Upper West Side Street Booksellers Furious As Police Take Down Stands
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A battle over books has erupted on the Upper West Side, with video showing police collecting literature sold on the street despite such sales being legally allowed.
So why are police taking the books? CBS2's Ali Bauman talked to vendors about it.
Video posted to Twitter by Philippe Wahlstrom showed police packing up books on the Upper West Side. Vendors said they are being written right off the block.
"This is our bread and butter this is what we do to survive," said book vendor Kirk Davidson. "This is what pays my rent."
Davidson has been in the bibliophile business for 30 years. But he was not making any sales on July 5 when he showed up to his stand at 72nd Street and Broadway to find that police had cleared his piles of paperbacks overnight.
A bookseller on 68th Street and Columbus Avenue suffered a similar fate a few weeks back, and on Friday, his stand was nowhere to be found.
"It's not only unfair, it's unlawful," Davidson said.
The First Amendment protects the right to sell books on the street even without a permit.
"The fundamental issue is is there's a law in the books that says, if you're going to sell something -- books or anything -- you can't leave the table unattended," said City Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal (D-6th).
Some of the vendors leave them there overnight. After clearing the books, the precinct returned them to Davidson and gave him a court summons.
But Wahlstrom's video, shot in daylight, showed the officers clearing the books again. Davidson believes the cycle is just going to continue.
Before police came on July 5, there were about a dozen book tables near 72nd and Broadway. Now, it is down to two, and a vendor said it is because other sellers don't want to deal with the hassle. But some Upper West Side residents are worried that they are losing a little bit of their culture.
"This is one of the joys of this neighborhood as far as I'm concerned," said Betty Hilmar. "I love it."
"These books are classics, so when you can't find the books anymore, they still have them -- so you have to take advantage of that," said Makiva Davis.
Police said they were responding to community complaints, confirmed by the local councilwoman. For now, some community members are complaining over a lack of literature.
Davison said he is unable to bring all the books home with him to the Bronx, so he has hired employees to guard his stand overnight.
