Graffiti Tag Team Arrested in Brooklyn Heights

Old graffiti in Brooklyn Heights, via surgery's flickr

Two graffiti taggers who have been leaving their mark all over Brooklyn Heights have been caught by the coppers. The Brooklyn Paper reports that “Rex” and “Guder” have been hitting the area for months, with one local saying it "makes you feel like your neighborhood hasn’t been maintained, like back in the 1970s.” Fear not graf-phobes, earlier this week "Officer Freddy Ahmetaj of the 84th Precinct collared the painters outside a building on Henry Street at Clark Street."

So who are the faces behind the tags? 20-year-old Pace student Rex Ikwueme and 19-year-old Jerseyite Joseph Daiuto. They both confessed to their crimes and have been charged with criminal mischief, making graffiti and possession of graffiti instruments.

Community Board members applauded the arrests, and say “There will be pressure on the District Attorney’s office to do more than just a slap on the wrist. We’re not talking about 14-year-olds. This is not a youthful indiscretion, but an adult decision.”

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By Jen Carlson in News on November 11, 2009 11:10 AM

Comments [rss]

Rex Ikwueme

This is Rex. I was never convicted of anything. I got let off the same day. Therefore all this stuff on this website is inaccurate, and does not need to be up anymore. These bogus posts are hindering my future because of a small mistake that I made. I went to court and had to do community service, all charges were expunged, Please for the sake of my future get this information OFF of the internet. PLEASE! Thank you.

-R

Brooklyn

We covered this early on:

http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/14006

And broke the news of the arrest:

http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/14308

rbeshenk

Toys toys toys. They got collared outside a building? In Brooklyn Heights? Who was doing lookout? And they "confessed to their crimes"? Idiots. Complete and utter idiots. If you're gonna vandalize shit, learn the rules.

whitecastlerock

They need a baton shoved up their asses for good measure.

books

the people calling for a light sentence are part of the problem. this shit is pointless destruction for their own fame, and 19-20 are ADULTS. They should be punished severly.

not long ago I was in a very out of a way musuem in Denmark. a very nice country where people respect shit that isnt thier own. So, I'm in this beautiful brand new musuem and I go in the bathroom and what do I see in the bathroom scratched into the metal but two pointless tags. When I looked closer, cause you dont see that shit from civilized Danish people, is 'nyc' and 'bkyn'. I was really mad.

yetanotherdamneduselessaccount

"fear not graf-phobes"?

Yeah, those of us us who don't want our world painted and tagged to hell by idiots are phobic. Haters, if you will.

You must really be an asshole in real life, Jen.

rhonda718

True Justice: Use a sharpie to write "I have a small penis" on their foreheads and don't let them wash it off for a year.

luckmagnet

The Brooklyn heights blog was covering this long before the Brooklyn Paper

http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/14006

HBHB

Toys.

NannyState

Give them a can of spray paint, then throw them off the Brooklyn bridge and see how much cool shit they come up with before they hit the water.

theLtrain

Hey cool. I know who SANE is too.

Mordicai

What. Listen, I hate graffiti. There is a huge difference between creating community art & vandalizing stuff with tags, & people who pretend they can't tell the difference annoy me. But come on, bringing the hammer down? Dumb. Give the kids community service & then make them clean up all the graffiti, theirs & all the rest. Done & done. Don't try to make some pathetic show of force-- that just exacerbates the problem.

GOP

His name is "Jerseyite"?

Wza

Best Graff tag teams were Revs/Cost and Easy/Joz.

BongoBoy

Besides spending a week at Rikers, they should spend another three cleaning graffiti off all throughout Brooklyn. And to think this blog is usually a champion of graffiti "artists" ...

Abbott

They're 19 and 20 year-old kids. I think this kinda was a "youthful indiscretion." But I'm sure the community board is furious they have not been able to wield absolute control over the neighborhood for quite some time now. Someone must pay!!!

The Edge

We could all spray paint stupid shit all over your house too, if you want.

Spirit of 76

Force those kids to scrub off all of their remaining tags as well as enough of others' tags to make up for all of the vandalism they've done. Give them paint thinner and toothbrushes. It works for discipline in the army.