The Cole Bros. Circus is scheduled to go on as planned in Greenport this week — despite the arrest of one elderly woman who was busted for removing signs last week — and a protest organized by animal advocates.
The Cole Bros. Circus, held at the Polo Grounds on Moores Lane, is an annual fundraising event for the Greenport Fire Department — and organizers said the show will proceed as planned, with shows on July 24 and 25 at 5 and 8 p.m.
“I feel it’s very evident that people and children love the circus,” said Greenport Fire Department event chairman Ken White. “Sales are a little ahead of last year. We anticipate 4000 to 5000 people to attend the two-day event, so I feel, ‘Why should a minority dictate to the majority?’ Many families would not get to see these majestic animals up close if it wasn’t for the circus. Which, by the way, has a lot of very awesome acts and performers in the two-hour show.”
In addition, on Thursday morning, the public is invited to watch, for free, the tent raising at 7 a.m., as well as members of the Greenport Fire Department, who will be washing the elephants with a firetruck and crew at the north end of Moores Lane at 8:30 a.m.
Meanwhile, members of Long Island Orchestrating for Nature are planning a protest of the Cole Bros, Circus in Greenport, and on Facebook, have dedicated the rally “in support” of Marilyn Flynn, who was arrested on Thursday after removing two circus signs.
“The rally we are holding is an educational one about the animal abuse in Cole Bros. Circus, and we are asking that people come out and support Marilyn by continuing her mission to educate the public, not necessarily a protest of her arrest. While she is planning to be in attendance for one location of our demonstrations, spanning the month of July and from Nassau County to Suffolk), our mission is to educate the public on the plight of circus animals at these rallies,” Julie Cappiello, vice president of LION, said.
The educational rally will take pace at 4 and 7 p.m. on Thursday and Friday outside the Greenport Polo Grounds on Moores Lane, on a public sidewalk, she added.
Flynn said she was handcuffed to a desk at the police station for an hour after being arrested. Describing her arrest, Flynn said police put her in handcuffs and then, in the back of the police car. “I was taken to the police department and put into the back of the interrogation room,” Flynn said, adding that she was kept in handcuffs attached to the table for over an hour.
“It is not uncommon for anyone arrested to be placed at a processing station while the officer finishes all of the paperwork associated with an arrest, which can be at least an hour,” Southold Town Police Chief Martin Flatley said in an email Friday.
Flynn said she was also fingerprinted and a mug shot was taken.
“It was an experience,” Flynn said. “Someone said maybe there were trying to humiliate me. But they didn’t humilate me. I made up my mind that I was going to present a calm, intelligent, ladylike front. They weren’t going to rile me up.”
Since her arrest, Flynn, who has a court date at the end of August, said she has gotten offers for legal support.
“I say to myself, ‘Why would I need legal support? You have justice on your side.’ But I guess that’s now how they view things.”
Flynn said she has had a flood of public support from the community. Of the circus reps who had her arrested, she said, “I think they may have shot themselves in the foot. This has raised a brouhaha.”
Flynn, a passionate animal advocate, said she was at a meeting organized by Long Island Orchestrating for Nature with the Greenport Fire Department last year, to protest the “abuse and mistreatment of animals forced to perform in these shows.”
In recent years, animal advocates, including Flynn, have turned out to protest the circus in Greenport.
A request for comment to Cole Bros. Circus was not immediately returned.
Editor’s note: A criminal charge is an accusation. By law, a person charged with a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
