“Helicopter,” by East Village artist Mac McGill, is, in his words, about “a familiar sound we hear in our neighborhood late at night.
“We all share this experience, I think,” the former squatter related. “I remember when a helicopter was flying over my building. I’m on Seventh St. close to Avenue D. I stuck my head out the window and a blinding light was in my face…and I made out someone running up the fire escape to the roof.”
I can recall the helicopter hovering for hours over 49 East Houston street on the Fridays of the Critical Mass, for years. I wondered if they were testing out advanced surveillance equipment, perhaps listening to random conversations or identifying those in attendance. Was it meant to intimidate? Probably. Unfortunately for them, it seems, it energized instead. Imagine how these techniques were perfected in Viet Nam and elsewhere. We know how that worked out.