that statue, and I will miss her gracing our garden, standing for our Liberty and our freedom to be whomever we choose to be. While she may be gone, what she symbolizes is still alive and well at Vox Pop.
Is it ironic? Is it serious? No, it's neither...it's BAD ART. As others have pointed out, some immature, no-talent video hack with too much time and not enough talent.
Whether bad art or not, the whole thing just leaves me feeling sad.
I think it's funny. Sorry.
The clip reminded me of the video of Daniel Pearl's beheading in Pakistan.
It seems to have been modeled on Islamic fundamentalist anti-western, anti-US terrorist productions.
However, the use of the aluminum baseball bat on Liberty's head added a distinctly American touch.
And the use of the electric saw to cut part way through Liberty's neck was an upgrade from the usual muslim method of severing a head with a big knife.
The electric saw and the hand saw also added a Home Depot feeling to the beheading.
A perplexing mystery. Is this video the product of some Islamic fundamentalists living in Little Pakistan on the other side of Coney Island Avenue?
Or is it a red herring created to generate some anti-muslim sentiments in the neighborhood?
Is it possible there is a deranged person formerly associated with Vox Pop who might have perpetrated this act?
Meanwhile, it must have taken at least two people with a pick-up truck to manage this caper. People who knew exactly what it would take to move the statue. People who knew what held the statue in place.
Any places along Stratford or Cortelyou have security cameras?
While we can never replace Liberty, I think leaving the space empty let's the thieves (terrorists?) win. My vote for a replacement is the Blue Gorilla of Gowanus. http://www.flickr.com/photos/pyrogeezers/2328066602/
I don't know if it is available, but we can dream.
Another Statute of Liberty has to be installed.
I've watched this just twice now, and this is obviously the work of an *idiot*... who knows TV/film production. Look at the even lighting, the framing, the "intro" (if you will) with the static sound over the flag visual (that's re-created static), and look at the editing.
Far too high production value (though intended to look sloppy) to be something slopped together by actual terrorists, who are typically far more concerned with *killing* **people** (e.g., Daniel Pearl) than with doing color correction or jump cuts to 80s video game graphics/sound.
It's ridiculous that the statue was taken from its rightful place. But it's more ridiculous, I think, to believe that this is real.
Call me jaded, but... the idea that-- even in Brooklyn, in the middle of the night-- this 6-foot (larger?) statue was removed from the ground even with its newly-secured stakes, and NO one saw a thing... and now a video has surfaced, scaring/angering some and bringing wide-scale (national) media attention to the coffee shop... doesn't anyone at least suspect some strange publicity stunt out of all this? For whose benefit, I couldn't say; perhaps time will tell, perhaps not.
Whoever made it-- if he/she/they wanted to look authentic-- should have used interns rather than people who seem to understand camera work and-- I am guessing-- use of Final Cut.
For removing the statue, causing a neighborhood ruckus, scaring people, all of that-- shame on whomever did this.
Click here for my take on it at the Musings.
oly, you wrote:
"Truthfully, I really don't care much about this story..."
I see. If you "don't care" why write a 570-word commentary?
Cat, you wrote:
“Far too high production value…to be something slopped together by actual terrorists, who are typically far more concerned with *killing* **people** (e.g., Daniel Pearl)…”
Not to worry, Pearl’s beheader, Khalid Muhammad, was captured and has been singing to interrogators ever since. The persuasive power of some brief sessions of waterboarding.
Meanwhile, it’s possible there are people affiliated with al-Qaeda living nearby. But it’s not too likely they’ll go further than producing a few harmless videos. After all, that’s the best bin Laden himself can do these days.
However, the slogans in the video – We Don’t Want Your Freedom and Death to America – are on the money when it comes to the way Islamic anti-American sentiments are phrased. Thus, the creators are competent imitators.
And, as you and other knowledgeable people have said, this Decapitation of Liberty video was created by one or two people who know a little about video production.
Video 101. Where do you go for that in this area? High school? Brooklyn College? Brooklyn Community Access Television?
BCAT offers great training in video basics. For about $100 you get all the training you need. Camera work, lighting, audio. Editing. Studio access. The works. And you can borrow BCAT’s equipment too.
However, with today’s inexpensive hardware and software and a little trial-and-error, I suppose the determined videographer can probably master the basics at home without any help.
Home. The floor in the video might have been a basement floor. It looked like a plain cement floor. But considering the 200-pound weight of Lady Liberty and the headache of carrying her down a flight of stairs, the decapitation may well have occurred in a garage, near the vehicle used for transporting the statue.
Cat, you wrote:
“Call me jaded, but... the idea that-- even in Brooklyn, in the middle of the night-- this 6-foot (larger?) statue was removed from the ground even with its newly-secured stakes, and NO one saw a thing...doesn't anyone at least suspect some strange publicity stunt out of all this?”
Are you suggesting that Vox Pop asked everyone with a window overlooking the coffee shop to hit the sack early on the night of the theft and ignore any sights and sounds coming up from the street while the statue was carted off?
That’s a Conspiracy Theory Sander Hicks would approve of.
A month ago or so the blue gorilla of Gowanus was replaced with a 'new' blue gorilla. The old gorilla (from the picture) was much prettier. What happened?...
--- craig said...
While we can never replace Liberty, I think leaving the space empty let's the thieves (terrorists?) win. My vote for a replacement is the Blue Gorilla of Gowanus. http://www.flickr.com/photos/pyrogeezers/2328066602/
I don't know if it is available, but we can dream.
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