Demo Reports - Saturday, December 3, 2005

While the bulk of our crew was busy in the woods of New Jersey preparing for the beginning of the Black Bear Hunt on Monday, December 5, 2005, a group of us who had remained in the City decided to make some house calls. Despite the frigid temperature, we gathered on Central Park West to visit the Bakers, Andrew and Susan. Now that we are certain that they live there and know that we have been deceived in an attempt to quash our peaceful protests, you can count on this being a regular stop on our nighttime itineraries.

As usual, most of the neighbors are very supportive of our efforts. It was gratifying to watch the building light up like a Christmas tree when we started our loud and aggressive chanting. Of course, there are always one or two assholes, that are either chronically angry and out of sorts or half in the bag, as seems to be pretty par for the course on the Upper West Side. Two neighbors came out of adjoining buildings to notify us that the Bakers no longer live in that building. We let them know that we had verified his residence and had iron clad proof that he and Susan do, in fact, reside at 279 Central Park West on the 14t h Floor.

Our next stop was on Central Park West and 81 st Street, just across the street from the American Museum of Natural History where we pestered Ellen Futter, who recently resigned from her board position with Bristol Meyer Squibb. Dennis Basso owns a first floor apartment with his own private entrance around the corner from one of the main doorman lobby entrances. It must have been pretty hot inside of Bassos pad as both he and his partner Michael Cominotto appeared looking disheveled with sweat staining their shirts and pouring down their faces.

You see, they had left their first floor window wide open and I am sure that our loud and boisterous voices traveled well in the still and peaceful evening air. Of course, a phone call was immediately made to the NYPD who dispatched multiple cars and several officers in record time. Made us wonder how much this express service is costing Basso?

Police were not content with our legal single file line standing along the sidewalk curb, which kept us an orderly 10 feet away from Bassos front door and still open window. The ranking police officer insisted that for public safety sake we would have to keep marching back and forth on the sidewalk. We had no problem complying with this "request" because it put us within inches of the open window. It also meant that since we were circling that we pretty much had the entire sidewalk tied up and that anyone who wished to get to Central Park West had to negotiate their way through our protest.

Things heated up with a sweat drenched and red faced Dennis Basso was escorted across the picket line by a phalanx of police officers and he was driven away from his apartment by his own personal police escorts.

Meanwhile "Boy Toy" Cominotto had a hissy fit at protesters. Swearing and rude gestures ensued on both sides as he hissed and heckled protesters who laughed at his antics while we captured the whole scene on videotape. All in all, one of the most fun and effective demos we have ever done.

We crossed over to the Upper East Side for our last stop for the night. Ellen DeNicola of American Century Investments lives in a neighborhood full of highly disturbed neighbors. Routine we are assaulted and verbally abused at this location. These people are out of control! The police have explained to them that we have the right to peacefully protest and still they scream and tried to attack us. No doubt Ellen feels the brunt of their anger after we leave. Poor Ellen!!! Send us that confirmation letter Ellen. The one that says that American Century does not hold shares and will not hold shares of LSRI in the future. Those lame anonymous e-mails you are sending us don't qualify. We need something with someone's name and title before we call it done.