Pointless Arrest of the Day: Sticker Perp Busted on 2st Ave!

If Bloomberg wins another term, we hope he relaxes a bit and tells the police to focus on arresting dangerous criminals, as opposed to bicyclists, political protestors, and street artists. This week's example: harmless graffiti artist Alyce Santoro was putting up one of her cute upside-down Life stickers on Thursday night when she was grabbed by one of those fake-taxi police squads. She has an interesting and amusing account of her incarceration on WoosterCollective today:

Then the woman officer said, “We’re going to have to arrest you.” And I said, “Seriously!? For putting a sticker on a pole?” And she said, “That’s the law, and it’s our job to enforce it.” Then she took my bag, and handcuffed me. I was dumbfounded. I suggested that perhaps just making me pull the sticker off the pole and promise not to do it again would be sufficient punishment for a first offence, but they did not agree. They ducked me into the cab, which was not a cab at all, but a squad car. I sat in the back seat with the lady cop, while the more subdued of the two men sat in the passenger seat and took notes. What was my age? 37. Had I ever been arrested before? Nope, never even had a speeding ticket. Did I have any drug paraphernalia, weapons, or sharp objects on me? No…I assured them I was about the most innocuous offender they could possibly have hoped to capture.
They wanted to know more about what was behind the criminal mind. Why was the sticker placed upside down? They passed around polaroids of the crime scene. Oh, they were so precious, so perfect...artwork as evidence! I wanted to hold them, but couldn’t, because my hands were cuffed behind my back. Before I realized how it might sound, I said, “I’ve never been handcuffed before.” The men chuckled awkwardly, then the one driving said, “I’m not gonna touch that one!” and the lady cop said, “Yeah, you better not.”

Taking three officers off the street to arrest a harmless artist is not a good use of police resources. Intelligent people can differ on the value of street art or graffiti, but there's got to be a better way to handle these situations. For instance, confiscation of the materials, writing up a ticket on the spot and letting the person go (to an artist, a $200 fine is probably more than enough to convince them to ply their art somewhere else.) What do you guys think of these kinds of arrests?

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By Jake Dobkin in Arts & Entertainment on November 8, 2005 9:46 AM

Comments [rss]

Mason

I think that this is a horrible thing for the police to do. a sticker is easy to take off and the city cleans and paints the poles anyway. if it was paint or ink it would have some meaning to arrest the person but a sticker is not perminate. Graffiti is here to stay from taki 183 to todays etch tags and wheat paste hate it or love it. we here.

WHAT WHAT

For the guy with the speeding ticket analogy, I would complain about it and always do. As far as graffiti, I like it. Might as well destroy shit, you only live once. All of the people complaining about it, I can't fathom your mentality and you can't fathom mine... so lets agree to disagree. The only reason you're so angry about it is because it's out of your control and you know it. Cry as you might, you're still going to have to see it when you go out. That said though, this bitch's shit doesn't even count as graffiti and I'm 99% sure she's some hipster transplant... oh, kind of the same as most of the self righteous cornballs bitching on here. And if there was a drug deal going down in the Bronx that night, I hope I was involved.

RealityCheck

" Let it remain that way! Where else in the world can you have the opportunity to "view" an up-and-coming artist? Get off it!"

I recall seeing many of them from their NY street art make it in the world.

Uh...no

Clayton

"for me it happens mostly on poles and the backs of signs."

My father deals with appeals to violations issued to companies, and even people sometimes who deface city property with flyers, posters, and stickers. I remember him telling me how he got a case where Notorious B.I.G.'s record label got a hefty fine for doing a campaign on city lampposts.

Suck it up Alyce. This is life, not some artist's fantasy world.

Alexi the Artist

You've got to be kidding me...a ticket for posting her art? Give me a break! I have no objection to posting my art in public anywhere...like it or not...don't stifle an artist..appreciate or depreciate what they offer...only then will their art excell! New York City is an "Art World" waiting for recognition!

Let it remain that way! Where else in the world can you have the opportunity to "view" an up-and-coming artist? Get off it!

The original "Alexi the Artist"...splashed all over every search engine...go for it!

Sean

I bet you the female cop was Officer Rizzo of the Vandal Squad.

Bill

Certus, I do know about her work and agree with you. I also think she could have been a lot smarter about the situation.

certus

Alyce is a talented successful artist.

