We have big news: The American Journalism Project is investing $1.5 million in Mission Local!
It’s a powerful validation of our neighborhood-first reporting from one of the largest national journalism funders, and will help us expand our reporting to more neighborhoods.
Thank you for reading us — and supporting us — all these years.
“SFMissionProtector” sent us a video he took of a guy tagging a wall near 19th and Guerrero streets. The video was shot from his window.
At one point, police are called and they arrest the tagger in a very unflattering way (6:54). Here’s a screenshot:
Here is some of his work, courtesy of Uptown Almanac:
[h/t Uptown Almanac]
Rigoberto Hernandez is a journalism student at San Francisco State University. He has interned at The Oregonian and The Orange County Register, but prefers to report on the Mission District. In his spare time he can be found riding his bike around the city, going to Giants games and admiring the Stable building.
More by Rigoberto Hernandez25 Comments
“I can appreciate ‘good’ graffiti ..you know art” fuck that. The only reason you have such beautiful murals in your city is because people started somewhere. Maybe this loser in the video won’t turn out to be Picasso, but if you think he is posing such a threat to your safety then you are obviously a greedy brat who moved to an urban city looking for clean walls. I live in a city with one of the world’s highest murder rates, you can get shot for talking on your cell phone in public. But it is full of happy normal people who live their lives to the fullest. If violent crime rates many multiples higher than SF doesn’t destroy a city, then why should I believe you idiots saying that some shitty taggers are doing so. To me, vandalism is evidence of a city that caters to families with teenage kids with the balls to write on someone else’s walls, not a rich tourist playground that caters to yo-pro’s from the suburbs.
Unless you are willing to give me your keys so that I can go in and tag your apartment while you are out or you are open to letting me take a sewing machine and some dye to all of your clothes so I can modify them to a way I feel is artistic, then your words ring completely hollow.
I don’t think folks are claiming that this is an issue of safety – it’s an issue of narcissism. What makes SF great is that there are lots of artistic people who are open to painting their walls (or inviting people to paint their walls) with amazing murals. What makes SF suck are the people who think that their views or tastes are more important than everyone else’s. Look, if you want to paint your car to look like a turtle or you want to sport a neon pink mullet then go right ahead and rock it, but you don’t have the right to cut my hair and paint my car. It’s a shitty thing for someone to inflict their taste on property that isn’t theirs.
But, since you feel so strongly about this guy’s right to tag other people’s property then feel free to post here about how I can pick up your clothes for some quick alterations. (Don’t worry – I will do something that I think is really cool. Hopefully you will like it too, but I guess that doesn’t really matter, right?).
Thanks for saying what I wanted to better than I would have !
Fine him. Paint over his “work”. Forget about him. He’s a weenie, not an artist.
I’m sorry, but what a snitch. Get over it. Yeah, bad tagging sucks, but so does our criminal justice system. Videotaping the guy and making this big a deal out of a little spray paint? What a waste of time and resources. Way to snitch.
Snitch? I actually think he was generous in trying to warn the tagger twice before he called the police. You may not like the criminal justice system, but you also say that “bad tagging sucks” so I’d be interested to know what you would do in this situation (or what you would do if you found this person tagging your house, car, etc..).
In fact, I don’t even think it’s a question of whether the tagging is considered “good” or “bad” graffiti. I personally think the tagging of the palm tree in the video is bad (and, assuming it is also this tagger’s work, I think it is more than enough reason to want to see him arrested), but others may see that spiral on the tree and think it is good art. Whether someone thinks it is good or bad art is subjective so that shouldn’t be the basis for deciding whether this person should be arrested.
What is really comes down to is that freedom of expression doesn’t give you the right to determine that your art belongs on my building. Plenty of the stuff he tagged is private property and now these people need to spend time/money cleaning it up. Same goes for the public property. Why does one person get to determine that their “art” belongs wherever they want to put it? And why does this one person get to waste the private and public money that is needed to clean up that art? It’s quite selfish.
