IDM Mailing Archive

hello to all: this is somewhat o.t., but i thought it should gain more exposure beyond the microsound list, where it was posted yesterday, saturday. the various background is posted below - my personal reply i wrote in response is being sent after this one. right after chuck's letter is a report from the new york times, which for the most part was of the kind of stripe usually reserved for a place in the new york post - miniscule reporting with no elucidation. read on. darren bergstein e|i magazine - - hello: chuck bettis (trance and the arcade) sent this letter out to friends... i'm sure some people on this list know chuck so i post it here. it is said that electronic artist I-Sound was also arrested. Subject: Yes, i was arrested and in jail....for working at Kim's Dear Loving Friends, On June 8, 2005, i along w/ 4 other Kim's employees were arrested during a raid on Kim's. The RIAA hired some pigs to come and bust the store, the arrest was totatlly arbitary. They were supoosed to be busting down on bootlegs, thanks to the media exposure on Star Wars bootlegs (it happened to be a live 50 cent concert, so if he was involved in any way FUCK 50 Cent!). They took me since i am the manager on the 2nd floor. Mr. Kim was no where to be found. The store was shut down, employees lined up, a few of us got cuffed w/out being told we are being arrested and with out utilzing our miranda rights. We were taken to the holding cell, where we waited approx 5 hrs before they fingerprinted us and put us into a chain gang to take us downtown (despite them telling us they were going to give us desk passes so we would not have to spend the night in jail...FUCK THE POLICE!!!). So we went downtown, beforehand they confiscated our cell phones and thanks to technology, was not able to memorize anyone's phone numbers. The pigs still have my cell phone & ipod. So we got put into a pen w/ a bunch of other dudes. The cells were packed constantly, filled w/ 30 or so people at a time, having 10 bull pens down there, body heat made things harder in the dank cells. Hours later i was separted from the rest of my co-workers and put into a different cell, separated from the one guy whom had the name & number to the Kim's lawyer. Those who don't know, i have a hard time w/ authority. i spent 30+ hrs in jail for working at Kim's. All the other employees were released from there cells before me, i had a panic attack that was prompted by all this stress, not eating (jail is not really vegan friendly) nor sleeping the entire time i was in. i got really claustrophobic, thought everyone was stealing my air (for those who live in NY, the jail cell was 10x hotter then the 2nd ave. F stop) my heartrate doubled, i couldn't breathe and i started to crack. i started to waddle back and forth like orphans do from not being mothered long enough or at all. My man Jerry Lim, whom is the only numbered i remembered, for we call each other every day. He worked his ass off to help me out, big ups for Lim, when you see him, hug him and buy him a drink. Calling mutual friends whom have lawyers and money to help bail me out. The Correction Officers were very reluctant to help him help me out in any way. When i bummed a quarter off a fellow inmate, i was at the point of cracking, mumbling w/ the entire cell yelling and overall carrying on like it was a party for them. Some also had arbitrary arrests, like walking through the park at night or some for more "serious" crimes like selling weed. i would like to take this moment to give Guiliani & Bloomberg a big fuck you! i can honestly say i hate these men. Hours later, at a point i was almost convinced i was going to spend 72 hrs or more in jail (they can legally hold you for 72 hrs, but if it falls on the weekend, you stay over the weekend regardless), i got called, went to my arrainment and senteced to one day of community service. i was arrested apparently for making and distributing bootleg material (a felony offense aka your going to Rykers), which is not true, obviously. Charges were lowered to a misdeamor and i was sentenced to a day of community service. That was a relief in a sense. You can only imagine how intensely pissed i am at Mr. Kim at this moment and was ready to quit when i go out. Below is a clipping from NY Times, which article helped speed up our arrainment (so i hear). Mr. Kim is supposedly turning himself in on monday, i have no idea was it going out (that is how it was the entire time i was locked up, the pigs like to keep you in the dark). So, i am sorry i can't call everyone right now, but i thought this may be best way for mass communication. Needless to say i hate cops even more now and have even less faith in the united states legal system. Thanks for all your support. Hope to see you all soon. luv, chu - - from nytimes.com Police Raid Video Store in East Village in Piracy Case By THOMAS J. LUECK Published: June 10, 2005 A longtime fixture in the East Village, Mondo Kim's, a mecca for independent music and video at 6 St. Marks Place, was raided and closed for five hours on Wednesday by police officers who left with boxes filled with CD's, DVD's and computer equipment. Five store employees were charged with trademark counterfeiting. According to several employees of the store, known widely for the its independent labels, and sometimes ornery staff, the police arrived about 1 p.m. on Wednesday, and ordered all customers to leave. Then, all of the 20 or so clerks, managers and other employees who were working in the three-floor store, which sells DVD's, CD's, books and production equipment, were told to line up on the ground floor. The police quickly identified four men and one woman and led them away in handcuffs. They ordered everyone else to leave and searched the store until about 6 p.m., when officers filed out carrying boxes. The police said yesterday that investigators had carried out a search warrant for counterfeit trademarked goods and that the material seized included nine computer towers, a CD burner, a laptop computer, 471 compact disks and 53 videos. The employees charged with counterfeiting were identified as Theo Frimpong, 39, of the Bronx; Diana Kinscherf, 19, of Queens; Donald Stahl, 26, and Charles Bettis, 29, both of Brooklyn; and Craig Willingham, 32, of Manhattan. Mondo Kim's is on a block of St. Marks Place, between Second and Third Avenues, that has long been a crossroads of bohemian culture. It and three other Manhattan stores known as Kim's Video and Music are widely known among the cognoscenti of new, experimental and esoteric music and film. Many customers seek out the four Kim's outlets for recordings they are unable to find in even the largest music stores, and they often say they patronize the St. Marks Place store despite the attitude of its staff, which is not always welcoming. "It was a rite of passage to go in there, rent a movie and get snobbed on by some disdainful clerk," said Mike Doughty, the former singer of the band Soul Coughing. Veterans of the East Village arts scene said the store had a devoted clientele. "They fill a niche," said Mike Stuto, an owner of Hi Fi, a bar on Avenue A. "It's the difference between a corner bodega and a special newsstand that carries every publication you can imagine, but may not have Time magazine." Colin Moynihan contributed reporting for this article. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org