Monday, June 28, 2010
City Attorneys Office Wasting Tax Payer Money Again!!!
CITY ATTORNEYS OFFICE WASTING TAX PAYER MONEY ON A NON LUCRATIVE CIVIL SUIT.............
A civil suit against this group is a blatant waste of tax payer money. My money! I understand the anger and disgust of gangs and graffiti littering our city. However this action is not the way to fight it. Jail time has been served by members of this crew. They did there time. This is just another political smoke screen from Los Angeles city attorney's office to give the illusion that they are spending our money effectively. Not only do I believe that the estimated clean up by "this crew" is inflated "they have no money" to even give if a civil suit was won. Yes, the city would win but not collect a dime and wasting our money to prosecute in order to prove a point is even more juvenile than taggers.
The court order being sought by city prosecutors that would bar members from associating with each other, institute a mandatory 10 p.m.-5 a.m. curfew and prevent members from possessing "graffiti tools or weapons." This order would be counter productive in this case. For instance one crew member has parlayed tagging into a legitimate art career. Having a solo show since being punished for his crime and scheduled to have another one he is working to express himself legally. If we as a society really want to encourage our kids to take the high road this order could be detrimental to that end. Guilt by association should not be tolerated by the city attorneys office or anyone. Many exhibition openings last beyond 10pm and in order for artists to create art they need to be able to use the tools of the trade.
As a property owner I hate tagging and think taggers should be punished. However as far as I see this group has stopped since being prosecuted and sent to jail for their crime. The city attorneys office need to monitor this situation perhaps but a full civil suit is a waste of money. This group is not a violent gang they are taggers that consider them self's artists and are tagging in an act of misguided self expression. Frustration with gang violence and violent gang taggers is shared by all of us and should be the focus of this office. I commend their previous effort in this case but now they need to move on to more violent gang activity.
Voter, Community Activist, Property Owner and Artist,
Kelly Thompson
This post is in response to a recent L.A. Times article. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/06/city-prosecutors-seek-civil-court-injunction-against-metro-transit-assassins-tagging-crew.html
A civil suit against this group is a blatant waste of tax payer money. My money! I understand the anger and disgust of gangs and graffiti littering our city. However this action is not the way to fight it. Jail time has been served by members of this crew. They did there time. This is just another political smoke screen from Los Angeles city attorney's office to give the illusion that they are spending our money effectively. Not only do I believe that the estimated clean up by "this crew" is inflated "they have no money" to even give if a civil suit was won. Yes, the city would win but not collect a dime and wasting our money to prosecute in order to prove a point is even more juvenile than taggers.
The court order being sought by city prosecutors that would bar members from associating with each other, institute a mandatory 10 p.m.-5 a.m. curfew and prevent members from possessing "graffiti tools or weapons." This order would be counter productive in this case. For instance one crew member has parlayed tagging into a legitimate art career. Having a solo show since being punished for his crime and scheduled to have another one he is working to express himself legally. If we as a society really want to encourage our kids to take the high road this order could be detrimental to that end. Guilt by association should not be tolerated by the city attorneys office or anyone. Many exhibition openings last beyond 10pm and in order for artists to create art they need to be able to use the tools of the trade.
As a property owner I hate tagging and think taggers should be punished. However as far as I see this group has stopped since being prosecuted and sent to jail for their crime. The city attorneys office need to monitor this situation perhaps but a full civil suit is a waste of money. This group is not a violent gang they are taggers that consider them self's artists and are tagging in an act of misguided self expression. Frustration with gang violence and violent gang taggers is shared by all of us and should be the focus of this office. I commend their previous effort in this case but now they need to move on to more violent gang activity.
Voter, Community Activist, Property Owner and Artist,
Kelly Thompson
This post is in response to a recent L.A. Times article. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/06/city-prosecutors-seek-civil-court-injunction-against-metro-transit-assassins-tagging-crew.html
Labels: art and graffiti, graffiti in Los Angeles, Los Angeles City Attorneys Office, Los Angeles times byased reporting, smear
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