December 28, 2007
Eagle Team: NYC Transit's Anti-Graffiti Squad
The NYPD may have the anti-graffiti task force, but with many graffiti crimes perpetrated in the subway tunnels, the NYC Transit Authority has created its own anti-graffiti team. The Daily News tagged along with the Eagle Team, a "surveillance squad quietly formed three months ago."
The Eagle Team members, which include many former NYPD detectives as well as an ex-U.S. marine, inspect and patrol subway tunnels and yards for potential taggers.
Vandals engrossed in the graffiti subculture will spend hours, sometimes days, scouting a yard before striking, watching the patterns of police and transit workers and searching for vulnerabilities to exploit.The Eagle Team, which supplements the NYPD's work, hasn't made any arrests yet. Last year, the "worst of the worst" graffiti tagger MAP was caught and this past fall, Ket pleaded guilty (after police used computer evidence to charge him) to tagging subway cars between 2004 and 2006.They plan in advance how they will enter, escape and flee if suddenly interrupted.
"Every 'i' is dotted, every 't' is crossed," [former NYPD sergeant Robert] Barrow said. "It's almost like 'Mission: Impossible' for them."
After one vandal raid, authorities found a grappling hook and rope dangling to the ground on the outside of a 20-foot-high perimeter wall.
Photograph of an A train etch by Les Dragonnes on Flickr
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Photograph of an A train etch by Les Dragonnes on Flickr
please change that to:
Photograph of a vandalized A train window by Les Dragonnes on Flickr
thanks.
Get the task force out to Queens and get that c*cksucker Boog. The subway stations on the N line are becoming overrun with tags.
Where's Al Sharpton and Oprah?
Graffiti is a crime against private property owners and society. It is a blight. For every picture posted by Jake of graffiti that might be interesting to see on a canvas, there are thousands of scribbled tags that only a tasteless idiot would claim have artistic merit, such as the pictured etch, which does nothing but interfere with my ability to see out a window, and costs us all money in additional maintenance charges. Trying to legitimize this garbage by referring to it as "street art" is like dismissing the antics of a subway flasher as "street love." If you're a bored delinquent and want to draw on a wall, do it in your own home. Or get ready for some jail love from your cellmate.
Convicted taggers should lose a finger with every offense. Either they'll get the message and stop or they'll keep going and eventually be unable to tag. It really doesn't matter which choice they make.
I saw this written on the wall outside:
cry more eyekantspel.
love,
neckface.
if you could read it, it's already better than 95% of graffiti "art." Graffiti vandals are among the lowest forms of life in the city, even lower than panhandlers.
Please change the photo credit to A train etch by LOS Dragonnes. Not LES. Masculine vs. feminine.
Grafitti can be art. It can also be vandalism. Barry McGee, ESPO, REVS, etc. are blessed artists. Most of the crap we see scratched on trains is by wannabe copycats who want ot emulate their heroes. Too bad we have to suffer looking at it. But it does beat Dr. Zizmor and his wife's New Years ads.
Plus, graffiti writers aren't really lurking the tunnels as they used to. This reads as money well wasted. Kids are scratching the windows of train cars and etching (see above photo) windows of trains and storefronts. These trolls won't catch anyone. They might issue a random beatdown to some fool hanging out in the yards though.
Graffiti can be artistic, but unless you do it on your own property, it is still a crime. And as you note, most graffiti is an eyesore, and one that costs money to remove or paint over. Etching is even worse, since it is not only ugly, it destroys the functionality of the windows defaced. I have yet to see an etching that I thought was artistic.
Graffiti vandals are hard to catch, and there is rarely justice for the property owners who are the victims of their crime. The splasher was great because it was a form of vigilante justice against graffiti vandals. Not as fun as watching them get arrested and sent to prison, but at least it was a quick way to deface their work.
Unfortunately, the splasher was an idiot who splashed public art work. He/they also targeted commissioned works (see Swoon's work on Rivington) that the neighborhood supported and celebrated.
The MTA could use their resources in a better way. Tunnels are bombed, but they've been that way for over 30 years. Leave them alone. Let the 22nd century anthropologists deal with what's down there. The amount of "vandals" they catch with this insipid Eagle squad won't justify the $$$ spent.
And there are lots of people who enjoy seeing a well executed etch. Sorry if you're not one of them.
I'd like to try making a well-executed etch. Let me know where you live so I know where to do it. Don't give us any of your BS quotation marks around "vandals." If you do it on any property you don't own without permission, it's vandalism.
There are lots of people who enjoy seeing through a clear subway window. There are lots of people who respect public property. There are lots of people who don't want to see fare increases brought on in part by the need to constantly clean off marker and paint and replace windows. Sorry if you're not one of them.
this type of vandalsquad on patrol article appears in all the papers once or twice a year.
a propaganda fluff piece meant to convey a sense that police are doing their "job" and somehow deter vandals with the idea that they might be caught in the act...
notice the pictures in the dailynews photoset do not include any fame shots but show messy scribble.
this is to not generate any fame but giving any graffers street cred by actually refering to a vandal by name or showing any well executed artwork...
the most important part of the article is at the end
"The Eagle Team, which began operating in September,...has yet to catch its first vandal, spray-paint can in hand..."
Its vandalism that a lot of people enjoy seeing and doing. Maybe if the MTA acknowledged that people ARE going to scratch/paint/sticker their property, they might find a better way to prevent it by possibly supporting it. Just a thought...
I guess you got on the fares though. The subway fares are increasing because of the highly paid work crews cleaning off graffiti. I'm sure thats where my ever escalating subway fare goes. Also if you don't want to look through etched windows, stay out of the subway or move to Singapore. They don't etch there and they actually inforce the rules they dictate.
BTW '76, I live in NYC. Just do your etch. If it looks good, I'll see it!