"New York City Does Its Doody"

by Preston Peet (originally for Hightimes.com)

December 8, 1999

The chance to throw handfuls of elephant shit at NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani was the enticement. Hundreds showed up for a chance to show the city and Mayor Giuliani what many in NYC think of the Mayor’s lock-up-the-homeless tactics, jobs or streets ultimatum for shelter residents, and all of his other repressive, art and fun hating policies, by lobbing elephant dung at a humongous portrait in the middle of Washington Square Park.

Sunday, Dec. 6, Joey Skaggs, infamous prankster and political/social artist, brought out his over-sized portrait of the Mayor as the Virgin Mother to the park. The weather was gorgeous, an even 60 degrees, sun shining, with a light breeze blowing, necessitating the assistance of local artist Steven Powers to hold the painted banner high, to allow the massing throngs, a good 500 or so attendees, to line up, pay their dollar contributions, and take repeated turns throwing Doody at Rudy, raising money for Housing Works, a NYC homeless advocacy group.

"There’s no shortage of shit in this city," Skaggs told another paper on November 25 when he first gave notice of the event, billed as Doody Rudy. "Believe me, I had many, many people who were willing to donate shit, of all kinds, to this," Skaggs told HT. "This was genuine Dumbo doody, and Dumbo is a genuine cartoon character." Worried about the police having any excuse, like a health issue perhaps, to shut down the event, Skaggs put together an entire garbage can full of Dumbo-doo, even recycling the doo with shovels and brooms a number of times to continue the two and a half hour event as long as possible, and asked the assembled masses to help with the clean-up at the end. After paying a dollar for each handful, then donning a latex surgical glove, participants lined up again and again to grab handfuls of healthy, gooey Dumbo dung and heave it at the 15 foot tall banner painted with a picture of Rudy in drag as the Madonna, with a tiny Dumbo flying overhead.

"This was a satirical event, about artist’s rights, rights to the freedom of expression, about the homeless issue, and about raising money for the homeless. It was an enormous success, and I’m really thrilled about it." Skaggs paid close to a thousand dollars out of his own pocket, for paints, supplies and materials, and for the doody itself. All of the money earned by the dung toss was placed into a latex glove, uncounted, and handed over to Ron Kuby, the attorney, for safe keeping. Kuby told HT that he was there to make sure that there was some legal protection for any and all who the police may have tried to arrest or hassle.

There was a strong police presence too, but they were civilized, and remained out of the way, standing around the edges, keeping a quiet eye on things. At one point, just after the 12 Noon commencement of the shit shower, a plainclothes policeman paid the dollar contribution, then took a handful of doody away for testing, presumably to be sure that it was not real shit being thrown. No one was arrested, but Skaggs made sure to ask for clean-up help before the cops got tired of standing around, thereby making sure that there were others with him at all times, cutting down on the opportunity for the police to take any hostile action without it being witnessed.

Robert Lederman was there with his Rudy-Anus painting, with shiny glistening plastic dog-doody stuck onto the forehead of the faithful deaths-head rendering of Mayor Rudy. Lederman, president of Artist’s Response To Illegal State Tactics, (A.R.T.I.S.T.), an advocacy group dedicated to the protection of street artist’s rights, and the right to freedom of expression, has been arrested 40 times, with not a single conviction, over the last 6 years protesting Mayor Giuliani’s complete trampling of artist’s and constitutional rights for the poor. Holding his life-like painting of Rudy, Hitler moustache and all up high in the air over his head for nearly the entire event, Lederman was an inspiration to all with his tenacity and resolve.

Shit as a political statement has historical precedents. Way back in 59 BC, when Julius Caesar was elected consul in Rome, the ultraconservative part of the Senate elected as his co-consul Gaius Calpurnius Bibulus, each to serve side by side for one year terms. Bibulus made sure to try and wreck all of Caesar’s progressive populist actions, like cheap food for the starving and retirement benefits after 30 years of military service. Some of Caesar’s young ruffians got together, and when Bibulus got up to vent some hot air about one thing or another, Caesar’s gang dumped an entire bucket of shit on his head, in front of the entire Senate. From that day on, every time Caesar passed some new ordinance, Bibulus, too embarrassed to step foot outside of his home, would send out furious messages to the Senate saying that he had consulted with the GODS, calling the new plans evil unholy, and invalid, but to no avail. So the creative use of ordure has been with us in politics for two thousand years at least. Mayor Giuliani must feel honored to be part of such a grand tradition.

"Giuliani should have had the brains, the sense of humor, and the courage to come out and throw some doody, to give some money to the homeless. Put his shit where his mouth is," said Skaggs to HT. Mayor Giuliani has done some heinous things in NYC in terms of trampling rights to free expression, as well as basic human rights. His policies now include arresting the homeless for being homeless, and he is trying to force the homeless shelter inhabitants to work full time for the city in their slave labor WorkFare program, or suffer the loss of their few feet of sleeping space, just in time for Christmas. Families who have children will risk losing them into the foster care system, as the Giuliani administration is trying to say that it feels for these children, and doesn’t want to put them onto the streets along with their parents. Instead, the Mayor would like to rip these families asunder, for being poor, and homeless.

There was also the incident a couple months back when Giuliani attacked the Brooklyn Museum for an exhibit of a painting by Chris Ofili of the Madonna, that had used elephant dung on the canvas, which is what inspired Skaggs to take this approach to Sunday’s Doody Rudy extravaganza. Saying that Ofili’s painting was offensive, and not art, Giuliani tried to pull all public tax funding for the Museum when they refused to buckle under his insisting that the painting be removed. The courts ruled against Giuliani on that one.

Giuliani is also trying to get repeat misdemeanor offenders to be hit with more serious repercussions, treating these offences more like serious crime than the simple misbehavior it really is. Some of the misdemeanors his administration has specifically named as targets of this newest initiative include jaywalking, turnstile jumping in the subway, and going after those selling small amounts of marijuana.

Several hundred dollars were raised by the Doody Rudy event for Housing Works, an organization in NYC that has had its own problems with Rudy G. He tried at one point to get the Feds to cut Federal subsidies to Housing Works, implying that their paper work was not up to snuff. They took the city and the Mayor to court, and won. Housing Works does a lot of good work for the homeless, so this shit-slinging was definitely for a worthy cause.