The graffiti artist who gained notoriety on YouTube with his daredevil tagging exploits pleaded guilty today to nearly three dozen felony vandalism counts and was released from jail after serving time since last May, prosecutors said.
Cyrus Yazdani, one of Los Angeles’ most prolific taggers, who is known in the tagging world as “Buket,” admitted to 32 counts with the special allegation that damage exceeded $50,000.
But with time served and credits for work and good behavior, Yazdani was out of jail by Monday afternoon.
Yazdani became something of an Internet sensation when he brazenly plastered his “Buket” bomb 20 feet above the busy Hollywood Freeway — vandalism captured on videotape and posted with a rap soundtrack on YouTube and numerous tagger-related blogs.
Another daylight attack, which was also videotaped, appeared to show “Buket” applying his moniker to a Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus as passersby and passengers watched in surprise.
Authorities allege that between 2005 and 2007, Yazdani slapped his tags on buses, freeway walls and overpasses as well as the concrete lining of the Los Angeles River.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators arrested Yazdani in May, saying that his moniker has marked hundreds of freeway overpasses, concrete walls and transit buses across the state and southern Nevada.
He was believed responsible for upward of $150,000 in property damage along the Los Angeles River and in the areas patrolled by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department — and at least as much in other parts of California.
Yazdani, who split time between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, where he was a graphic designer, already had been on probation after pleading no contest in 2007 to three counts of felony vandalism.
Prosecutors had been seeking state prison time in the case, said Los Angeles County district attorney’s spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons.
“We objected to the jail sentence believing this is a very serious case that caused a lot of damage, and we asked for a state prison sentence,” Gibbons said.
“If the defendant is involved in this type of activity again, that’s exactly where he will end up,” she said.
[Via:latimes.com]
A 17-year-old boy was arrested Friday night in Gilroy after authorities determined he was responsible for about $10,000 of graffiti damage within the community, police said.The Gilroy Police Department’s Anti-Crime Team contacted the boy at about 9:30 p.m. and found he was in possession of aerosol spray paint cans, which is a misdemeanor, according to police.
The boy was then arrested and transported to the Police Department.
Officers contacted the boy’s parents, who allowed the officers to search the boy’s bedroom, according to police. Additional evidence of graffiti-related crimes was located in his room, police said.
An investigation revealed that in addition to the $10,000 in graffiti damage, the boy had committed around 300 graffiti acts, with at least 20 of those being felonies, according to police. Authorities also learned community members and local government agencies were victimized by the boys actions, police said.
Anyone who wishes to be a snitch can report graffiti @ hotline at (408) XXX-XXXX.
A Santa Rosa man whose graffiti spawned a tough new city law forcing businesses to lock up art supplies was arrested again on suspicion of felony vandalism, police said.
William Christani, 27 — who was free on bail Saturday — is suspected of more than a dozen instances of graffiti and was taken into custody after a long investigation, said Santa Rosa Police Sgt. Lisa Banayat.
He was arrested Thursday after police searched his Dorado Court home and found spray paint, markers and other supplies used by taggers.
He is suspected of using graffiti to vandalize more than 14 sites, ranging from Santa Rosa Junior College to the Orchard Mobile Home Park to St. Luke’s Evangelical Church.
In 2002, Christani pleaded guilty to felony vandalism charges stemming from a six-month graffiti run that caused $50,000 in damage to downtown Santa Rosa businesses.
Soon after, Santa Rosa passed a law requiring businesses to store spray cans of paint, etching materials and felt-tip pens in locked cabinets, behind a counter or within 30 feet and in plain view of clerks.
In July, another Santa Rosa tagger — Saif Azzuz, known by his tag, “El Barto” — was arrested on suspicion of violating the terms of his probation for a 2007 vandalism conviction. Azzuz, 20, was released after his lawyer convinced a judge that he was engaged only in legitimate artwork.
[Via:www.pressdemocrat.com]
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Legislation to crack down on San Francisco vandals was signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, officials said.
