Legal Bombimg!
February 26th, 2010Art Crime: Graffiti Wars – “the crackdown may only have emboldened them”
February 22nd, 2010Law enforcement agencies, judges and politicians around the country are stepping up their battle against graffiti artists. But the crackdown may only have emboldened them.
In March 2009, a man identified by Pittsburgh Police as “HERT,” the city’s second most-wanted graffiti artist, entered the Allegheny County Courthouse for an appearance stemming from a prior arrest.
But when he arrived, he was informed that police also had warrants for his arrest on 69 misdemeanors and four felony counts of criminal mischief based on estimated damages from vandalism caused by the 22-year-old’s alleged activities of spray-painting his tag on public and private buildings, railroad properties, and nearly a dozen neighborhoods in and around Pittsburgh’s downtown corridor. HERT was then handcuffed and escorted from the courtroom.
TV cameras were there to capture the moment, and Detective Daniel Sullivan of Pittsburgh Police Bureau’s Graffiti Task Force, made sure the media knew the significance of the arrest.
“He was the number-two tagger in the city, hitting more than 100 pieces of property, and that doesn’t include outside boroughs,” Sullivan told reporters, adding that HERT had caused an estimated $212,000 in damages to private and public property during his graffiti career.
The case of HERT, who is still awaiting trial, illustrates what some observers believe is an increasing crackdown on graffiti across the country. While, nationwide statistics on graffiti crime do not exist, the reallocation of police department budgets and resources suggests that cities are increasingly using prosecutions as a weapon to end the practice. For example, Graffiti Tracker, an Omaha, Nebraska-based company, which investigates graffiti crimes under contract with law enforcement agencies or sells them analysis software, is doing a thriving business. According to Timothy Kephart, Graffiti Tracker’s CEO, the company has over $1 million in contracts with police departments in 45 cities, towns and municipalities.
And more cities like Pittsburgh have created “vandal squads” dedicated to capturing high-profile graffiti artists, similar to the force New York City instituted decades ago.
But the subtext of this battle is cultural.
Bisco Smith – Vibrations
February 16th, 2010Vigilante Vigilante Preview Clip
February 12th, 2010OverSpray 2.0 is Renamed Videograf Issue 10 – Coming This March!
February 10th, 2010
Videograf Issue 10 – Featuring Bisc1 (Trailer) from Carl Weston on Vimeo.
OverSpray 2.0 Now Called Videograf 10 Featuring Bisc1 (Trailer)..OverSpray 2.0 DVD Coming March 2010
Shot with a DVX100B /Grading done with Magic Bullet Looks
Utah is out of jail!
February 10th, 2010
It’s official: Danielle Bremner aka Utah, is finally a free woman, after sitting down for a 6 month bid on Rikers followed by an additional sixer in Boston. Debt to society now served and free to admit that she is indeed the infamous daredevil that has adorned the world’s trains and walls over the last 10 years, the 27 year old student and artist is ready to take on the internetz with her new blog.
Just so you know, I am lucky enough to call her a friend and got to catch up with the very pretty, petite, and unusually chipper young lass, who was kind enough to grant an interview. That and more after the jump…
If you’ve never heard of Utah, either you know nothing about graffiti, don’t read the paper, or live in a cave in Williamsburg. Her arrests and subsequent court appearances produced numerous write-ups in the media in the last couple years – the vast majority of which have painted her and partner/boyfriend Ether as a modern day Bonnie and Clyde. But there’s more than that – Bonnie and Clyde robbed banks for riches, Utah and Ether painted cities all over the world for nothing more than the satisfaction of getting over and leaving with a nice photo of their work. Being that nowadays risk for anything but monetary reward is pretty unheard of, Utah stands to remind us that self-satifaction can still be found elsewhere, and that somethings are worth doing just to do them…(Read More)
Via: blogue.us
Utah Blog: utahoner.com
Graffiti’s Story, From Vandalism to Art to Nostalgia
February 5th, 2010
Eric Felisbret is no longer the young man who painted illegal graffiti. Now, in pictures and words, he records the work of his generation and a new one. More Photos >
Eric Felisbret stood by a chain-link fence, watching three men spraying graffiti on a backyard wall in Upper Manhattan. One man smiled and invited him over.
“You can go around the corner and when you see a sign for a seamstress, go in the alley,” the man said. “Or you can jump the fence, like we did.”
Mr. Felisbret, 46, chose the long way. Not that he is unused to fence-jumping. In the 1970s, that was one of his skills as a budding graffiti writer who stole into subway yards. Using the nom de graf DEAL, he was part of the Crazy Inside Artists, a legendary crew from East New York, Brooklyn. This time, though, instead of wielding a spray can, he pulled out a camera and took a quick snapshot of the artwork, done with the landlord’s permission.
“It’s really retro,” he said. “Look inside the 3D letters, how he added all those spots.”…Read More
Texas Again! – Another teen gets 10 years for graffiti.
February 4th, 2010KINGSVILLE — Teenager Manuel K. Medrazo pleaded guilty to felony spray painting of the Kleberg County Courthouse, probation office and vehicles, said District Attorney John Hubert.
Medrazo was sentenced Jan. 4 to 10 years in prison for retaliation, a third degree felony. The sentence was reduced to 10 years probation and restitution for damage he and two juveniles caused.
The charge was increased from criminal mischief to retaliation because of words sprayed Sept. 22 on vehicles that targeted probation officials at Kleberg and Kenedy counties, Hubert said.
The juveniles will faces charges in Kleberg County Court at a later date.
New Graffiti Laws – GB property owners must remove graffiti
February 4th, 2010Bronx man Anthony (Nova KBC) Jimenez held in gal pal slay
February 2nd, 2010A Bronx man flew into a rage and gunned down his girlfriend after she complained his religious rants disturbed her sleep, police and a witness said Sunday.
Anthony (Nova) Jimenez, 30, burst into shouts late Saturday while talking on his cell phone as he played video games with teenage pal Jordan Miles, 17.
“He was just yelling: ‘God is great! God is great!’” Jordan said.
Jimenez’s shouts awakened his girlfriend, Anna Radzimirski, 25, who accused Jimenez of being high on drugs, Jordan said.
That’s when Jimenez snapped, pulling a gun from under the bed in his basement apartment on Woodycrest Ave. in Highbridge, Jordan said.
“He pointed it straight at her face and shot,” Jordan said, adding that he wrested the gun away from Jimenez in a fierce struggle.
The gun discharged a second time during the tussle, grazing his arm and hitting Radzimirski in the chest, Jordan said.