Bad Rap For NYC Rap Concert? Many Arrests May Have Been Unrelated

[NEW YORK] - Despite local news reports linking several midtown Manhattan arrests to a recent rap show at Madison Square Garden, most of the incidents may have had nothing to do with the concert, according to police and show promoters.

News coverage that followed a sold-out Garden date here July 19 for the "Raising Hell" tour-featuring Run-D.M.C., Whodini, LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys , and the Timex Social Club -linked the gig to robberies as far away as 27 blocks from the midtown venue and included incidents reported hours after the show's 10:50 p.m. end.

Bobby Goldwater, a Garden spokesman, bristled at news reports that linked the concert to incidents as far north as Times Square and Columbus Circle. "We're a little upset that muggings that happen at 48th Street and Seventh Avenue are called 'in the Garden neighborhood.' That is closer to Radio City, 42nd Street, and all three television networks."

Ed Kolesa, of the New York Police Dept.'s public affairs division, says two separate incidents during the show resulted in arrests inside the Garden. One involved seven males for robbery, the other a male nabbed for grand larceny.

According to police records, there were several arrests in the area immediately surrounding the Garden. They included two males arrested for trying to steal tickets from concert goers within blocks of the building, one male arrested for assaulting two police officers outside the Garden, and another for possession of an unlicensed pistol.

"Aside from the collars inside the Garden and those involving tickets, it is impossible to tell if any of the other arrests around the Garden or farther away were because of the concert," Kolesa says. "The gun collar and the police assault may have had nothing to do with the concert."

Violent incidents in and around the Garden marred two other recent youth oriented concerts.

Jeff Sharp, president of Stage Right Productions, the tour's promoter, says the previous incidents-including eight stabbings last December at the Krush Groove Christmas Party-spurred him to spend $25,000 more than usual on security.

The money was used for metal detectors and the hiring of young black security people to augment the Garden's regular force. He acknowledges that there were a number of arrests in the immediate vicinity of the Garden but refused to link all of them to the concert.

"At every show on this tour, there have been about 100 knuckleheads who show up outside the hall to cause trouble," Sharp says. He notes that there had been confrontations between police and black youths after "Raising Hell" dates in Pittsburgh and New Orleans. "That doesn't mean we should stop doing these shows and deprive the majority of 20,000 who had a good time."

The Garden's Goldwater says there was relatively little property damage to the building when compared to "certain heavy metal acts" that have appeared there. Sharp says 81 chairs were broken "by people standing up to see."

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