The man behind the infamous New York City and Dublin portal site defended his work on Monday, saying that the joy of seeing loved ones all over the world has led to despicable people willing to show off the unspeakable to strangers. He said this “reflects the current state of humanity,” right down to horseflies.
“This shows that we humans are doing something very human. It reflects the current state of our humanity,” Benedictus Gillis told Flatiron on Monday. He told The Post during a visit to the store.
“We see a lot of lights, a lot of laughter, a lot of smiles, love, marriage, marriage proposals. But there are also people who try to get attention. Get followers, get clicks, I’m trying to get a story, but it’s kind of dark.”
“This is a dance of light and darkness,” Jaris said.
Geillis stopped by the large-screen live-streaming video portal between Manhattan and O’Connell Street in the Irish capital after the portal was reinstated on Sunday.
It had to be shut down less than a week after opening after bad behavior from both sides of the pond.
While many people visited the portal to dance and wave politely, some used it as an opportunity for vulgar acts. They included an OnlyFans model from New Jersey flashing her breasts from the New York side, an Irish bastard holding up a swastika, and a photo of the Twin Towers that fell on 9/11.
After several days of power outages, the portal has introduced new measures to try to curb people’s behavior, including time limits, full-time security, fences to keep people away, and a blackout feature that blurs the feed if someone breaks in. measures have been introduced. Too close to the camera.
While these measures seem to be working so far, New Yorkers are already looking for ways to get around them.
Leonard Welsh, a 21-year-old university student, visited the portal on Monday and held aloft a laptop bearing a Union Jack flag and a photo of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, hoping to incur the ire of the Irish. Ta.
“a [plainclothes] A police officer ran up to me and stopped me,” Wales said. “I’m of Scottish descent, so I like to mess around with Irish people.”
However, the security guard on duty never took any action during that interaction, Welsh said, adding that he had managed to get close to the camera earlier in the day without the feed becoming blurry.
He vowed to come back later for more mischief.
Visiting New Yorkers weren’t at all surprised that bad behavior brought down the portal.
“Unfortunately, that’s the sad thing about living in New York,” said Jabari D., 48. “You get something and two weeks later it’s taken away.”
“That’s just New York. It only takes one person to ruin it.”
