NEW YORK — New safe injection site, Harm Reduction and Education Center, was deemed “fascist” by Marcus “Scuzz” Benitez after refusing to let him put up flyers for his band Rotten Abscess, nodding off sources confirmed.
“I’m a regular here! If I went to a coffee shop every day I know they’d let me put up a flyer!” said Benitez as he dug through a dumpster behind a bagel shop. “I don’t know why these fascists in charge of a place for people to friggin’ shoot up don’t want to let the people know Rotten Abscess is playing with Clit Sucker and Gang Peen at the Avenue D Squat. Service to the community my ass.”
Employees at the safe injection site say the policy against posting flyers at the space is not about Benitez specifically.
“Scuzz got very upset when I told him there was nowhere to put flyers up, but we’re trying to keep it professional here. We’re lucky we got this place off the ground,” says morning supervisor Anna Manson. “We have members of all sorts of bands who come in here to safely use intravenous drugs, I know I see guys from Grim Anus and Spread Kennedys in here every so often. It’s not about free speech, it’s about keeping the doors open. I’m also not sure he understands what fascism means, but we try to just meet people where they’re at.”
Experts in the field of harm reduction feel that presenting a clean and organized space is important to legitimize a safe injection site.
“Imagine you’re a suburban housewife and you’re apprehensive about a place for people to safely use drugs and then you see a flyer for Rectal Mayhem playing a show with Toilet Republic,” says Dr. Anthony Grenson, a board member of the Harm Reduction Coalition. “That’s scary for voters. We don’t want anything tarnishing something a community has worked so hard to get in the first place, especially not for three bands no one wants to see play, even for free.”
At press time, Benitez was reportedly being escorted out of a food bank for complaining the canned goods were “low sodium horseshit.”