At 7 pm on a weekday, on the grassy knoll just across from the Spring Garden Starbucks, a young man was busking. He was playing Blackbird Singing in the Dead of Night on his guitar, and he was playing it well. As we got closer we noticed two cops go up to him. After they had talked, gestured and walked away, he started to pack up his guitar to leave. We went up to him and said how well he played, why was he leaving? The beat cops had told him his amp (the size of a breadbox) was illegal — that buskers could not use amps. The busker told us he had just arrived from Japan three days before, and had liked Halifax but this incident was unsettling. We thought so too. I know it was a slow night on Spring Garden, but did the cops really have to throw their weight around? The man was playing quietly and disturbing no one. Don’t the police have more to do than harass a busker trying to earn some money?
This article appears in Oct 2-8, 2008.
I love being downtown and hearing live music being played. If only there were violent crimes in the city the cops could spend their time on…
Seems kinda twisted that people can just be a nuissance bumming for money while just sitting there , but someone who is actually entertaining you for some change gets the heave ho .
They can’t help throwing their weight around, they are usually fat beyond fat and they create their own small gravity well. Why oh why don’t they spend some time fighting real crime as apposed to picking on some busker actually performing and trying to earn a decent living, unlike nose picking, crack eating beggars.
Meanwhile, crime rates continue to go up in Halifax…as does the number of tickets being handed out.And exactly what law prohibits amplifiers anyway?!? Fuck.