Anti-Cop/Anti-Prison Graffiti in Hamilton

Police go to the wall, six vandals arrested

Barry Gray, the Hamilton Spectator

October 11, 2008
John Burman
The Hamilton Spectator [Ontario]
(Oct 11, 2008)

It appears somebody doesn’t like the extra heat Hamilton police have been giving graffiti taggers lately.

Even as police made their sixth mischief arrest in a month Thursday night — catching a tagger red-handed at Gage Avenue North and Lloyd Street — anti-police scrawl has begun appearing.

Sergeant Mark Schulenberg says the anti-cop, anti-law messages began showing up earlier this week, after police arrested a 14-year-old tagger painting park equipment in Waterdown.

“It could be pushback (for arrests),” he said yesterday.

The new messages include a sign painted on the John Street wall of the John Sopinka courthouse that has a crude suggestion for “The Law.” Two more on Wellington Street North near the detention centre say “Off The Pigs” and “Burn Prisons.”

There’s a plea for “No More Cops” in fresh paint on the wall of a store at Mary Street North and Barton Street.

“It may be someone trying to get a message out,” said Schulenberg, adding the signs are not tags, just “anti-police, anti-justice slurs.”

Nevertheless, he says, police have no intention of letting up on spray painters. “Graffiti has already been targeted as a strategic priority for us for 2009,” he said.

Schulenberg also noted police are getting more tips from the public about graffiti because “they’re tired of it.” Graffiti makes an area look as if no one cares about it, which can attract other crimes.

The sixth tagger charged with mischief in a month was caught in the act by a uniform officer on routine patrol Thursday at 9:30 on Gage Avenue North. He saw a young man near Lloyd Street spray painting the tag ‘SCD.’

The officer arrested two youths including the painter. The “artist” has been charged with mischief under $5,000.

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Vandals paint against cops in Port McNeill

Vandals paint Port McNeill

By Teresa Bird – North Island Gazette [British Columbia]
Published: August 26, 2008
Updated: August 27, 2008

PORT McNEILL [Kwakwaka’wakw Nation territory] – A spray painting spree has led to charges against three youth.

Sometime during the night of Aug. 19, more than 20 vehicles and a dozen downtown businesses were sprayed with racist and personal comments directed primarily at local RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police].

The vehicles, many of them newer model trucks, were parked in a long-term parking lot across from the marina on Beach Drive. Racist slurs as well as other markings were painted in bright blue on nearly every vehicle parked in the lot.

Storefronts, windows and the sides of larger buildings at the Pioneer Plaza, Peoples Drug Mart, Sundown Market and the Gallery were also scrawled with bright blue paint and comments against police.

The exact cost of the damage is unknown but the three youths have been arrested for mischief over $5,000 and charges have been recommended, says an RCMP press release. The youth have been released. Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the names of the youth cannot be released as they are all under the age of 18.

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Solidarity Without Borders! Vancouver Action

Solidarity Without Borders! Vancouver Action

[Posted by Break this Prison Society to friendsofgrassynarrows.com on June 18, 2008]

In Vancouver, Canada, on the night of June 16th, 2008 two surveillance cameras on Commercial Drive were visibly obscured by paint and the roof top and front doors of the “Ministry of Public Safety” (probation) building, also on Commercial Drive, were tagged with “Fuck Probation,” “Break the Prisons Now!” and “Solidarity Across Borders – Freedom is Our Crime!” In Vancouver, Canada, on the night of June 16th, 2008 two surveillance cameras on Commercial Drive were visibly obscured by paint and the roof top and front doors of the “Ministry of Public Safety” (probation) building, also on Commercial Drive, were tagged with “Fuck Probation,” “Break the Prisons Now!” and “Solidarity Across Borders – Freedom is Our Crime!”

This act was done as part of a week of “Solidarity Without Borders,” called for because of the arrest and imprisonment of 5 people in France on charges ranging from conspiracy to attack a juvenile detention centre, trying to sabotage a police vehicle, and possession of explosives. Of the four who were imprisoned for four months, now one, Isa, still remains in prison under “preventative detention” under anti-terror measures.

It was reported in the news, that when a bus was burned and tagged “Riot Now” on Commercial Drive last Halloween, investigators said the footage from the surveillance cameras across the street did not reach far enough to capture the perpetrators. The cameras targeted with paint must be these very cameras.

The “Ministry of Public Safety” is where people report for probation, the monitoring and restriction of life outside of prison walls. This same office was graffitied and it’s locks glued on the night that indigenous warrior John Graham was deported to South Dakota, in December 2007. He remains in prison awaiting trail, framed-up for the 1970’s murder of his friend and comrade Anna Mae Aquash.

This act is a negation and an embrace. Denying the control of the camera and the law over our possibilities, this act embraces solidarity with all the others who fight for freedom in the destruction of prisons and this prison society.

– We can break this prison society. Solidarity is our Weapon!

