Group hacks into SLCPD website over graffiti bill

Group hacks into SLCPD website over graffiti bill

KSL.com

The activist group Anonymous has struck the Salt Lake Police Department, hacking into its website and forcing a temporary shutdown.

"We know there's money to be made in the 'just doing my job' compartmentalized economy. Therefore we know that regardless of the intent of Karen Mayne's haphazard lawmaking, this will end in corporations selling miniature drones to police officers chasing 13-year-olds," their statement reads.

Mayne's SB107 would make possession of graffiti tools such as spray paint a class B misdemeanor if the person intends to deface property.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Related News Links:
Statement by Anonymous
Statement from Sen. Karen Mayne

Good for them ! I have to agree that this bill seems like the door opener for other Orwellian forms of monitoring possible criminals.

Utah is also the only state that has it's own high tech crime fighting blimp, makes you think what condition this state is in, or soon will be. This bill pushes the guilty until proven so attitude that most, not all, of the local police and justice department employees show towards 'criminals', or anyone without a badge.

www.ksl.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Never let it be said that Anonymous doesn't do some good now and then.

Leave it to politicians and idiots in office to outlaw the item, not the behavior one chooses to use it for. Oh, I'm sure they have laws against the Graffiti too...and given that, why add this?? Can you arrest a tagger TWICE or something?

I agree with the OP here. It makes little sense beyond following the outrageous nanny state nonsense of California where spray pain is kept, by law, in armored and locked down cages in the stores which sell it. Jewelry stores have less security than what I saw on a couple spray paint cages when I was last out there.

In Missouri? My 12yr old could probably go buy a can if we didn't feel like getting out in the cold and sent him into get a can. California? Graffitti everywhere. Missouri? Very rare in this part of the state. Lesson I get from that? Laws make some things worse..and rarely solve a thing. Salt Lake City still has a chance to stop before they go further into madness here....Anonymous even gave them the excuse for that pause to reconsider.

I was trying to understand their interest in a graffiti bill in utah of all places, when it hit me. Yes they are trying every angle now to get hi-tek equipment into local police arsenal.

i mean really the world is on the verge of an economic collaspe and there worried about graffiti in utah? i mean what did i miss.

Here in Denver they tried everything but the kitchen sink to catch taggers. i mean 1st it was cctv's, then they passed a bill if you got caught tagging they would take away your drivers license for 5 years or something, then they went and bought all these new microphone camera that could hear the sound of spray paint and would alert police via text whoever was the most close to the crime.

In L.A. they passed some crazy bill that does'nt allow them to paint murals in the city of any kind without approval from the city's council. you had to present sketch's who was doing what. And in the end they simply would not give out the approval for any murals in L.A.

Which was protested by a tagger going by the moniker Saber. He hired 6 airplanes to spell out messages in the sky right above the city hall.

Public Art Saber's Skywriting Grafitti Blasts City Hall's Anti-Mural Policy By Shelley Leopold Mon., Sep. 19 2011 at 5:54 PM Comments (5) Categories: Art, Graffiti, Public Art, Social Justice, Street Art Share 0digg "Art is not a crime" ​"I own the sky!" exclaimed L.A. graf king Saber as his latest project started to unfold at noon today -- not on an elusive downtown wall, but in the skies above City Hall. Saber's latest artwork is a sky written protest against the public mural moratorium in place per city hall since 2007. Long story short, the moratorium's not official. As an artist, you just won't be issued a permit. Even with permission from a property owner, one can be arrested and the owner fined and also jailed. In the legal protest, executed by six hired skywriting jets and lasting about 45 minutes, the first two passes were call-outs to other LA artists and crews -- Revok, Tempt, MSK, LTS, Risky, Ayer and Dream were some. Then down to business: "Art is not a crime. End mural moratorium: twitter at end mural moratorium" Saber tag ​Made possible by donations from Shepard Fairey, Juxtapoz magazine, San Francisco's Upper Playground and even Twitter, all got their own sky-nod for supporting the cause. The Twitter universe is abuzz with messages from the art community and others simply trying to find out what it means. The audience, which included cops, city hall employees and jurors, found out about the event by passing by, via the live tweeting via @saberawr or from the small group of photogs and friends that gathered to record and witness the feat from the ground. Saber watching the sky ​A formal petition on the issue is up on saberone.com, as well as links to the ordinance, stories and news blurbs recording Los Angeles' recent history of art elimination, as well as a little WPA history. You know that L.A. used to be known as the "Mural Capitol of the World", right? In Saber's formal statement, he writes, "...taxpayer money is now used to obliterate all traces of the artwork my generation have created. I believe this is city-funded censorship pushed by lawmakers with personal vendettas. Potential jail time is more probable for us than the opportunity of creating an artistic legacy for the next generation..." Already in the Guinness book of world records for the "World's Largest Graffiti", Saber's 1997 piece at the L.A. River that could be viewed from space was buffed in 2009 to the rumored tune of $1.2 million dollars. Is he now the world's first graffiti writer to figure out how to tag the sky? Actually, no. "Ron English did it first, but he just wrote 'cloud'," says Saber. "Hopefully this will motivate others to stop this crazy moratorium and bring public art back to LA." Follow @LAWeeklyArts on Twitter

Text

So all in all why waste all that money that we dont have and put it towards the people, lets renovate our inferstructure here in america and bring back some damn jobs, i.e. (bridges, roads, sewers, schools, ) i mean i can think of a hundered things to do with that money instead of buying drones to catch some taggers.

How can you hate graffiti when their painting this.

Or just check out REVOK'S blog revok1.com...