Arrest these felons!
Boston Globe – April 30, 2006:
As part of the Wellesley College Peace Coalition, Smith, 22, and other students spent the early evening scrawling onto the town center’s sidewalks peace signs and quotations from Mohandas K. Gandhi.
Someone followed them back to their dormitory, copied down the license plate number of the car Smith was driving, and contacted Wellesley police, according to the police report.
That led to an evening in jail for Smith and her fellow students, an experience that has led to misgivings on the campus of 2,300 students about the way police handled the incident. A spokesman for Wellesley police said the students were not mistreated.
According to Smith, McLaughlin gave the women a choice between arrest and cleaning up the chalk. Smith says when they asked for clarification of their offense ”he said it was not up for discussion. We told him, ‘We’re going to clean it, but we’re trying to understand why we’d be arrested.’ And he was like, ‘Nope, you’ve lost your chance.’ “
Yet another nail in the coffin of Free Speech. And they used chalk! It will be gone in a day, less if it rains. It is a good thing the Boston police don’t live where I do – children still use chalk for hopscotch in my neighborhood.
After the incident was over, Parker (a student) encouraged other angry students to put their energies toward peace activism instead. Oops, I think I see a potential “vicious circle” forming. Someone take their chalk away before they start drawing peace signs again.
Geez.. We did this in high school and college.. As part of our art courses! We were taught to be criminals by the institution! Who knew?
Question Authority!
I’d let them try and press charges. Let the guy make an idiot out of himself in court.
They should stage a mass demonstration for free speech by covering every sidewalk on campus with chalk.
I actually used to be a sidewalk artist…I’d copy masters work like a Botticelli or Caravaggio with pastels. I’d put out a hat, I’d get about 50 to 60 bucks in tips over the course of the painting which took about 4 hours (I actually would stretch it out).
This was in Chicago and I never got hassled by the police…in fact I had several police officers come by and watch for a while and donate some money. Granted, this was about 20 years ago when I was literally a starving artist. I haven’t broken out my chalks and gone downtown lately, so who knows if the laws have been changed.
Wonder if it was designer chalk….these were after all Wellesley!!
I ate 40 lbs. of chalk once. the end.
Its freaking chalk! I think it would have been ironic if it started raining while they were being taken in – “The chalk is gone now, can we go?”
Yay! Another victory for Facism in America!
Don’t complain about the President, or his policies. We WILL take your chalk, and your rights away.
We’re Bushco, Inc. Taking away Americans’ rights since 1981!
chalk4peace is an internationally recognised street art – chalk is harmless, extremely temporay and a heal;thy outlet/form of self expression – something that is really need especially for the youth these days.
who said it was all supposed to be grey all the time? – we are surrounded by corperate graffitte, most of it gawdy and exists only to manipulate/brainwash us into parting with our hard earned money
most public media is out of the reach of ordinary folk whereas the streets are fully accessable.
the police response was totally unecessary and counterproductive if there is a true desire for a healthy culture
see
http://www.infinitepossibility.org
“There is nothing wrong with our world,
we are just having a weird conversation”
“Reclaim the conversation”
“Our New World Order IS Love
“when the conversation reaches critical mass, it transforms into ACTION”
….. Social Acupuncture
Dedicated to the child inside each one of us,
All the children and
All the children to come