The Brooklyn Paper has an update about the vandalism at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in Williamsburg. Because a statue of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus were defaced with what looks like Kiss masks that Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley wear, 94th Precinct Commanding Officer Deputy Inspector Terence Hurson said, “We are looking for a KISS fan." In other words: TOTALLY Kiss Army. more ›

Because no one is content with just leaving people the hell alone to celebrate what they believe in, police in Yonkers are investigating the vandalization of eight different nativity scenes. "It's not about the statute, it's about what it means for you. It hurts," Victoria Beldran told CBS. Beldran's nativity scene was damaged over the weekend, and vandals appear to have hit six homes and two churches. "We believe an attack on one religion is an attack on all and it violates our basic freedoms," Police Commissioner Edmund Hartnett said. more ›

Thirty years ago, the NYPD cared more about bullets than bombing, so graffiti artists were able to participate in a renaissance that delighted the public while infuriating the city and the MTA. The since-adopted broken window theory of policing has made tagging a serious offense, but one former graffiti artist wants kids who are caught to channel their efforts into a type of art that's legal. Rafael Perez, AKA TATU, the leader of the legendary XMEN crew, has started Paint Straight, a 10-week program for recently-arrested taggers in Brooklyn. more ›

Today, the Daily News, in typical anti-street art fashion, published a story declaring a "crackdown on train graffiti vandals paying off, thanks to team of ex-cops." They patriotically applaud the dedicated NYC Transit Eagle Team for fending off the "old-school graffiti vandals" (who they believe can open the door to "bad guys intending to do much worse"). But one of these old-school graffiti vandals told us the whole thing is a bunch of baloney. more ›

Early this morning, vandals set playground equipment at the recently renovated PS 29 on fire. Building manager John Russo told Carrol Gardens Patch he was planning to call the contractor who built the playground to see if any of it was salvageable. "This is just heartbreaking. We haven't even finished painting yet," said parent Lisa Trollbäck. more ›

Note to graffiti vandals: if you make your mark with acid (or onto sacred MTA territory) it's going to add some years to your jail time. According to the Daily News, 19-year-old Brooklynite Alexander Thompson etched his tags (GEAR and G7) into a Queens bus shelter with acid and got a 42-count indictment. Yesterday—when it was reported that vandalism was up last year in Queens—he was told he faces four years in prison for damaging 21 glass bus shelters in 2009 (racking up $5,100 in damages during that time). more ›

It's the end of another long work week, and people need a way to blow off steam. And sometimes shooting pool or drinking beers just doesn't cut it. No, sometimes you need to grab your trusty pickaxe and bash some cars. more ›

Over two dozen city buses were vandalized over the past few weeks, and officials believe the work was done by disgruntled current or former employees. Between September 27th and October 4th, vandals filled 29 bus fareboxes with construction foam, which expands and solidifies. Haha, why didn't we think of that? Oh right, because it'll cost the MTA $185,000 to fix and probably give them another excuse to hike fares again. more ›

Earlier this morning, some car owners in Queens awoke to find their vehicles up in flames. WCBS 2 reports, "Some were in the street, some were in driveways and at least one of the fires spread to an owner’s home." Plus, a dozen cars were keyed. One owner of a newly crisped auto said, "At first i didn’t know why my truck went on fire, then I found out that three other cars, three other vehicles on the block were also set on fire." Another resident said, "We don’t know why, unless they were kids that were drinking, we have no idea what could’ve happened. No idea." Last week, two teens were accused of vandalizing 100 cars on Long Island. more ›

Some relatives of 9/11 victims were worried out by the initial news that they headed to the memorial to see if the plaque for their loved one was harmed. One said, "To do something like this, it's like all over again. With September 11th coming, it's very hard. And to have this, the pain never ends. It never, ever ends." Another said, "It's nice to know that it was an intentional thing, that they are repairing it. But they should let people know what they're doing." more ›

[Update: It turns out the memorial wasn't vandalized! See below] Sigh. Someone vandalized the 9/11 Memorial, Postcards, on Staten Island. Five of the plaques—which feature profiles of the victims as well as their names— were damaged, but Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro said that new ones will be ready in time for the ninth anniversary ceremonies. He told the Staten Island Advance, “It’s surprising and shocking to me. You have the feeling that this is hallowed ground and people would respect it." more ›

The wheatpaste was barely dry on Shepard Fairey's Houston Street mural when the vandals started circling! According to Animal, around 2 a.m. "graffiti writer NAW decided to contribute to the mural, but was abruptly thwarted by a security guard hired to babysit the wall. The vandal managed to escape by wiggling out of his shirt as the retired cop says he dialed 911 with one hand and tried to subdue him with the other." Meanwhile, according to Twitter, "Some kid just tried to do a throw up on the Shep piece on Houston & Bowery. Got yoked up by a dude in a truck." Are the same cops that spent years trying to capture Fairey now protecting his art? It would seem so. more ›

For years the NYPD has tried to send a clear message to the NYC student body that there is zero tolerance for defacing DOE property; in 2007 cops made an example of 13-year-old Chelsea Fraser by dragging her out in handcuffs after she wrote "okay" on a desk at her Dyker Heights school. It's NOT okay, Chelsea, but these punks just won't learn. On Monday 12-year-old Alexa Gonzalez was "doodling" her little heart out on her desk in Junior High School 190 in Forest Hills when she got busted, handcuffed, and escorted to the police precinct across the street, where she was detained for several hours. more ›

