A pair of Occupy Wall Street lovebirds has been branded “professional agitators” by the NYPD, who have plastered their mugs on flyers the couple says look like wanted posters.
Christina Gonzalez, 25, and Matthew Swaye, 34, of Harlem say they’ve been singled out for simply posting dozens of videos on YouTube of cops conducting stop-and-frisks.
“What we do is not a crime,” said Swaye, adding that the NYPD flyer looks more like a “wanted poster” than a police department advisory.
“It’s more insidious than a wanted poster because it’s undefined,” Swaye said. “People can take their pick: Are we dangerous, criminal, insane?”
Swaye and Gonzalez, who met at a Pace University rally in December and shared their first kiss on New Year’s Eve at the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti Park, insisted, “There’s nothing radical about us.”
The couple said they first learned they were featured in an NYPD be-on-the-watch poster when they attended a precinct council meeting at the 30th Precinct stationhouse in Harlem on Thursday.
The poster with their mug shots from previous arrests for civil disobedience was taped to a precinct podium.
“Be aware that above subjects are known professional agitators,” read the flyer, warning cops that the “subjects’ MO” is to videotape officers “performing routine stops and post on YouTube.”
“Subjects’ purpose is to portray officers in a negative way,” the poster reads.
Gonzalez said she was shocked when she saw it. “I came in. I’m sitting down. I’m looking around, and all of a sudden I glanced to my left and I just see my face. And I am just like, ‘Oh, my God,’” Gonzalez said.
“My neighbors will look at it and think we are criminals and think we are bad people.”
She said she went “on a rant” after seeing the poster.
“We weren’t kicked out, but it was clear we weren’t wanted in the room anymore,” Gonzalez said.
The flyer asks officers to contact a Sgt. Nicholson at the 30th Precinct if they encounter the couple. Reached Monday, Nicholson said, “I can’t make any comment.”
NYPD spokeswoman Inspector Kim Royster denied the poster was an attempt to silence the couple. She said it was only designed to alert officers at the stationhouse.
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