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When Brookline's graffiti vigilante heard his nemesis had been arrested, he popped open a bottle of champagne
By adamg on Thu, 08/09/2012 - 1:02pm
Wicked Local Brookline details an effort by a guy who goes around town painting over tags and police to crack the town's seamy graffiti underworld. With a guest appearance by Mike Dukakis, who admits to keeping a can of paint in his basement with which to cover over graffiti he finds.
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Comments
I had a nice hearty chuckle
I had a nice hearty chuckle over how much the article attempts to make this situation seem like a Batman movie or something, especially with things like this:
"Over the course of the year, Oleum said he felt like he got to know NUGS, got into his head and learned how he thought. He said they come at life from a very different perspective (NUGS the vandal, he the cleaner), but they share similarities too. They use the same tools. They work in secrecy. They both wanted to outlast the other."
I tip my hat to a model
I tip my hat to a model citizen. This guy makes the world a better place.
why^
because he paints over unsightly things?
Well, yes. Because he has
Well, yes. Because he has some civic pride, and is willing to spend his time and money to take care of his neighborhood.
Go Mike
The man has a huge head. I LOVE that
+1
ಠ_ಠ to the the inept Citizen's Connect reporters that never pick up anything but report everything.
the proactive approach
"“I realized that deterrence in my little four-block area would never stop them,” he said. “I said, ‘O.K, I’m going to solve the problem.’”"
Does Brookline have a citizens complaint hotline? In any event, this guy isn't sitting around and waiting for them.
Here is the probable reason
Brookline has a citizen-reporting system where a very small amount of graffiti is reported. (Maybe 1/2 of 1% of all tags, if you look at their system and compare to what the graffiti guy says he did) That system is monitored by the Brookline Highway and Sanitation Service, which will sometimes remove the tag in 1-12 weeks, based on what I have seen.
The other issue in Brookline - like all cities and towns - is that graffiti can be on surfaces that belong to:
- Federal government (post offices, post office boxes, a few agencies)
- City/Town government (stuff on the streets)
- State/county government (certain agencies, facilities, housing, trains and buses and their stations/terminals)
- Private property owners
And no one is technically allowed to touch anyone else's stuff. A town worker will literally not touch state property, even if he is right in front of it with the right paint. He will file a request with the proper government agency.
This kind of nonsense is why graffiti artists win, the people lose, and is probably why the graffiti vigilante guy acted. One guy who doesn't care about all the stupid territorial problems probably ended up being 50 times as efficient as all branches of government.
It's been proven time and time again
A police officer is only as good as his informants.
This guy is also breaking the law
I, personally, find gray paint squares a lot more unsightly than tagging. Who authorizes this criminal to go around and paint on other people's property just because someone else already did? I don't recall the city electing this man, or granting him moral authority.
What gray paint squares?
You clearly don't have any idea what you're talking about. This guy meticulously details in his blog that he finds exact replica colors and even repaints the mortar in the brick walls back to their original tan shades separately from the bricks which he paints a brick-specific shade of red.
And that's IF he even has to paint. Most recently, he's been scraping mailing labels that the taggers have been using to leave their mark on surfaces that don't take paint well or places where they would get caught trying to paint, so they just slap up a sticker that's been pre-drawn on.
Also, he has no authority, that's why he's called a vigilante. In the meantime, when he's talked to private property owners of his willingness to repaint their property, they've been exceptionally receptive.
No squares
There is not a single gray paint square in all of Brookline, which you would know if you lived there.
The guy got involved because government had completely failed. There have been zero private property complaints against him and everyone I have talked to about this guy thinks he is a hero.