Would-Be Reagan Assassin John Hinckley's BK Concert Is Canceled: Venue

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — Would-be presidential assassin John Hinckley Jr. no longer will grace a Brooklyn venue with his songs and acoustic guitar.

In a lengthy Instagram post Thursday, concert hosts with the Market Hotel announced they're canceling Hinckley's upcoming concert.

Hinckley, who infamously tried to assassinate former president Ronald Reagan in 1981, was slated to begin his "Redemption" music tour at the venue next month after winning his full freedom after decades in a mental hospital and court oversight.

But the Market Hotel's hosts eventually decided after seeing "the nature of who this booking has antagonized" that it could potentially "put others at risk."

"There was a time when a place could host a thing like this, maybe a little offensive, and the reaction would be 'it's just a guy playing a show, who does it hurt -- it's a free country,'" the post states.

"We aren't living that kind of free country anymore, for better or for worse."

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Hinckley, 67, has been living in Virginia under restrictions since his 2016 release from a mental hospital, which he had been confined to since a jury found him not guilty by reason of insanity for shooting at Reagan, according to the Associated Press.

A judge recently granted him his full freedom from court conditions starting Wednesday.

Hinckley hoped to perform 17 original songs at the July 8 show in the Market Hotel, which is on Myrtle Avenue less than a block from the Bed-Stuy border.

And Market Hotel hosts, while defending the right to host "provocative happenings" for their own sake, said it could have sent a message that mental health issues and a criminal past can be recovered from and atoned for.

"It's worth reiterating that this guy performing harms no one in any practical way," they wrote in the post. "This is a sexagenarian with an acoustic guitar."

Canceling the concert won't deter future assassins, they argued, calling it ludicrous to claim it could inspire them with an intentionally facetious line: "I wanna be like Hinckley -- he got to play the Market Hotel."

But they wrote Hinckley's merit as an artist — an admitted "stunt booking" — wasn't worth putting others at risk.

"It is not worth a gamble on the safety of our vulnerable communities to give a guy a microphone and a paycheck from his art who hasn't had to earn it, who we don't care about on an artistic level, and who upsets people in a dangerously radicalized, reactionary climate," they wrote.

Patch readers can judge Hinckley's artistic merit for themselves through his single "Long Lost Yesterday," which is posted on YouTube.