Arrests of panhandlers and subway performers has risen by 271% since police commissioner Bill Bratton has taken over, Business Insider reports. Bratton thinks that getting rid of illegal performers is somehow linked to crime prevention, but the young UK filmmaker Scott Carthy disagrees. Watch his short documentary above.
As they practice on a Brooklyn rooftop, their dancing is removed from the confined quarters of a moving subway, there is an elegant grace to these performers’ undeniably impressive movements. Purging this culture would rid us of one of the more heartwarming and humanizing experiences of New York public transportation, accidental kick in the face notwithstanding.
