With costumed character crime in Times Square approaching epidemic levels, the New York Police Department has called upon Disney Marvel to step up and do something about it. As New York’s Finest work extra shifts in a futile effort to quell the sectarian violence between costumed characters and naked people, Police Commissioner Ben Bratton made an urgent plea to Disney Marvel.
From Fox News Connecticut – who got it from CNN:
New York’s police chief is asking Disney and Marvel to crack down on the costumed hustlers of Times Square, but the companies aren’t responding.
Times Square is populated by a variety of rogue characters plying tourists for money. Some of these characters, like Minnie Mouse and Spider Man, are trademarks of Disney or Marvel.
The NYPD confirmed to CNNMoney that Commissioner Bill Bratton asked Disney and Marvel to sue for copyright infringement. But according to the NYPD, the companies aren’t biting.
Disney and Marvel did not respond to emails from CNNMoney.
Times Square has a long history of sordid behavior up until the 1990s, when it was overrun by peep shows, prostitutes and street corner crack dealers. But former Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg swept away much of the crime and turned it into a pedestrian haven for tourists and corporations like Toys R Us and Olive Garden.
More recently, Times Square has become the haunt of costumed characters and topless women who get their pictures taken with tourists for tips.
But it started to go sour in 2013, when Cookie Monster got arrested for allegedly knocking over a toddler when his mother supposedly refused to pay.
There’s been a series of incidents and arrests since then, including accusations of groping by another Coookie Monster, and also Woody from “Toy Story”
Spider Man was arrested in 2014 for allegedly demanding tips in an aggressive manner. Earlier this year, a Youtube video went viral of another Spider Man locked in a brawl with a heckler right in front of Toys R Us.
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Send out the marvel interns.
“You mess with ONE of us, you mess with ALL OF US!”
Its like now with people going to comic cons who tie up public transits with cosplayers. I don’t hear those cities going: “Hey ‘insert company here’ take care of these guys for us.” I mean come on, long before people were putting on super hero costumes. They were dressing up as presidents, celebrities, politicians and going around Times Square doing just this. I’m sure we’ll start seeing more Star Wars and Hunger Games hustlers soon and they’ll be going: “Hey Disney/Lionsgate, take care of this NOW!” Insert eye roll.
So does “The Genius That Is Mayor DiBlasio.”
Even if Disney Marvel went after the Times Square costumers for using copyrighted characters, they’d just switch to different characters. The unrest will continue. 😎
Irresponsible request. Since when is Disney or Marvel responsible for policing Times Square? I don’t think any of these costumed people work for Disney or Marvel. I’ve always assumed they were just local hustlers dressing up in costumes from some Halloween store.