As you may know, OVIE KD G0D will be surrending in December to serve a 2 to 4 year bid for graffiti. Yes, you heard me right, strictly graffiti charges. OVIE will be the first artist to serve time up north strictly for the act of graffiti.
Last night, we sat down with OVIE and discussed the inner workings of the judicial system, the rats that put him behind bars and saying goodbye to your family for 2 years. [Via:www.whatyouwrite.com]
PETALUMA (BCN)
Ten underage decoys bought aerosol paint at stores in Petaluma during a Police Department graffiti sting operation this week despite the city’s municipal code requiring that businesses not sell graffiti supplies to minors.
The decoys went to 10 different stores Wednesday and were all able to purchase the materials, police said.
Officers met with management at the businesses after the sting and presented them with a letter that explained the city’s municipal code, which states that it is a crime for someone to sell or furnish any graffiti-related items to a minor.
Businesses are also required to post a sign warning about graffiti in a conspicuous place on their premises, but no signs were observed at any of the businesses, according to police.
Petaluma police say they have had 218 reported cases of graffiti this year, as well as many more unreported cases. The cost to the city and businesses for paint, cleanup and labor is about $250,000 annually, police said.
Police say that more sting operations are planned.
BOISE — Boise Police believe they have arrested the person responsible for about $16,000 in damages caused by graffiti throughout the city.
Police searched the home of 20-year-old Kristofer Kayd Tolman and feel he is connected to more than a dozen graffiti and vandalism crimes since last year.
Tolman is charged with malicious injury to property by graffiti, illegal possession of prescription narcotics, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and minor in possession of alcohol.
It was a crime in progress. A young man in a hooded sweatshirt and jeans sat on a gleaming subway seat, his face focused on the train window as he scratched something into the glass.
On Monday at 1 p.m. on a northbound N train, near the subway station at 30th Avenue in Astoria, Queens, an alert rider took out a cellphone and snapped a photograph of the young man, along with another image of him sitting slightly forward in his seat, the police said.
The commuter turned over the photos to the Crime Stoppers hot line, a relatively new innovation in reporting crime.
The images were scrutinized by the Police Department’s vandalism task force, which managed to identify the young man as Andrew Morello, 18, who officials said was already known to investigators as a “tagger.” He had been arrested in March on a graffiti charge after spray-painting the word “Shelly” on a parked commercial vehicle in Queens, according to court records.
On Friday, officers went to his house at 48-04 20th Avenue in East Elmhurst, and arrested him. (He struggled while he was being handcuffed, and one of the arresting officers was treated at a hospital for a wrist injury, the police said.)
Mr. Morello faces charges of criminal mischief, making graffiti, resisting arrest and possession of graffiti instruments, the police said.
With cellphone cameras in the hands of thousands of potential witnesses, the changing face of law enforcement knows no bounds.
Mr. Morello was arrested for “scratchitti,” according to the police, caught in the act of scratching graffiti onto glass.
Over the summer, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly announced at police headquarters that citizens should supplement their 911 calls with cellphone pictures. The department has also encouraged citizens to send in tips messages with photographs and by text messages to the police.
It was not the first time that the cellphone camera has yielded an arrest. Shortly after Mr. Kelly made his announcement, a bicyclist was knocked over by a truck. The bicyclist took a photograph of the license plate. The driver was eventually arrested, the police said earlier.
Dutch researchers find that in the presence of graffiti and trash, people are more likely to commit small crimes.
In a series of real-world experiments, people exposed to graffiti, litter and other cues of lawlessness were more likely to commit small crimes, according to a study published today that bolsters the controversial “broken windows” theory of policing.
The idea is that low-level offenses like vandalism and panhandling create an environment that breeds bigger crimes. According to the theory, authorities can help head off serious violence by keeping minor infractions in check. Dutch researchers tested the psychological underpinnings of the theory and found that signs of social disorder damped people’s impulse to act for the good of the community, allowing selfish and greedy instincts to take over. The results appear in the journal Science.
Community policing strategies based on the “broken windows” theory have taken root in cities across the U.S. and around the world since it was proposed in 1982.
Most famously, New York City saw a 50% reduction in crime in the 1990s after then-Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and then-Police Commissioner William J. Bratton — now head of the Los Angeles Police Department — cracked down on squeegee-wielding panhandlers and the like. They credited the “broken windows” approach for their success. [Read More]
