by Bob Z

One of the first laws Adolph Hitler passed when he came to power in 1930s  Germany was to outlaw street postering and handbilling.

Inevitably, in today's intolerant and backward political climate, somebody's going to poster some public area somewhere in this country, then get busted for it.  It's for these people this article is written. 

You CAN Fight and win in the courts against postering fines.  I know, because I personally went to the trouble of fighting a very large fine of this sort, almost certainly larger than any fine you're going to get.  I took this battle to the highest court in New York State, and with the help of the ACLU and the underground music community, won a landmark decision.  The vague statute then being twisted around by local prosecutors was thrown out on constitutional grounds. 

This means that there is a legal precedent now on the books which states that you cannot be fined if your name appears on a flyer or poster found on city property.

Usually, the authorities try to claim that postering is "garbage" and that it's an eyesore or a 'quality of life issue' and blah blah blah.  Forget the free exchange of information.   Never mind that postering has traditionally been an important means of information exchange in democracies.  If the local authorities say your information is "garbage" and decide to fine you for posting it, you're going to pay up.  Right?  WRONG.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU ARE FINED NOW, IN 1999:

We have heard of instances (in New York City, anyway), where "Poster Police" are AT IT AGAIN. Recently they have been targeting clubs. Most often, the clubs have their names on a flyer... the cops give the fine to the club. What does the idiot at the club do? Turns around and tells the band THEY have to pay the fine, or risk never being booked at the club again. We recommend to bands finding themselves in this situation to advise the club that legally they can and should fight their fine. Nobody, even the assholes who own clubs should pay a fine of this kind, particularly if

1. The ticket or the violation cites the administrative law statutes 10-119 or 10-126. Enforcement of these statutes in particular was struck down as unconstitutional in New York State appellate court in 1992, in the case Bob Z vs. Environmental Control Board. In a unanimous decision, the judges ruled that enforcement of these statutes has "a chilling effect on the first amendment." Anyone fined under these statutes, and that includes nearly everyone who gets fined (in New York) for postering, can and should use this decision to strike down their fines in court. People in other areas of the U.S. can also use this case as precedent to help them fight. Because of the ruling on the first amendment, which is a fundamental right guaranteed under the constitution, citing this case could get your fines dismissed no matter where in the U.S. you are.

2. The ticket may be faulty in any number of ways. Demand that the club show you the ticket... you can help them to fight the fine. There is no reason why either you or the club should be railroaded into paying such fines. The city hasn't a legal leg to stand on. If you challenge them in court, and cite this case as precedent, chances are excellent you will win. Beware of administrative court (first level of legal recourse in new york city is always in their administrative court, where you very well could get railroaded no matter what you say or do); you are more likely to get a fair hearing in a real (i.e., New York State Supreme Court is the first level) courtoom.

3. Remember that the law says that all tickets must be signed and handed to the defendant IN PERSON. If this is not done (this is called process serving), then the court will throw out your tickets everytime. NEVER, EVER answer the door if you think a cop or anyone is there to "serve you" with tickets.

In 1987, I was busted for flyering in New York City by a 1984-style squad of "Poster Police". At the time, Mayor Kroch and his irresponsible cronie, then commissioner of Sanitation, Brendan Sexton, had put together a scam to lift hundreds of thousands in postering fines from an unsuspecting population. Their targets? Immigrants and small businesspeople who had no idea they could be fined for postering on public property.

Every month, this goon squad of 6 fat "Sanitcops", rejects who couldn't possibly hope to become real cops, patrolled the city looking at lampposts and phone poles, jotting down the locations and names on street flyers. Scamming lawyers at Mayor Kroch's office figured out a loophole in the local statutes whereby this goon squad could simply look at a name on a poster and then go after that person and fine them for it. They decided to levy fines of $50 to $100 for EVERY single poster they found. In some cases they would find hundreds of flyers with a single person's name on them. People like these would get fines that exceeded their annual income.

With all the corruption in the New York city government, and with the backing of powerful special interest groups like the publisher of local yuppie community newspaper OUR TOWN (who sought to outlaw street flyering so that people would be forced to buy more ads in his paper), this scam carried on for years. Immigrants who were afraid of being deported and small businesspeople who were ignorant of the law got fined anywhere from $50 to $10,000, and more. Every month the city raked in from $20,000 to $100,000 in fines. If they tried to resist, people were railroaded through administrative courts controlled by the Sanitation Department, where people's prosecutors were also their judges.

I was fined $3,700 for posters they found with the name Bob Z on them in 74 locations throughout New York City, posters that announced a poetry reading and an underground punk rock show. Whether or not I posted them didn't matter - my name was on them, they said, so I was liable. 5 Sanitcops showed up at my door (I didn't know then that I never should have answered the door) after trying 5 times to find me. The law said that they had to serve me these tickets in person. They stood on my stairs for an hour writing out 74 tickets.

In order to fight this, I shouted long and loud to anyone who would listen.  I contacted a half dozen local politicians, one of whom actually showed up at one of our street demonstrations. I got articles placed in every newspaper I could find. All the major dailies eventually did stories.  I held meetings and organized others who had been similarly fined.  We demonstrated several times and picketed the street in front of the Sanitation Headquarters Office.   We went on TV and radio. In short, for 4 years I was compelled to become an activist on this issue. Maybe I wouldn't have if some moron at the Sanitation Department hadn't decided to trump up fines totalling over $22,000. But that's exactly what they did. Every couple weeks I would get an 8-inch thick stack of tickets from the Sanitation Department saying that I owed them over 20 thousand dollars.

At the time there were well known people involved in anti-censorship struggles of their own, notably Jello Biafra and Allen Ginsberg. These people  heard about what happened and decided to help. Particularly helpful were the lawyers Ginsberg had at the time.  These were experts in free speech issues who really knew the case law.  I managed to convince one of them to defend me, and by 1993, we won a complete victory in the New York State Appellate Court.

It took 4 years but eventually all of my fines were struck down.  The court ruled that the city was NOT entitled to exact a fine just because handbills containing my name were found affixed to city property. The entire Sanitgoon scam was undone by this decision. The City, the Kroch Administration, and Sanit Comissioner Brendan Sexton were summarily defeated and embarrassed.  It's not often you see an entire municipal legal team with virtually unlimited resources get beaten by a lone working stiff.   The 6 Sanit Police Poster Cops were put out of their jobs, and the city was compelled to "cease and desist" their big "poster sting."

What this means for others is that you CANNOT be fined for postering anywhere unless you are actually, physically seen and caught in the act of affixing the poster to public property. If you are fined without being seen, the law says that you should not be fined.  This case (New York City vs. Bob Z, 1993 ) is a legal precedent that can and should be cited in your defense, to protect your right to create a handbill or poster, free from authoritarian harassment.

A recent (March, 1998) New York Times article tried to stir up public opinion in favor of reviving poster police, even though the communities don't want that and the courts have clearly rendered such prosecution unconstitutional.  The NY Times, like the yuppie paper Our Town, has demonstrated its intent to drive posters off the streets, thus forcing more people to advertise in their paper.

In Giuliani time,  with all the increased police brutality in New York City, why shouldn't there be poster police attacking people as well.  Now there are currently 3 fulltime poster lackeys back on the beat, and the top lackey heading this fearsome force is the very same penguinesque anti-postering zealot and donut woofer John McGrath, who deemed it his duty  to make undercover calls to my house in 1988.  Don't you feel safer they're out there?  I know I do.