When
UN Evicted Inner City Press,
They Filmed It All, Dumped
Five Boxes of Files on 1st Ave
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Series,
Video
I,
II
UNITED NATIONS,
March 8 – On the day the
UN had set to finally
evict Inner City Press
at 8:45 am I called and
reached the only one-man show
I could: Dan Purcell, the guy
who'd gotten banned from the
UN for asking to attend public
meetings. I thought it'd be
ironic, a person banned
from the UN having to be let
into it for this. He came from
the 46th Street public
library; we met in the 43rd
Street Park I'd covered
the UN from. The
guards at the traffic circle
wouldn't let us in. One told
me, they are waiting for you,
Matthew, up at the 46th Street
entrance.
Dan started
filming with his phone; I
ranted up First Avenue,
pointing at the US
Mission. The guards at
46th Street were in fact
waiting. “This is the guy
you're bringing?” they asked.
I said yes. “Tell him to stop
filming,” I was told. I
shook my head. I'm getting
evicted, I told them. I get to
film it.
We walked in through the
lobby, up the escalator to the
third floor. There were a
half-dozen UN security guards
there, who recoiled when they
saw Dan filming. There were
moving men from the UN's FMS,
Facilities Management Service.
Let's do this thing, I told
them with (false) bravado.
Having Dan there helped me.
I hadn't been inside my
office for a while, and it was
full. There were stacks of
books, including Samantha
Power's A Problem from
Hell and Chasing the Flame
(I'd witnessed a cheesy event
in the UN Delegates Dining
Room, HBO trying to option the
book, complete with wine and
cheese spread. I called my
article “fondue.html” --
chasing the flame with cheese
cubes.)
I started filling
boxes, cardboard moving boxes
marked with a blue UN symbol.
Some stuff I threw in garbage
bags, like Samantha Power's
books. Dan recorded as long as
he could, until his battery
ran out. He kept a little bit
of charge, he said, to film
the end-game. Meanwhile MALU
set up a camera in my office,
filming the whole thing. Here
it is on YouTube, here
with my Periscope.
I filled boxes with
files, leaked OIOS audits I
hadn't yet published, files
from Ban Ki-moon's trips. Soon
it was three p.m., and they
wanted me out. Just let me
wipe up the table, I told
them, for whatever next sucker
you'd put in here. (Actually,
Ban's Spokesman Dujarric had
said, and would tell me again,
that my office wouldn't be
given out - lying as it turned
out.) I used white paper
towels, left it all
broom-clean...
Suddenly
the moving dollies with boxes
on them, shrunk wrapped, were
being rolled back to the
elevator. More walking, less
talking, like
the man [Deputy Chief McNulty]
said. We were in the
lobby - I shouted some
invective, Dan still seemed to
have power - then out on the
traffic circle. I was pushing
one of the dollies, an FMS guy
the other. We went through the
same gate as I'd been pushed
out of on February 19.
I saw one of Ban's
officials, his fellow South
Korean Kyung Wha Kang,
flagging down a taxi. I ran
over to her. I want you to be
a witness, I told her. I am
being evicted by Ban Ki-moon.
She recoiled, but was
more professional than most.
She nodded and got in her cab.
Back on the sidewalk, I told
the guards, it's fine, just
drop me here. I ranted to Dan,
set up my laptop on the boxes.
Could we call a press
conference? It was too late.
***
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(and future?) UN Office: S-303, UN, NY 10017 USA
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Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in
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2006-2017 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
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