So this is how our version of the British Surveillance State evolves; we don’t track soccer hooligans, we track artists and political activists?

This is nothing new.  Artists and political activists have been targets since before the cold war.

Did the City of New York really spend our hard-earned tax dollars tracking a graffiti artist? I don’t really care if it’s a crime or not, if this is all they can do with the tech they have, it’s time to declare the War on Terror over and defund this garbage.

Now, that said, if he has a bunch of stolen police property and a gun he doesn’t have a license for, he could in fact be screwed.  The actual picture though?  He is going to score a slap on the wrist for putting it on private property, not for the hilarious content. 

Never for being argumentative or an ass. 

Timothy Tankersley isn’t defending the cops, he is saying that he disagrees with “Heck of a way to prove a point.”

That is hilarious, in a very dark way, and surprisingly spot on as commentary on what happened. It shines a light on the issue of who is being served and who is under suspicion. The police should be smart enough to handle this in a way that doesn’t make them look thuggish, but . . . oh well.

To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.

I guess he found out.

While we here at BoingBoing may think it was ‘bad faith’, the police here did have a reason to believe they’d find “forged instruments” when they executed the search.  ”With intent to defraud” may have been what they were hoping to find evidence for.  

Essam Attia

I wonder if “street artist Joe Smith” would have been pursued so avidly…

And the permits are very expensive (a couple hundred bucks every year) and require jumping through all kinds of hoops (extensive background checks, personal interviews with the police on short notice, etc.).  That’s not for concealed carry, but for possession even in your home.  Concealed carry permits are even harder to get. 

But replacing a paid advertisement with your artwork is illegal no matter how obvious the parody. And they could probably get him just for having the tools to break into the phone booth.

Would you feel the same if he had a rainbow tattooed on his arm?

Edit: Awww only one almost useable camera shot ~.~

I moved around a lot, and landed in TX. I know this may rub some the wrong way, but I actually like the “lax” gun laws here. Possession isn’t so much an issue, but expect to be come down upon hard for “brandishing”. If you’re waving a gun around without being actively involved in defending your or another’s safety, you should find yourself at the bottom of an LEO dogpile. But that’s here, and NYC is a different place where Bernhard Goetz can be acquitted of murder on the grounds of self defense yet still be convicted of carrying the tools used for that defense. I don’t think I have the cajones to perform my line of work that I did in Dallas if I were unarmed in NYC.

I think it’s important that the gun was “found” in an abode as opposed to being carried in public. Loaded or unloaded is minor, in my opinion…who keeps a uselessly unloaded gun around? With local laws in mind, this is a relevant point to me.

./not a gun-waving yahoo

Your biggest freak out from the PD is likely going to be that “loaded” part.  And finding decent remote hiking within about 4-6 hours.