Posts Tagged ‘Politics’
CHECK OUT ROBOBAMA
Sunday, October 26th, 2008“DICK HEAD” Vallone Urges DA: Get Tough With Graffiti Vandal
Thursday, October 9th, 2008
Anti-graffiti warrior City Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr. has asked Queens DA Richard Brown to prosecute an Astoria graffiti vandal “to the fullest extent of the law, even if it means going to trial”.
“They caught this punk red-handed, now we should make sure he pays for destroying our neighborhoods,” Vallone declared. “I want this crime etched on his criminal record forever.”
Vallone was talking about KXXXX AXXX, 32, who he described as a career criminal. AXXX was arrested by 114 Precinct cops for spray painting the Marathon Bank branch on Broadway last Thursday.
AXXX was arrested after a brief chase. The officers said he had in his possession at the time etching acid, which Vallone described as a new graffiti tool that vandals use to permanently mark windows on buildings and subways. This dangerous product cost the MTA $11 million a year for window replacements, he said.
Vallone said AXXX, whose tag is “SIDE”, has a long criminal history, including arrests for burglary, robbery and drugs.
Possession of etching acid makes AXXX’s case particularly egregious, Vallone said, because, unlike other forms of graffiti, some of which can be painted over or cleaned, etching acid burns streaks that cannot be removed into materials. In addition, the lawmaker said, the substance can also be extremely dangerous. If someone comes into contact with freshly applied acid, it can cause serious burns.—John Toscano
This Obama Graffiti Illustrates Divide?
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
By Brandon Barker
It appeared on a lonely street corner in Chicago: a stenciled silhouette of Barack Obama holding a microphone that connects to the United States. Immediately one wonders, What does it mean?
We can assume that this graffiti, somewhere on the streets of his hometown, is a gesture of support for Senator Obama. But it’s hard to deny the bleak effect it has on the viewer.
Obama stands on a street corner–one hand holding a microphone, the other hand pleading–while on the other side hovers the United States, streaked with dripping paint. The only link between the Senator and his country is a long, meandering wire that he seems one step away from tripping over.
The raw loneliness is also marked by the image’s physical disconnectedness. A passerby on one side of the street only sees Obama speaking to a rally, while someone on the other side sees nothing but the U.S. floating from a frail string. Only a person turning the corner or standing on the other side of the street sees the complete image. Even then, the street corner’s three-dimensional divide is hard to ignore.
But, what about the image itself? Is the Illinois senator and probable Democratic presidential nominee speaking to us or through us? Is the fate of our nation inexplicably linked to this agent of change, or are we simply the vehicle or amplifier for his personal message and ambitions?
[Via:news.aol.com]
Urban scrawl – Graffiti artists face the question: Why do they do it?
Monday, April 14th, 2008By Katrina Swift
Via:[www.canada.com]
Mayor Gérald Tremblay may have a tough time of it as the city launches its annual campaign to clean up graffiti.
Walk through practically any Montreal neighbourhood and you’ll see graffiti – walls are covered with it, bus shelters and garage doors scattered with names, scribbles and scratching.
Question is, why do young people go out in the middle of the night, risking arrest and fines, to paint on the sides of buildings?
“Street art teaches a lot about impermanence and not being attached to the art that you’ve done, because it can be taken off really easily or painted over,” says Lola, a soft-spoken graffiti artist now awaiting a court date after being caught one winter night.
For her, graffiti is like therapy, a way of expressing her emotions and communicating anonymously with others.
“It’s just a release,” she says.
A destructive release, many might say, but that hasn’t stopped its popularity from growing. “It’s definitely flourishing in this neighbourhood,” says Michael Deserres-Kohn of the SubV boutique on Sherbrooke St. W. The store sells paint supplies and graffiti-inspired clothing.
“Day after day, there are a ton more kids coming through all the time, spending all their allowance on spray paint and markers.”
