This is pretty awesome. It was done by Steve LeCouilliard.
Check the video out at this site. Here’s how they described it.
Alexis Zimberg and Nicholas van Beek are traveling the former Soviet Union to document how graffiti is used as a form of protest when other outlets of expression are limited. They explain the dissenting opinions they saw on the walls of the Belarusian capital, where the government has been battling opposition protests.
Its definitely worth a look. Especially if you like graffiti.
The ACLU of Maryland is defending Anthony Graber, who potentially faces sixteen years in prison if found guilty of violating state wiretap laws because he recorded video of an officer drawing a gun during a traffic stop. In a trend that we’ve seen across the country, police have become increasingly hostile to bystanders recording their actions. You can read some examples here, here and here.
However, the scale of the Maryland State Police reaction to Anthony Graber’s video is unprecedented. Once they learned of the video on YouTube, Graber’s parents house was raided, searched, and four of his computers were confiscated. Graber was arrested, booked and jailed. Their actions are a calculated method of intimidation. Another person has since been similarly charged under the same statute.
The wiretap law being used to charge Anthony Graber is intended to protect private communication between two parties. According to David Rocah, the ACLU attorney handling Mr. Graber’s case, “To charge Graber with violating the law, you would have to conclude that a police officer on a public road, wearing a badge and a uniform, performing his official duty, pulling someone over, somehow has a right to privacy when it comes to the conversation he has with the motorist.”
(via digby)
Wow…..just wow. Definitely worth reading this and the ACLU fact sheet. This is just messed up. I’m pretty sure that this fails all of the tests that the Supreme Court has put up for the First Amendment which means that the conduct and/or the law is completely unconstitutional.
The people who run our cities don’t understand graffiti because they think nothing has the right to exist unless it makes a profit. The people who truly deface our neighborhoods are the companies that scrawl giant slogans across buildings and buses trying to make us feel inadequate unless we buy their stuff. Any advertisement in public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours, it belongs to you, it’s yours to take, rearrange and re use. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.
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