Rather than deride the video taker as a snitch I’d like to thank him for making this tagger accountable for the cost/damage that he has forced other people to deal with.
I couldn’t agree more with JCK.
PD: What if I took a dump on your car, smeared it all over and called it a “good tag”. Would the person turning me in be a snitch?
Also, this tagger has used a more than “a little spray paint”. Try walking through the Mission. I could count up dozens of his tags in the neighborhood. Plus he tagged a prediction of Patriots by 10 before the Super Bowl. Moron.
I agree with both sides… loser took too long to tag up. You gotta have balls for that line of “work”. He should have tagged, and run like everyone else does,lol.
I also believe it was right to film it and turn it in to the authorities. If the graffiti doesn’t fit the mold of a well thought out message or “piece” then they should be busted for vandalism. “I wanna be a billionaire..”, really??
I’m not for vandalism, but if you have a good message to give (maybe an uplifting one or hell, even one that says “fuck the system”)then I’m all for it. But if you’re gonna do it illegally and not get caught, shit, do it right.
Could someone also call the fashion police…
Pajama bottoms in public…..really??
gross.
I don’t mind the artistic graffiti, especially when it has a thoughtful social or political message. But the tagging? It’s mindless and destructive. So good to see him busted!
How lame one should be to report this guy to a police? Let him do it, stop being system controlled pansies once….
Banksy wanna be.
I’ve seen similar graffiti with very similar language in the Lower Haight, maybe he’s hitting multiple parts of town.
Not that I’m on the tagger’s side or anything but is he an idiot? He stood there for a very long time after painting that bird. I would think to run like heck after finishing. Then again, I would have ran after hearing the window tap. Can they be that confident!??
Yeah, MissionJeff. He should have called 911, pulled his gun out from behind the laptop, and chased him down. That’s what they do to in Florida.
Great job! If only we could capture ALL the hoodlums that are slowly destroying the entire city with their vandalism. People need to take this issue more seriously.
Yeah, and get yourself shot or knifed in the process. Real smart. By videotaping it, however, you’ve got incontrovertible evidence that can be used in court against this loser. Sounds like a much smarter way to fight crime.
Gotta love the new generation of cowards who sit around videotaping crime instead of jumping in and trying to stop it. No wonder our neighborhood is such a dump.
The replies confirm that the mission has officially been sissyfied. “What if they have a knife or a gun? But it’s uncontroverted evidence?” Keep videotaping crimes in progress and go call the whambulance. Wonder how many of you are even natives. Go back to the midwest, hipsters.
what’s with the bizarre outrage about taggers being some kind of victim here. grow up. you either get away with it, or you don’t. anyone who’s a serious tagger, and going to be a real artist, takes the risk and runs with it.
MissionJeff… i guess when you’re not patrolling a blog anonymously, you’re on the streets? you crimefighter, you…
Yeah Mission Jeff, lets have another possible Trayvon Martin situation. The person did right by calling the police and taping it. The police probably told the person do not approach the person for fear of having the dude run before the cops get there and/or not having someone like tough guy Mr. Jeff to take the law into his own hands. And taping it also helps both parties involved. If the kids runs a gets away at least they have his face on camera. And if the cops get to abusive then the kid has some evidence for himself, too. Next time you see something go down, step in and be Mr. Hero and see if you don’t stabbed or shot point-blank.
That tagger is a menace to society and has been far more destructive than any other tagger I’ve ever seen in the neighborhood; the citizen who recorded this video should be commended!
What are you talking about? He called the police and video-tape the whole thing, providing evidence!
And if the person doing the “tagging” also had a gun or knife and not just a spray paint can. Not knowing, I wonder how quickly you would “jump in and try to stop it”. Just sayin.
I accept that people need avenues for expression… but man I hope this guy gets the book thrown at him. Taggers have no respect for anyone else’s right to choose how their property looks. If you don’t want your house painted with their tags, too bad. Grr.