According to police Commander Eric Lalonde, there were 335 arrests for graffiti on Montreal Island in 2007, up from 186 in 2005. The higher number, Lalonde says, is due in part to increased publicity encouraging people to report graffiti.
Most of the cases involve minors, who are usually charged with mischief and fined up to $100. Adults may receive suspended sentences and are asked to pay for the cleaning, Lalonde says, while minors are asked to write a letter of apology and sometimes do community work.
“Graffiti at its root is definitely vandalism,” admits Deserres-Kohn, himself a local graffiti artist who does it legally and is often paid for his work.
For some younger graffiti artists, spray-painting a piece of a building is about doing what friends do; for others, it becomes an obsession. A veteran graffiti artist, Bruce (not his real name), says he would leave the house at midnight to do his tagging, unable to stop himself from getting his name out there, even after being caught several times by police.
Being arrested for the first time has stopped Lola. “Since I’ve been caught by cops in my area, I haven’t really gone out because I’ve been kind of terrified of being caught again.”
And, from time to time, all that illegal graffiti experience can be turned into something more constructive. Bruce is now creating graffiti murals on contract. Deserres-Kohn has worked for Tandem N.D.G., a youth crime-prevention program, doing murals around the area. “There’s definitely some really positive sides to the kind of graffiti movement in the neighbourhood,” he says.
All of them continue to be captivated by the practice of graffiti, and a bit mystified by its allure.
“Some people maybe just do it to express themselves, some people as a release, some people because … it defines who they are and they just have to keep doing it,” Bruce says. “Some people, it’s just for their ego.”
For the younger ones, Lalonde says, it might be part of growing up and is rarely associated with gangs.
First of all, it’s forbidden, so it’s a challenge, he says. “I think they are in a period of their age when they want everyone to know, ‘I’m alive! I’m here!’ “
Graffiti “vexes” mayor…LOL!
Monday, April 7th, 2008An apparent surge in graffiti at scattered locations around Sonoma has angered Mayor Joanne Sanders and marred public and private property from the Springs to the bike path to East Napa Street and areas around the high school.
With that said, however, Sonoma Police Sgt. Dave Thompson reported last week his department had received only five reports of graffiti-associated vandalism in the past two weeks and most of those were minor.
Most annoying, perhaps, has been the incidence of gang-related graffiti, particularly around the high school where a spate of tagging occurred in March when gang signs and symbols sprouted on street signs and poles, guard rails and fences.
During a council meeting April 2, Sanders referred to taggers as “riff raff who are spray painting graffiti …” all over town. “It’s just rampant,” she said later on, describing tags on signs in front of her Broadway business office and on the East Napa Street mailbox near her home.
No arrests have been made in Sonoma’s latest graffiti wave, but Santa Rosa police caught four juveniles on March 20, charging them with felony vandalism and conspiracy. They e-mailed photos of the juveniles’ tagging, which shows their “monikers,” to Bates to see if the names match any graffiti in Sonoma.
Bates said no one has yet been able to identify the latest crop of taggers, but she said some witnesses report seeing four young boys dressed in black riding the bus between tagging sites.
Estimates of the national cost of removing and combating graffiti go as high as $8 billion a year. Communities with the most success in fighting it have developed proactive programs with heavy citizen involvement.
According to Graffiti Hurts, a national nonprofit community education program, there are a dozen common-sense solutions that can go a long way in combating graffiti.
Still, the front line of defense is immediate removal and that is not always as easy as it sounds. Bates said her volunteer crew can only get out about once a month. The sheriff’s department has a mobile graffiti removal truck, but must cover the entire county. And then there’s the issue of access.
Bates said both PG&E and AT&T have provided permission and paint to cover graffiti on their poles. But the picture is a little different for mail boxes, like the one by the community center which has a big blue blotch of graffiti with drips of paint running the length of the box.
She has contacted the Sonoma post office several times, she said. “I have not been successful in getting anyone to respond. If they would just provide us with the permission and the paint, we’ll do it.”