Rafael Martinez-Alequin

According to a police report, Pedro Espada’s son, Alejandro, was arrested this morning in connection with an incident that occurred earlier this month, when City Hall gadfly and blogger Raphael Martinez-Alequin claimed he was attacked by Espada supporters while filming an opponent's campaign event.

Martinez-Alequin works part-time for Espada's political rival, State Senator Efrain Gonzalez.

The arrest report is pictured above.

Here’s City Hall gadfly Rafael Martinez-Alequin talking about a complaint he filed with the police. He says he was threatened by a woman who didn't like his attempts to document allegations about State Senate candidate Pedro Espada's residency. Espada is trying to unseat Democratic incumbent Efrain Gonzalez. Martinez-Alequin is working part-time for Gonzalez.

Here is a clip of NYPD spokesman Paul Browne discussing a proposal he's "seriously considering” that would eliminate NYPD-issued press credentials to reporters.

I came across the video on the blog run by Rafael Martinez-Alequin (who has his own press pass issues). It says it was filmed during a press conference on September 14.

“Reporters, you know, you're from a big newspaper, you’re a little newspaper, you’re from a web site, doesn’t make any difference," he said. "You’re just like anybody else.”

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Here's City Hall gadfly-agitator-blogger Rafael Martinez-Alequin, telling me he has a better chance of becoming pope than Rudy Giuliani does of becoming president.

“Because the American people see the Rudy hypocrisy,” he explained, and because Giuliani “changed totally to the right.”

Not that Rafael, a self-described radical lefty, is particularly impressed with any of the current candidates.

“I don’t vote Republican, or anything. I don’t see anybody on the presidential panorama that I could vote for, including the Democrats.”

A few minutes ago I ran into Eliot Spitzer's former gubernatorial challenger, John Faso.

Faso has had the unfortunate luck of running against two Democrats who became embroiled in ethical flaps after it would have been of any political use to him. First, he came within about 162,000 votes of of beating Alan Hevesi in 2002. By the 2006 re-election, Hevesi was engulfed in a scandal about using state employees to chauffeur his ailing wife. That year, Faso ran against Spitzer, who now has his own problems.

Faso, now a lobbyist with Manatt, Phelps and Phillips. was heading into City Hall but stopped here to chat with Mickey Carroll of Quinnipiac and City Hall gadfly Rafael Martinez Alequin.

Alequin, never one to miss an opportunity, asked Faso if he was going to run for office again, to which Faso jokingly replied, "I'm running for my life."

That's gadfly-blogger (blogger-gadfly) Rafael Martinez-Alequin back in the City Hall Blue Room for today's mayoral press conference about campaign finance reform.

He had been barred earlier on the grounds that he didn't write for an recognized publication.

Martinez was denied a press pass by the NYPD, but is appealing.

City Hall blogger-gadfly Rafael Martinez-Alequin, who's been buzzing around this building for about two decades and has recently had an issue with getting into press conferences because he doesn't have a press pass, had his application for a press pass denied today.

The NYPD, which issues press credentials in the city, turned down Alequin because, according to their letter to him, he "failed to establish that applicant is a full-time employee of a news gathering organization covering spot or breaking news” and “failed to provide…one letter from one media employer indicating there were three articles or photographs published within twelve months immediately preceding the application.”

Alequin said he's appealing. The case is interesting because it tests the definition of a journalist in a day and age when anybody with a blog can lay claim to the profession.

Alequin has a blog, but he has also been poking at mayors with his off-beat questions at press conferences for years now. So Alequin is a recognizable figure to every reporter in City Hall.

He has been consulting noted civil rights attorney Norman Siegel about a response and they're keeping their legal options open, Alequin said.