Score one for the Mayor's Anti-Graffiti Task Force: The NYPD arrested 34 year old Patrick McCormick, tag Map, yesterday. McCormick was on the NYPD's 50 "Worst of the Worst" graffiti vandals list. The thing is, McCormick was arrested after smashing the window of an A train in front of a police officer, who was behind him. It was on Saturday afternoon, near the Beach 98th Street stop in Rockaway. The police suspect that McCormick......

We're pretty sure that City Councilman Peter Vallone has a rolodex of statements ready to give whenever there's a graffiti arrest in Queens, but this is the first time Gothamist has heard Queens DA Richard Brown weigh in on graf. With the arrests of two men for "criminal mischief and making graffiti", Brown said, "City officials and anti-graffiti activists have done a remarkable job over the years in cleaning up New York City's image as......

The NY Times looks at the "cat and mouse game" between the graffiti artists and the police. There are a couple factions: Those who fly under the radar to tag illegally, the taggers who go "legit" and take commercial commissions, and the police who try to stop the illegal taggers. The Mayor upped the ante by forming the anti-graffiti crime unit (the Mayor's Anti-Graffiti Task Force) earlier this year, and one graffiti writer, Ray......

If you happened to watch Law & Order: Special Victims Unit last night, you might have noticed that the plot involved some graffiti tagging kids ("his tag is psyko, mine is psyke!"). So, of course, Detectives and Stabler went to the Anti-Graffiti Task Force to find out about a certain crew, and the Anti-Graffiti Task Force cop was all "The Anti-Graffiti Task Force caught this many perps, yo." Gothamist wonders if the folks at SVU......

The Mayor outlined his anti-graffiti plan yesterday, saying, "Graffiti is something for which our administration has zero tolerance...[it's] an invitation to criminal behavior." He formally announced that the antivandalism units of the NYPD and transit police would combine to form a graffiti-crime fighting unit, an idea mentioned and started last summer. The Times reported that since the formation of the new unit, there's been a 20% increase in arrests, contributing to a 78% increase......

According to the Daily News, the NYPD may be considering disbanding the street anti-graffiti and vandalism unit that was created during the Giuliani administration. Why? The NYPD is looking into maximizing the efficiency of the different police squads; the anti-graffiti cops would be folded into the Transit Bureau vandals squad. However, the DN reports that some police officers are concerned they are going to be chasing "crooks who steal copper wires from subway stations"......

...looks like it's somewhere in Brooklyn. A great photograph from overshadowed that shows how city signage and graffiti come together beautifully. More: The City's Anti-Graffiti Task Force and you can get custom signs from the Department of Transportation. And take a look at the great photoblogs on our blogroll.......