NEW YORK — Musicians rallied around a fellow subway performer whose arrest in a busy station came after a confrontation over whether he needed a permit and was captured on video as strangers jeered police.

The New York Police Department said it’s looking into the arrest of Andrew Kalleen.

Kalleen was performing Friday at the G train stop in Brooklyn’s hipster Williamsburg neighborhood. A police officer told Kalleen he had to leave the station because he needed a permit to play there.

“I’m not going to argue with you,” the officer said calmly in the video.

Kalleen, also speaking evenly, refused to leave and tells the officer he has a right to be there performing, then directs him to the section in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s rules of conduct that says artistic performances and solicitations of donations are allowed. Kalleen was arrested on a charge of loitering as he sang Neil Young’s protest anthem “Ohio.” Police spokesman Steve Davis said Tuesday that the department is investigating the matter.

On Tuesday afternoon, Kalleen and a group of other musicians and supporters including two City Council members held a musical rally at the subway station.

“It’s important to stand up for your rights,” Kalleen said. “If I’m not doing anything illegal, we are on equal playing fields, so he has no right to tell me what to do, so I will do as I please.”


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