It seems like everyone was taking photos of the madness surrounding Saturday’s St. Patrick’s Parade in Hoboken on Saturday — but some revelers apparently were not too thrilled with local taxpayer activist Gary Holtzman, according to Holtzman, and tried to grab his camera. Holtzman said the police were “100 percent professional” in trying to stop the melee.
Here are Holtzman’s photos of various parts of the day. At least he got his camera back!
Note that this summary is only Holtzman’s point of view, and some of these photos are just of random parade attendees and not all of the people involved in the incident to which Holtzman is referring.
Holtzman writes, “I always bring my camera to the parade to get some nice shots of a local event. After getting the general gist of the exponential craziness of the day and seeing a much higher proportion of inappropriate & illegal behavior, I figured I’d start taking shots photos of Hoboken’s finest handing out tickets.
“On the 100 block of Washington St. [photo 1], I came across three Policemen giving out tickets to three young ladies. Photo 2 – one of them sees me taking photos & starts approaching. Photo 3 – the first hand goes up in my face. Photo 4 – someone [allegedly] grabbing my camera & pushing it into my face. No photos of what happened next as my camera was grabbed…
“I then grabbed the arm that was grabbing my camera, and a male companion of the girls [allegedly] shoves me backward with both hands sending me into a parked car. The three policemen witness the whole event & grab the male companion.
“Photo 5 – one girl [complaining that I took] pictures of her & her friends & in the background a male is pinned against a truck.
“Photo 6 – Police have things calmed down & I get asked if I would like to press charges for assault.
“I then have an interesting conversation with the officer in charge, but first let me say that the police were 100% professional … It was definitely scary for a moment as things could have easily gone differently. Hoboken’s Finest showed great compassion and understanding for the situation at hand and I was treated with respect and I thank them.
“As I was being interviewed by the officer in charge he asked me if I wanted to press charges, I said yes & he explained that we would all need to go over to the headquarters to file a complaint, it would take some time & then I would need to go to court to present the case. I thought that seemed like an awful lot of work on my part for being the one who was assaulted. He agreed but said you can’t have it both ways. … So I chose to walk off while the police continued with their reprimand of the individuals.
I later learned that there was another possible approach that could have been executed from the policeman’s side, a disorderly conduct ticket & fine. If a police officer witnesses the event, and three did in this case, they could have written the individual the ticket which could have the potential of a court appearance & one of our lovely $1,000 Hoboken St. Patty’s day gifts.”
Local activist has rough time taking photos