For information on other actions during the week of solidarity, or to read an English translation of the inspiring words of Bruno and Ivan, 2 of the arrested in France for carrying smoke bombs (what the police are calling, explosives) on the way to a demonstration at an immigrant detention centre…
go to:
http://geocities.com/insurrectionary_anarchists/solidarityacrossborders.html
http://325collective.com/prisons_letter-ivan-bruno.html

French: http://cettesemaine.free.fr/spip/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=68

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Vancouver: Probation Office Locks Glued on Night of John Graham’s Extradition – Graffiti

Vancouver: Probation Office Locks Glued on Night of John Graham’s Extradition – Graffiti – Dec 6
“Jails are not a solution to problems” Anna Mae Aquash, 1975

[Contributed by Anonymous on December 08, 2007, to infoshop.org/inews]

On the night of December 6, 2007, the locks of the probation office on commercial drive were glued shut and ‘FREE JOHN GRAHAM!’ was spray painted on the roof. This morning, John Graham, of the Tuchone nation, was extradited from Vancouver, Canada to South Dakota to be tried for the 30 year old murder of his friend and fellow warrior, Mi’kmaq Anna Mae Aquash.

“I am a warrior. I was a warrior when I went to south Dakota the first time and I’ll be a warrior this time if I have to go to south Dakota”- John Graham, June 26, 2007, before going into custody.

John reported to the probation office every week under house arrest for the last few years .

John took part in resistance to land exploitation, specifically to uranium mining and exploration. In the 70’s John went to South Dakota to learn about the survival schools, teaching Indian people about Indian ways in a modern context. This is where he met Anna Mae. In 1980 John helped set up a survival camp named after Anna Mae on the Key Lake mine road in northern Saskatchewan to build resistance to uranium interest in the area. The Key Lake mine later became the worlds largest uranium mine.

On June 26th, 1975, an eighth of the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota was signed over to the US government, so it could pursue it’s valuable uranium interests. The same day Joe Stuntz, a Lakota, and two FBI agents died in a shoot out at an American Indian Movement elders protection camp on Pine Ridge, for what Leonard Peltier has served over 32 years of hard time for.

John is facing life in prison as a hostage of the US government. Anna Mae once said, “I am not a citizen of the United States, nor a ward of the Canadian government.” Neither is John.

The imprisonment of John Graham is part of hundreds of years of colonization and ongoing warfare against indigenous people and against others who engage in an ongoing struggle for autonomy and resistance to the interests of capital. “The FBI today is yesterdays cavalry, is yesterdays Custer…no different.”- John Graham

Carry on the struggle for the land and for freedom!

FREE JOHN GRAHAM! HONOUR THE SPIRIT OF ANNA MAE!
info about John at:

http://ourfreedom.wordpress.com/
http://www.grahamdefense.org/

More info on Uranium:

Cash Minerals drilling 100’s of holes in John’s territory, just outside of Champagne, Yukon.

Testing for uranium, and exposing the radioactive radon gases. After exploration comes mining, refinement, tailings (the radioactive waste leftover), coal fires reactors, and nuclear ‘accidents’ like Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania; mass irradiation.

Nuclear energy is anything but clean. The irreversible effects of uranium mining contaminate water, air, animals and plants. The radiation travels on the wind and in ground water. The uranium market is heating up again.

The moratorium of the 80’s is long over. Uranium exploration is happening right now in BC. There has never before been a uranium mine in BC.

Some info on http://www.uraniumfreebc.org

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Artist draws up revenge over graffiti crackdown

Artist draws up revenge over graffiti crackdown

The Globe and Mail
September 12, 2007

Grande Prairie, Alta. — Vandals in Grande Prairie have shown they aren’t too impressed by a police crackdown on graffiti by tagging the RCMP building.

Corporal Riz Suleman says the Mounties aren’t happy about the spray paint art donation on the detachment’s east wall.

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Vandals hit Waterloo city, region offices

Vandals hit city, region offices

BRENT DAVIS
The Waterloo Record, Ontario, Canada
WATERLOO (Jun 27, 2007)

Under a blazing sun, Bernie Vandonk donned a heavy jacket, mask and gloves as he undid the damage caused by a pair of vandals in Waterloo.

Using sandblasting equipment, Vandonk, with the city’s environmental department, sprayed away graffiti that covered the sidewalk in front of the Waterloo City Centre on Regina Street South.

The building’s brick pillars were also targeted, as was the nearby regional Public Health & Social Services building. The graffiti included spray-painted antiwar and anti-government messages, along with several expletives and symbols.

“This upsets me,” Vandonk said. “It’s quite time-consuming to remove, and it’s a waste of taxpayers’ money.”

Police believe the buildings were hit at about 3 a.m. yesterday. Surveillance video from the lobby of the regional building shows two individuals spraying graffiti inside the building.

“We stand firm that we will not tolerate this as a community,” Waterloo Mayor Brenda Halloran said. “Our buildings are not message boards for political statements.”

Waterloo regional police spokesperson Olaf Heinzel said the graffiti is believed to be connected to vandalism which occurred overnight on Sunday.

In that case, several businesses and vehicles were spray-painted with similar messages in the area of Weber and Louisa streets.

“This is not a victimless crime,” Heinzel said. “Someone has to pay to remove these materials.” A damage estimate has not been set.

Police are looking for two young women between the ages of 16 and 20 wearing hooded sweatshirts and jean shorts.

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