The Working Actor

***UPDATED*** After watching the NBC LA coverage (VIDEO BELOW) about this story I felt the need to update this post. NBC was interviewing Tony Tomey (Batman) and caught him being arrested on camera. Wouldn’t NBC have shown footage of Tony being aggressive or demanding tips if it actually happened? The city claims that they are cracking down on aggressive characters, so why was Tony arrested? NBC (as well as The Working Actor) reported that these tickets were issued for loitering. If they had undercover officers, wouldn’t they have caught these “criminals” in the act of demanding money? Wouldn’t they have been ticketed for panhandling or something other than loitering? After all, the city CLAIMS to have no problem with the characters who don’t demand tips. The city has a problem with “intent” or expectation of money. I’m pretty sure expecting money, or expecting anything is NOT A CRIME. Doing something about it is. Is it illegal for a waiter to intend to make money or expect tips? City officials have mentioned that some of these characters have been convicted for prior crimes. So according to LA, if you have committed a crime in the past you are 100% going to commit another crime. Thank goodness the city of LA is protecting us from crimes before they even happen. I guess they called Stephen Spielberg and hired the precogs. How often do you see police officers walking amongst these characters?  I always found the lack of police presence on Hollywood Blvd. shocking. I could never imagine walking through Times Square without seeing a  police presence. With or without the characters, you would think a large tourist area would warrant a noticeable police presence. **PHOTOS BELOW THE VIDEO**

NBCLA Coverage:

Outtakes from my shoot with Christopher Dennis:

[Show as slideshow]

Last Friday the LAPD conducted a crackdown on the Hollywood Blvd. street characters. By all accounts (CNN, KTLA, and some folks who were present when this went down) the street cops claimed this was ordered “from upstairs.” Many of the characters who were taken down to the police station received tickets for blocking the sidewalk and loitering.

I have featured two actors who call Hollywood Boulevard their office. During the course of photographing Sajen Corona (ticket salesman) and Christopher Dennis (character) I found myself on the receiving end of demands for tips. Simply standing around Grauman’s Chinese Theater while snapping photos of architectural detail as well as the subjects of my interview was enough to provoke aggressive characters to demand a tip. “You have to give me money if you are going to keep taking photos” one of them said. These aggressive characters believed that dressing up and walking into a public space and essentially being an extra in my photograph earns them money. Christopher and Sajen quickly quieted these demands by telling the offenders, “he’s with me.” I was left alone, I had street cred.

I’m in no way defending this aggressive panhandling. However, there are quite a few characters who are respectful of tourists and do not demand tips. I’ve met quite a few characters and even approached them for being featured on this site. One of them was taken into custody but released. Many of them say “we accept tips,” but I’ve never heard anything aggressive or inappropriate from the ones I asked to be on my site. Many of them are aspiring actors. To me it seemed that there were two “groups” of characters, the aggressive and the non-aggressive characters.

From all I’ve read and been told, one consistent story has emerged. The LAPD went down to Hollywood Boulevard and unilaterally decided that anyone wearing a costume was a criminal. These officers claim to have been acting on “orders from above.” Were these officers simply told to go down and arrest anyone who LOOKED like a criminal? Did nobody think it might be smart to perform 30 seconds of undercover work to identify the aggressive characters? The aggressive characters have no shame in demanding money! It would have been quite easy to indentify the trouble-makers. Maybe if the LAPD were to perform frequent undercover busts the aggressive characters would be in check.

To me what happened on Hollywood Blvd. is the same as an officer walking into a neighborhood and arresting all the whites, blacks, or the latinos because they LOOKED like someone who committed a crime.

Late last night I put in a phone call to Christopher Dennis.  Christopher is the godfather of Hollywood Blvd. He knows who is aggressive and demands tips, and he knows who doesn’t. Christopher told me he saw the police activity and managed to get away. Hollywood Blvd is a large area and I’m sure quite a few characters saw what was going on and managed to get away without being harassed. Here are some interesting things Christopher pointed out:

• The LAPD targeted an employee from Madame Tussauds wax museum who does nothing more than hand out flyers. Would Madame Tussauds keep someone employed whose job was to attract customers if they were being inappropriate? This local business employee received a ticket.

• The LAPD threatened a group of students from NY Film Academy who were shooting a film.  The student who was wearing a costume was told, “if you come back here we will arrest you.” Apparently the police were not aware of the filming and assumed the actor was a Hollywood Blvd. character. At no point did they question the students for a film permit.

• The LAPD ticketed characters who Chris knows as non-aggressive characters for “Blocking the sidewalk.” If this state is so short on cash why don’t they ticket all 25 billion tourists who block the sidewalk all day long?

There are many aggressive characters who take advantage and bully tourists. But this crackdown seems handled the wrong way. Is this the LAPD’s fault? I don’t know. Is this the city flexing its muscles? Just cracking down so it can say “we try to get rid of these characters.” It seems to me that actual police work instead of a mass “up against the wall” could have identified characters who were following the rules and the ones who weren’t. The cnn.com article posted yesterday claims that Tony Tomey (who according to Christopher Dennis is not an aggressive character) was arrested within minutes of showing up. Did he commit a crime? CNN did not say. Christopher Dennis told me he was released yesterday evening and charged with blocking the sidewalk.

Christopher hasn’t been out working since last Friday. He went out with CNN yesterday, because he felt safe with the cameras.

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Find out what life is like working on Hollywood Blvd. In the non-hooker sense by clicking here and here.