Looking at a post from Gothamist.com, I was compelled to watch this video, "Doin' Time in Times Square," by Charlie Ahern. Filmed from his apartment window in Times Square, it took me about a week to get through it, due to other tasks I had to do, and its disturbing nature.It's a compelling "view" on NYC life in the 80s and I was struck by a number of things:
- how today we are more or less the same in our violence
- how police don't just "amble" up to "peace disturbers" with the same casualness using just batons (not today's "guns-out-ablazin'" approach)
- and then of course the utter humanity of it: The lost souls. The hurt souls. The pain. The misdirected pain. The abuse of self and others...
I'm still gripped by the poor "boy" who was punched in the face rendering him unconscious... I wonder was he ever revived? Did it change the course of his life immeasurably? Did he turn from the life that took him into the middle of a fist-fight dead center in Times Square? Or did he continue further down a painful path as a result of his pain?
Of course, interspersing these graphic scenes with baby and toddler birthdays and family life, creates the contrast Charlie was going for: the life outside is heart wrenchingly sad.