The bill established a pilot project that will allow San Francisco to require graffiti offenders to perform graffiti cleanup when the offender engages in a civil compromise.Officials said that many offenders are escaping misdemeanor vandalism charges by settling cases outside of court, without ever appearing before a judge. In those cases, officials said the accused vandals usually agree to pay a property owner the costs of removing the graffiti”The signing of this law is a win for San Francisco neighborhoods,” said assemblywoman Fiona Ma. “Graffiti is blighting bus stops, MUNI, store fronts, and other properties … my hope is that the law will prove to be a success in San Francisco and can be replicated statewide.”
Officials said San Francisco spends more than $20 million annually to clean up graffiti and it is simply unfair that offenders are not being forced to do their part to clean up graffiti.San Francisco police Officer Chris Putz, who helped draft the legislation as a graffiti abatement officer, said the bill would likely curb local acts of vandalism.”This bill is a victory for every taxpayer and business owner who has been victimized by graffiti vandalism in the city,” he said.
Gov. Schwarzenegger signs a law sponsored by the city of L.A. It requires convicted vandals to remove their scrawls and keep walls clean for a year.
SACRAMENTO — At the urging of Los Angeles officials alarmed about graffiti defacing the city’s many murals, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a measure into law Wednesday that requires those convicted of the vandalism to remove the scrawls and, in some cases, keep the tagged surfaces clean for one year.
The law was welcomed by many officials as another tool to use against a recent explosion of graffiti, but some gang experts were worried that it might put the offenders in jeopardy if they had to cover up graffiti by other gang members.The measure applies to graffiti on any surface, including blank walls.
Los Angeles, which sponsored the legislation, has recorded a significant increase in graffiti in the last three years, from 25 million square feet of graffiti-stained surfaces in 2005 to 31.7 million in the year that ended June 30, said Paul Racs, director of the city’s Office of Community Beautification.
Last year, the city received reports of graffiti at 653,520 locations, 40,000 more than the year before, he said.
Racs said graffiti was increasing partly because it is celebrated on the Internet.
“There are video games where the good guy is the tagger and the bad guy is the cop,” he said. “Graffiti is also used in advertising, so young people are getting a dual message.”
Artist Judy Baca, founder of the Social and Public Art Resource Center, has seen graffiti nearly cover her mural “Hitting the Wall” on the 110 Freeway downtown.
Baca said the city had cut funding for the creation and maintenance of murals.
“These kids don’t have the possibility of being a muralist themselves,” she said, so they angrily ruin murals with graffiti.
The measure makes it mandatory, instead of discretionary, for a court to order a defendant who is convicted of graffiti vandalism to clean up or repair the property when feasible. A judge could decide not to order a tagger to risk his life by keeping graffiti off a sign that hangs over the freeway.
The court also could order the defendant or a minor defendant’s parents or guardians to keep the damaged property free of graffiti for up to one year.
“By having to clear up the mess, they would realize how much effort and cost is involved in tidying up after them,” said Assemblyman Mike Davis (D-Los Angeles), author of the law.
Some gang experts said the requirement that young offenders remove others’ graffiti could put them in harm’s way.
He said Homeboy Industries closed a program that put gang members to work removing graffiti after two young people were shot to death while cleaning walls.
The story was about drivers, red lights and tickets, but the thing that irked some readers was the photo. From Walter Renzi of Los Angeles: “Attached to the story on right turns generating revenues there is a photograph that shows the back of a traffic sign with multiple graffiti inscriptions. I would like to know if in the future The Times would consider omitting any graffiti that shows up in photographs. I don’t think that it needs to be reproduced.”
[Read More] [Via:latimesblogs.latimes.com]
By RAQUEL MARIA DILLON
Not everyone was pleased, however, with the results of the civic-minded effort, which had the city’s blessing but has rekindled debates over whether Los Angeles County should condone a practice it pays millions to combat.
Some politicians protested that parts of the mural are obscene and have attracted gang-related tags in a city where graffiti already mars homes, sidewalks and buildings. The county has given organizers until Wednesday to whitewash the mural, and neither side is backing down.
“It would be beautiful if the river went back to its natural state and was actually a river and a park,” said Alex Poli, a graffiti artist and gallery owner known as “Man One.” “But right now we have concrete walls, so the next best thing is to beautify it with art.”
The site in question, a concrete canyon where a tributary, Arroyo Seco, meets the Los Angeles River, is surrounded by an industrial neighborhood on the edge of downtown and, like most of the river’s 51 miles, is hemmed in by artificial banks to control floods.
