close a 10 1/2-acre square park on the lower east side. not with 450 riot cops, horses, helicopters. they couldn t do it. clayton: there were big bonfires on the middle of avenue a, buses couldn t come down, cars couldn t come down, they were stuck. anthony: you were on the news a lot, i remember, you were the most despised man in nypd, you were not their favorite photographer, let s put it that way. clayton: this went on for four years. there were multiple riots, hundreds of arrests. four years here of real, solid conflict. cops eventually got organized. anthony: i remember tompkins square after the police fenced it off. it was, in a lot of people s minds, the end of an era. clayton: and yeah, when they cleared off the drugs, a lot of people said, hey, great, we re now going to have a neighborhood and everything s going to be safe. and then in came the gentrification, so the whole concept of america is being wiped out.
anthony: you were at the battle of tompkins square park, which is sort of the gettysburg of the lower east side. i remember it had essentially become clogged with nodding junkies, homeless people who set up permanent camps. clayton: it was dangerous. anthony: it was genuinely dangerous. when the police came down and decided to clean the park, the question is, who won? clayton: well, in the beginning, we did. it s our [ bleep ] park. it s our [ bleep ] park. it s our [ bleep ] park! clayton: you know you have to remember in 1988 they couldn t close a 10 1/2-acre square park on the lower east side. not with 450 riot cops, horses, helicopters. they couldn t do it. clayton: there were big bonfires on the middle of avenue a, buses couldn t come down, cars couldn t come down, they were stuck. anthony: you were on the news a lot, i remember, you were the most despised man in nypd, you were not their favorite
on the lower east side. not with 450 riot cops, horses, helicopters. they couldn t do it. we re going to defend the city. we don t got no weapons. they got 9mm s down there. shotguns and machine guns. clayton: there were big bonfires on the middle of avenue a, buses couldn t come down, cars couldn t come down, they were stuck. anthony: you were on the news a lot, i remember, you were the most despised man in nypd, you were not their favorite photographer, let s put it that way. clayton: this went on for four years. there were multiple riots, hundreds of arrests. four years here of real, solid conflict. cops eventually got organized. i think this was the beginning of the sort of police-state
it s our [ bleep ] park. it s our [ bleep ] park. it s our [ bleep ] park! clayton: you know you have to remember in 1988 they couldn t close a 10 1/2-acre square park on the lower east side. not with 450 riot cops, horses, helicopters. they couldn t do it. we re going to defend the city. we don t got no weapons. they got 9mm s down there. shotguns and machine guns. clayton: there were big bonfires on the middle of avenue a, buses couldn t come down, cars couldn t come down, they were stuck. anthony: you were on the news a lot, i remember, you were the most despised man in nypd, you were not their favorite photographer, let s put it that way. clayton: this went on for four years. there were multiple riots, hundreds of arrests. four years here of real, solid conflict. cops eventually got organized. i think this was the beginning of the sort of police-state mentality in america. anthony: i remember tompkins square after the police fenced it off. it was, in a lot of pe
decided to clean the park, the question is, who won? clayton: well, in the beginning, we did. it s our [ bleep ] park. it s our [ bleep ] park. it s our [ bleep ] park! clayton: you know you have to remember in 1988 they couldn t close a 10 1/2-acre square park on the lower east side. not with 450 riot cops, horses, helicopters. they couldn t do it. we re going to defend the city. we don t got no weapons. they got 9mm s down there. shotguns and machine guns. clayton: there were big bonfires on the middle of avenue a, buses couldn t come down, cars couldn t come down, they were stuck. anthony: you were on the news a lot, i remember, you were the most despised man in nypd, you were not their favorite photographer, let s put it that way. clayton: this went on for four years. there were multiple riots, hundreds of arrests. four years here of real, solid