Last February Bethesda Terrace was vandalized! The taggers were promptly arrested for spray-painting on the murals and pillars — damages that would cost around $40,000 to repair. Now the NY Post reports the graf-happy trio struck a plea deal yesterday. They won't be going to jail, but rather they'll perform 200 hours of community service cleaning Central Park's horse stables. The lawyer for one of the teens, Victoria Beniaminova, told the paper: "The Central Park Conservancy insisted that their community service be shoveling shit in the stables. It beats going to prison." more ›

Artist Hulbert Waldroup was arrested Friday for installing a sculpture outside a Harlem gallery, purportedly without permission from the gallery's owner. The Jersey City artist put his work "The Gates" — which consists of two 10-foot tall antique iron gates decorated with hand-painted offensive street signs reading, "No blacks, No Jews, No Gay!" among other messages — in front of the Heath Gallery on Tuesday and was arrested when he tried to retrieve it. more ›

In an attempt to curb graffiti, the City Council voted unanimously yesterday to gradually ban solid metal roll-down gates from storefronts. Starting in July 2011, shopkeepers who install new security shutters will be required to purchase gates made mainly out of metal mesh or metal grilles. Supporters say the new gates will help protect police and firefighters by giving them the ability to see into stores when responding to potentially dangerous situations, while deterring graffiti writers who seem to prefer solid metal gates. Solid metal gates will be banned entirely by 2026. more ›

Pre-Halloween vandals ransacked Carroll Gardens on Friday in one of the least intelligent fits of teenaged angst that we've heard of in a long time. The neighborhood blog Pardon Me For Asking reports that three teens ran wild on Court Street at around 2 am, "overturning newspaper stands at the corner of President Street, throwing planters they found in front gardens onto the street, and smashing the Marco Polo Valet Parking sign right through the back of this car." more ›

Some jerk in Juniper Valley Park in Queens sawed down twelve trees in the past week, many of them new plantings, according to the Daily News. Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski said, "It appears premeditated. They came in the park with a power saw." She said the trees cost about $1,000 apiece, which sounds about right, as that is at least two and half times what any high-end retail nursery (PDF) would charge you for the choicest ornamental tree available. more ›

School's out—here comes trouble. Two teenagers have been arrested after they went on "an anti-Semitic spree" on Thursday afternoon in Manhattan. Two boys, 15 and 16 respectively, drew swastikas in black Sharpie on walls at both the Bialystoker Synagogue and the United Hebrew Center on the Lower East Side. At the Hebrew Center, they also lit off smoke bombs; at the synagogue, they hurled eggs and also wrote an anti-Semitic slur on the wall. The synagogue happens to be the East Broadway temple where Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has worshiped since he was four years old. Silver told NY1, "This is a crime, not against the synagogue; this is a crime against society. When people choose to desecrate a house of worship, it doesn't matter whether it's a church, a synagogue. It is just a despicable act that really should tug at the heartstrings of all of us." It's believed that a nearby surveillance camera led police to the two teens. more ›

Isabella's Oven, the Lower East Side pizza place deemed one of the top ten in NYC by big eatin' Ed Levine, was abruptly closed at the end of January for, rumor has it, not paying $70K in back rent. Co-owner Teresa Rizzo-Marino told Grub Street she fell behind because she spent $300,000 renovating and rat-proofing the pizzeria, and she had hoped the Seward Park Co-Op board, which controls the property, would give her more time: "I was subjected to mental abuse. They told me to sign over the whole store and [that] they'd forget about what I owed if I gave them the pizza recipe." Now it seems Rizzo-Marino, who is rumored to be the daughter of one board member, inflicted some abuse of her own on the way out the door, taking a sledgehammer and spray paint to the place. Photos on Eater and Grub Street depict a level of destruction which one commenter aptly deemed "poetry." The interior has been savagely trashed, and "threatening and derogatory graffiti" spray painted all over the walls. BURN! You just gonna take that, Co-Op board? more ›

Over the past few years graffiti has been on the rise citywide, so it's no surprise that 2008 saw an increase in the colorful activity as well. The Daily News reports on some new NYPD stats, noting that while graffiti complaints were up 10% on a whole, Brooklyn in particular is losing its battle against vandals, reporting more complaints and less arrests in 2008. more ›

A reader sent us the above photo today, saying "a friend snapped this on the new E train this morning, and no one can figure out what it means. do you guys know?" We asked the MTA and they told us: "A quick check says this is not an icon we use. Looks like the sign was vandalized. And I won’t even hazard a guess as to what it is meant to represent." So what do you guys think this vandal is trying to get fellow straphangers to stop doing? more ›

Baby Jesus is coming strapped this Christmas—with GPS! Many churches and synagogues in the area are equipping their nativity scenes and menorah displays with the locating system to impede hooligans who often use the holiday season to get their jollies via vandalism, costing the places of worship up to thousands of dollars for the sometimes pricey decorations. New York-based firm BrickHouse Secruity offered free, short term loans of GPS to religious institutions that now will be notified immediately by email if their display is moved. Reverend Bob Gorman of St. Ambrose Church in Old Bridge, New Jersey told The Star-Leger, "We call it God's Positioning System." Their church is currently planning to to drill a hole in Baby Jesus' backside to slip in the GPS device before the figure is placed in the manger on Christmas Eve. Somewhere King Herod wonders in defeat, "Why didn't I think of that?" more ›