New York Police and Chicago Police arrested two notorious graffiti vandals that were part of a world-wide graffiti ring called “Made U Look”. Jim Clay Harper, 23, Wilmette, IL, and Danielle Bremner, 26, New York, NY, were arrested after a two year investigation. Miss Bremner, tagger name “Dani”, was arrested at O’Hare Airport in Chicago and Mr. Harper, tagger name “Ether”, was arrested at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. The pair had vandalized railroad equipment, bridges and overpasses all over the United States and in parts of Europe, including England, Spain and Germany. The pair are reportedly to be romantically involved. That first date must of been very interesting.
Mr. Harper, who has had artistic training, had posted several abstract works on an art website under his own name. His graffiti tags were incorporated into the art and led authorities to his real identity. Miss Bremner, who also has artistic training, had been under investigation for two years. The two graffiti vandals are suspected of painting and defacing historic rolling stock on display at the Indiana Transportation Museum, Noblesville, Indiana, in 2003. The vandal pair allegedly started their graffiti - vandalism orgainzation in the Chicago area (Hey Joe, are they friends of yours?).
Chicago authorities have recently strengthened its tools against graffiti vandals by moving hundreds of graffiti cases to judicial venues that are more likely to end up punishing convicted graffiti vandals. I hope that they get what’s coming to them for vandalizing all of that property and rolling stock. The vandalism crowd will have to look for a couple of new heroes.
Another one of them police cases where they call a couple of tools world known so they can make it look like the graffiti game took a huge hit. Cops been doin it for years. I personally never knew them, never seen there work up close…why you asume i would know em is beyond me. Theres millions of graff artists in the US & World and very few are in anyway linked to one another, know one another, or have even layed eyes on any one of thier pieces. These 2 were far far from world known or even well known nationally. Ive seen more trains hit by Trede, Jase, Ich, Kerse…i could go on and on. They may have caused millions in damage…but try hundreds and hundreds of millions. Thats what other US artists have pulled off. These 2 made the dumbest mistake in graffiti, and thats giving cops the chance to tie your real name to your graff name. Every graff artist knows not to do that and yet these 2 thought it was ok for them to…morons.
I was sent this video below awhile back. I didnt care much for it til now but in the first part of the flik it shows Ether hittin a CTA train in Chi town dressed as a CTA employee.
I think this would be a good time to reinstate lopping off criminal’s hands.
Tough and brutal, yes, but I am sure that if criminals knew that if they were caught that they would lose a hand, they would either be less likely to commit the crime, or they would try harder to not get caught.
Just giving the vandals a short period of time in jail and perhaps a fine is not sufficent of punishment, nor is it a successful deterant.
I’ve ridden the Indiana Transportation Museum train, and a photo of their beautiful Monon (ex-MILW) F7A is framed and hung on my bedroom wall. I agree - amputations for both (but we may have to debate what appendages). If you travel the world to do this BS, and dress-up like a RR employee to get away with it, you need surgery of some kind. There are some aspects of Islamic Law that may be worth taking a look at, and severing the hands of thieves (or habitual jackasses like this) could be a strong deterrent.
Too Bad more GRAFFITI VANDALS are not caught, I DO like the lopping off the hand punishment idea BTW. If someone makes a concious decision to damage, deface or steal another’s property, I feel the consequences should be very SEVERE, it’s not an ACCIDENT, they CHOSE to do it, and if the penalty is severe and they still CHOOSE to commit a CRIME, then they should have to accept the punishment. If Losing your hand, or whatever the penalty is, is too high a price for yoou to pay, then DON’T DO THE CRIME, very simple really.
Graffiti is NOT ART
If it Were ART they would be doing it to THEIR OWN PROPERTY. When you deface SOMEONE ELSE’S Property, it is no longer art, but VANDALISM, which IS a crime, as it should be.
As someone who has had close Friends Severely injured by drunk drivers(one Friend was VERY close to losing an arm at 19, and a second Friend who had part of his HIP bone used to rebuild his FACE)
And in the last Month my home was BURGLARIZED, I can AGREE to BOTH of those thoughts VERY easily. Make the consequences for deliberate actions VERY SEVERE, to the point that it is not just a slap on the wrist, but will make them reconsider committing a crime against another.
hmm, looks like its pointless for me to say anything about graffiti cuz yall will throw a fit…so ill just sit back and listen. Go ahead…tell me how your gonna stop graffiti. Im listening…
Nahhh… only when they fly plane loads of innocent civilians into skyscrapers filled with other innocent civilians is when we call them savages. Lopping-off hands for thieves and vandals - that’s a redeeming quality.
I remember reading years ago, so it may have changed, that in one Central American country first offense drunk driving was punished by firing squad. Extreme, but it cuts down on repeat offenders.
I don’t know about “yall” and their reaction, but I am curious to know my enemy, and therefore hear what you have to say about what you feel justifies graffiti. Do you tag your own property, or do you only tag someone else’s property. And how actually would you feel if someone else tagged your property?
Apparently there are legitimate uses for spray paint, or at least there seems to be so much of it for sale that I hope some folks other than vandals buy and use it.
Also if you ban canned spray paint will the result be worth the effort? The vandals might just use cans and brushes more, or rig up their own small compressed air bottles, hoses and paint, or resort to a different medium, for example scratchiti, that is scratching their tag into the vehicle wall or windows with some sharp implement or steel wool. So you’d wind up inconveniencing the legitimate users and gain little in the vandalism war.
One example is pseudoephedrine. Out of our desire to stop methamphetamine makesrs it’s now rather difficult to get it to treat your cold. Mind you I’m not making any judgment about if pseudoephedrine is always the best thing to treat all colds.
So I’d lean more on catching the bandits instead of reducing accesibility to their supplies.