Renowned performance art activist Reverend Billy has been arrested scores of times, but rarely has he been tempted to sue anyone. The last time was eight years ago, when he was arrested for reciting the first amendment in Union Square on Independence Day weekend. Norman Siegel, who watched the arrest go down, followed Billy to the paddy wagon.
"He sort of stuck his head in the door, I remember that, and he said, 'Reverend, can I take this case?'" Billy recalled. "'Norman,' I said, 'Yes you may.'"
Reverend Billy, whose real name is Billy Talen, was most recently arrested earlier this month at Grand Central Terminal, where he made a guest appearance during one of the now nightly protests intended to draw attention to recent police killing of unarmed civilians.
It's hard to tell what exactly prompted Reverend Billy's arrest; he was charged with obstructing governmental administration and disorderly conduct. Video from the scene shows MTA officers scooping up placards placed on the ground while nudging Reverend Billy away—all of this, he said, was a fairly routine part of the arrest process. What really got Reverend Billy's goat was the part that came after—the part, he said, where he was accused of acting aggressively.
The precise quote in question came from MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg, who intimated to the NY Post that Reverend Billy had "gotten physical" with arresting officers. “We had to make the first arrests since the protests began—we can’t and won’t tolerate attacks on our police," he was quoted as saying earlier this month. He told Gothamist that Reverend Billy—along with another protester, Marc Train—was arrested for "physically trying to block police officers from doing their lawful duties."
Reverend Billy maintains that the behavior of all involved in the Grand Central arrests was peaceful—from the officers to the protesters to Billy himself. He says Lisberg's assertion that Reverend Billy acted violently qualifies as defamation, and he has filed a $500,000 lawsuit against the MTA.
"It was the spokesperson for the MTA, so we can’t know exactly how that worked, you know?" he said. "Lisberg may have been instructed by someone else to say what he said, but it was wildly inaccurate, and not a good thing to say about a person who’s devoted his life to peacemaking."
Billy added that despite his many arrests, he's never been accused of violence. "You have to keep your wits about you, and everybody did, including the police," he said. "It’s the people upstairs in this case that are making the trouble."
The MTA declined to comment.