To obtain the permit from a maze of local governments and regulatory agencies, Poli enlisted the Friends of the Los Angeles River, an environmental organization that works with the multiple agencies that control the river.
County Supervisor Gloria Molina promptly demanded the mural’s removal, complaining that some of the images were inappropriate for a public art display near where city planners want to build bike paths. The environmental group’s mission is to protect the river, and “this seemed like an odd way to do it,” said Roxane Marquez, a Molina spokeswoman.
Marquez said Poli hasn’t kept his promise to organize a volunteer touchup crew to keep the surrounding concrete pristine and free of gang tags and extra graffiti.
Poli said the politicians don’t understand the difference between graffiti and graffiti art, which is exhibited in museums and galleries around the world.
“People still have trouble considering it art because we use a spray can,” he said.
In mid-October, some of the murals were whitewashed without warning. Molina and the Department of Public Works denied involvement, but in December, Molina got the county Board of Supervisors to pass an emergency motion giving the Friends of the Los Angeles River 90 days to paint over the murals or pay up to $70,000 for their removal.
County crews removed about 60 million square feet of graffiti in 2006 at a cost of about $32 million, county officials have said.
The Friends group stands by the idea of having art by the river, spokeswoman Shelly Backlar said. But the organization, which is scrambling to rebuild its stock with the county and the agencies that supervise the river, concedes some of what the artist put into the mural might not belong there.
“It’s their permit and their event, and we’ve been pulled in because of the work that we do,” Backlar said. “It’s not what we thought it would be.”
City Councilman Ed Reyes, who originally supported Poli’s project and authorized the permit, said he regrets that decision because he believes the art has attracted gang members, who have added their tags to the riverbed walls.
The graffiti “spilled out of the river channel, into the sidewalks, onto the handrails, into buildings,” Reyes said. “Before it was a neutral place, but now we have clear indicators that rival gangs and taggers are showing up there.”
More tagging has steadily accumulated at the Arroyo Seco site since last fall. Other artists have primed their own pieces of concrete and added to the project, extending the murals a few dozen yards.
Poli condemns taggers but sees the more ambitious work as copycats — students learning from the masters. Tagging increased after parts of the mural were whitewashed, including offensive images directed at Molina and county officials.
“The county needs to wake up,” said Kalen Ockerman, who paints under the name “Mear One.” “The rest of the world is busy paying kids to do this stuff,” on album covers and billboards.
Poli considered painting over the murals, “because of all the grief.” He’s also talking to lawyers, hoping that a strongly worded letter will stop the county from billing the environmental group or his gallery.
“We did nothing illegal and we had permits,” he said. “We’re in the business of creating art, not destroying it.”
Haz-mat teams’ initial examination of a cargo container marked ‘a gift from Osama’ turns up no contaminants.
Hazardous-materials teams investigating a cargo container that arrived at the Port of Long Beach this morning marked with black graffiti saying “Anthrax a gift from Osama” found no initial signs of contaminants.
Two teams conducted atmospheric monitoring tests of the inside of the container, and also swabbed surfaces for trace minerals, but found no signs of anthrax or other toxic chemicals, said Long Beach Fire Battalion Chief Frank Hayes.
“Everything we’ve been able to test does not indicate any kind of a contaminant, including anthrax,” Hayes said shortly after 2 p.m.
The local teams turned over test samples to FBI investigators, who will need at least 72 hours to process the results, Hayes said.
Investigators plan to keep the container in isolation until then, Hayes said, although, “all indications are pointing towards there being no contaminants.”
The investigation began after a truck driver hauling the container was stopped as he attempted to enter a terminal on Pier T at 10:30 a.m., said Long Beach Fire Battalion Chief Frank Hayes. The driver told investigators that he had checked the container earlier this morning before driving it from Wilmington and that it was empty, Hayes said.
Hayes said investigators had no reason other than the graffiti to believe anthrax was in the container. Neither the driver nor anyone else in the area complained of illness or injury, Hayes said, and the port was fully operational today. None of the port facilities have been evacuated, he said.
Two hazardous-materials teams from the Long Beach and L.A. County fire departments were called in to investigate the container, which was parked in a lot at the end of Pier T Avenue. The crews entered the container about 12:30 p.m. wearing protective suits, Hayes said. [Read More]
