Saturday, July 31, 2010

Milwaukee Police Officer Paints Over Graffiti Along Chavez Drive Business District

Photo by HNG

Defiant tagger returns 6.5 hours later and resprayed gang insignia graffiti, after police officer covers graffiti earlier in the afternoon

By H. Nelson Goodson
July 31, 2010
Updated

Milwaukee, WI - On Saturday, Milwaukee Police Officer Kuykendall was spotted painting over gang related graffiti in the 1200 block of S. Cesar E. Chavez Dr. He drove by the Chavez Drive Business District and spotted the eye soar gang graffiti, which was sprayed a day before by unkown taggers, good job Milwaukee Police Department.
At least, this officer from the 2nd Police District station can distinguish between gang related graffiti and community base graffiti art created by True Skool Inc. in the South side.
Business operators in the same block reported later at night, that after 9:30 p.m. the tagger came back and resprayed the gang graffiti that Officer Kuyendall had covered with paint 6.5 hours earlier. The tagger must be making sure others and police get the message that a local gang has claimed the area for illicit activity.
On July 9, Alderman Robert G. Donovan from the South side called a spontaneous press-conference and before he could address the media Donovan got into heated words with the coordinator of True Skool Inc. over the difference between mural art and graffiti. Donovan believes such murals are "garbage, this is crab and needs to end" and teaching students about community based graffiti art is a "disservice" to the kids. The mural only encourages destructive forms of graffiti," Donovan said.
An argument the graffiti artists say, is unprofound and Alderman Donovan doesn't know the difference between illegal graffiti and legal art murals.
"Graffiti is on a huge increase in the city of Milwaukee that's the bottom line, and when I see stuff like this, these individuals are doing a disservice to the young people in this community by creating this aura that if you get involved in this illegal activity, somehow you'll become a leader," said Donovan. Ald. Donovan says, he is a member of the city Public Safety Committee and allows him to go into any neighborhood. He is member of the Anti-Graffiti Policy Board.
"There's no dispute that graffiti is an art form. For those who don't see it as an art form, are coming from a different generation. They're from a generation that doesn't understand the culture of hip hop, the culture of graffiti as an art form," said Sarah Patterson, executive director of True Skool.

Mural: Raw Love

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