Maybe if you bunch of neanderthals knew about her work you would be more ready to recognize that police should be mandated to enforce laws that save lives instead of saving a brick wall from some art.

alyce santoro

wow, fascinating!! just for the record, i do not sticker on private property...for me it happens mostly on poles and the backs of signs. i do it because i believe that art shouldn't just be in white-box galleries and museums where only a few people get to see it...it should be part of everyday life. yes, i guess i was naive about doing it...i knew it was illegal, but it never occurred to me that it was an offense that would land me in JAIL (and tie up the resources of 3 officers for 7 hours in a city where there are far more dangerous crimes taking place). also, i do not live in williamsburg. and i do not have a 9 to 5 job, because i make my living as an artist.

http://www.alycesantoro.com

http://www.sonicfabric.com

bea

yo, Indiana is hardcore with the street art, man. Got graffiti like planned parenthood waiting rooms got missed periods!

chel

Isn't a job something which you make money doing? I believe Alyce makes some good money doing what she is and that she is an artist. That's not a *pasttime* it's her career. All of you idiots have a thumb up your ass because you work 9-5 and can't do something with yourselves.

Ticketed I could understand, wasting resources to arrest and jail her. No. For a sticker that could be pulled off in two seconds. No.

kwanito

'the cops were from an anti-crime unit'- toby

now it all makes sense.

Bill

Arresting this woman was a complete waste of money, time and police resources.

However, I'm not at all sympathetic to the individual herself. She seems really naive about what she's doing: not seeing the undercovers, admitting her crime up front, trusting cops, and detailing her arrest and admitting guilt on the internet before her court case. She made this a lot worse for herself.

Alife is www.alifenyc.com too.

Toby

This is Rudy's "Broken Windows" theory in action.

Given the description of what went down, my guess is that the cops were from an anti-crime unit. However, it was a bit of overkill, as one would expect them to just write a ticket.

Jane Minty

From a resource standpoint, it's totally ridiculous.

From personal experience, I suppose they were at least polite, unlike my recent experience with undercover transit cops on the Lorimer L stop. I swiped some sad sack through who's card didn't work properly, and only when the train approached were we flashed with badges for the world to see. These guys proceeded to bully and admonish us, calling us "thieves" (we both had unlimited cards), and asking clever questions like, "did you think those cameras wouldn't catch you (and here I thought they were for security)??!" I just sat there with an alternating grin/scowl while the chump next to me unleashed the most uncomfortable display of ass-kissing I'd ever seen.

I suppose, as when these things happen, that there is only one explanation: they have really, really small penises.

Oh, and if you know a kid named Jordan either interning or working at the Attorney General's office, tell him he owes me a $60 fine! :)

Go Bloomy !

Good job by the NYPD . These smelly hipsters belong in prison for looking like they do . You are in your late 30's , grow the f_ck up . And Jake , Don't you think its time to grow up alittle bit too ? Enough of these hipster cry-babies whining through Gothamist . This site has become the idiots of NYC gripe space . Stick to issues that matter , and not what the smelly ass hipsters are doing .

Brightliner

Has anyone noticed that the people double posting (I guess nobody read Jake's plea), using swear words, exclamation points and all caps are all for Alyce? It almost makes you wonder if there's some personal connection here.

BTW, Stacey, you don't think Alyce would have gone to court to contest a fine? Either way, she's still taking up court time. And there's more than "nothing" afterwards. That son now has a record. Since the pothead probably will get in trouble again, a record of a past offense will help put him behind bars where he belongs.

matthew Cassity

who cares? there is a fucking war going on people.

timbnyc

Part of the NYPD's plicing theory is that those who commit high-level crimes probably also commit low-level crimes, therefore they should get all the data they can on those who commit low-level crimes. There's one instance in which this actually worked out for them, in which a man who had been arrested and printed for fare-beating was charged with a murder based on the fingerprints on file.

So the point is, she wasn't arrested for pasting stickers; she was arrested because to their mind she potentially has committed or will commit a more serious crime. Nice, huh?

Stacey

Whether you agree with graffiti or not she should NOT have been arrested. Being arrested means: being booked, being sent to the court, having a court-appointed attorney there for you, etc. The City spends more money on overtime and bull***** and she will walk away without having to pay. I have a co-worker whose son was arrrested for smoking pot - he was arrested, spent the night in jail, was arraigned and released on his own reconizance with the warning not to get in trouble for six months. No fine, nothing. We wasted more money arresting him, feeding him while in custody, etc. It would have been better for the City had they just ticketed the offending person. This is just a waste of the police's time and our judicial system.