{"id":1739225,"date":"2022-11-15T08:46:17","date_gmt":"2022-11-15T13:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1739225"},"modified":"2022-11-15T10:03:33","modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T15:03:33","slug":"seattle-councilmember-defends-gang-graffiti-as-unsolicited-creative-expression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/seattle-councilmember-defends-gang-graffiti-as-unsolicited-creative-expression\/","title":{"rendered":"Seattle Councilmember Defends Gang Graffiti as &#8220;Unsolicited Creative Expression&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fseattle-councilmember-defends-gang-graffiti-as-unsolicited-creative-expression%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1739225&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/1-graffitiRESIZE.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Seattle councilmember Teresa Mosqueda thinks gang graffiti and Antifa tagging is \u201cunsolicited creative expression\u201d and art. She thinks cleaning it up is just a handout to \u201cfor-profit graffiti removal businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The city of Seattle is inundated with graffiti, much coming from local gang members and Antifa thugs. It prompted a proposal by Mayor Bruce Harrell to implement a six-point program to clean it up. The program includes funding graffiti abatement and charging prolific taggers.<\/p>\n<p>There are clear problems with Harrell\u2019s plan. But Mosqueda expresses a remarkably irresponsible and ignorant criticism.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Thank you to Paul Nunn of <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Urban_ArtWorks?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Urban_ArtWorks<\/a> for your insightful comment on graffiti abatement this morning. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/DHTR2Sv40X\">pic.twitter.com\/DHTR2Sv40X<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda (@CMTMosqueda) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CMTMosqueda\/status\/1590059942601723904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 8, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>Mosqueda effectively endorses gang graffiti<\/h3>\n<p>Police do not arrest taggers, and they won\u2019t be booked. The Seattle Police Department is dangerously understaffed. More problematic, the Seattle City Attorney is unlikely to prioritize their prosecution, no matter how prolific.<\/p>\n<p>While cleaning up the gang symbols and other tagging helps make the city feel safer, without proper enforcement, painting over graffiti is an extremely short-term solution. The Bartell Drug Store in Wallingford is routinely tagged by Antifa (or Antifa-sympathizing) thugs who regularly smear cops on the building\u2019s exterior.<\/p>\n<p>Mosqueda isn\u2019t a fan of Harrell\u2019s program, either. But she opposes it for laughable reasons. She sees nothing wrong with gang and Antifa graffiti.\u00a0She endorsed what she thinks is an \u201cinsightful comment on graffiti abatement\u201d by Urban Artworks project director Paul Nunn.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mynorthwest.com\/3710501\/early-release-policy-arlington-schools-leads-downtown-disruptions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Early release policy at Arlington Schools leads to downtown disruptions<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>It\u2019s not graffiti. It\u2019s \u2018unsolicited creative expression\u2019<\/h3>\n<p>Nunn chastised the \u201cpurely punitive approach to erasing graffiti from the urban landscape\u201d because he would rather incentivize what he\u2019s pretending is art.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, he argues tagging is merely \u201cunsolicited creative expression\u201d and not \u201ctruly detrimental vandalism.\u201d Tell that to businesses that are tagged with gang symbols and messages calling cops murderers.<\/p>\n<p>Businesses overwhelmed with graffiti often see fewer customers. No one wants to frequent a restaurant, for example, covered in gang signs. And it\u2019s not especially welcoming walking into a coffee shop tagged with \u201cACAB\u201d at its entrance. Those businesses, many struggling to survive due to the area\u2019s crime surge, are burdened with the costs of cleaning it all up. Mosqueda doesn\u2019t seem to mind.<\/p>\n<h3>I mean \u2026 how dumb is this?<\/h3>\n<p>Pretending that graffiti is merely harmless unsolicited art is stunningly obtuse. Mosqueda wouldn\u2019t hold the position if she found a pro-life graffiti message on her property.<\/p>\n<p>Like Socialist Kshama Sawant calling the police she tried to defund when poop was thrown at her home, Mosqueda would get the \u201cunsolicited art\u201d removed from her property within hours and would likely demand a police investigation.<\/p>\n<p>In fairness to Mosqueda, if her council office were tagged at City Hall, she wouldn\u2019t clean it up. Not out of her principled stance against giving tax dollars to for-profit graffiti cleaners, of course. After all, Mosqueda doesn\u2019t go to the office to work. She is still using COVID rules to work from home in her pajamas. She wouldn\u2019t even see the tagging.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, the graffiti that Harrell seeks to clean up isn\u2019t art. Murals are art. Tagging gang signs express one\u2019s commitment to violence and intimidation.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mynorthwest.com\/3675116\/rantz-police-defunding-seattle-demands-protection-residence-targeted-feces-sawant\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Rantz: Police-defunding Seattle CM demands protection as residence targeted by feces<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Equity agenda at work<\/h3>\n<p>A left-wing equity movement informs Mosqueda and Nunn\u2019s positions.<\/p>\n<p>Taggers, whether or not in a gang, are typically youth. Progressives do not want to punish the youth because they think young people, especially racial minorities, are victims of a white supremacist criminal justice system. And they argue that entering the criminal justice system only leads to worse outcomes. Sometimes that\u2019s true.<\/p>\n<p>But activists, like Mosqueda, believe the criminal justice system is <em>literally\u00a0<\/em>never the answer. It\u2019s what keeps dangerous, violent kids on the streets reoffending. Punitive measures can stop a teen\u2019s criminal activity from escalating.<\/p>\n<p><em>Listen to the Jason Rantz Show on weekday afternoons from 3:00 p.m. \u2013 6:00 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3).\u00a0<\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/mynorthwest.com\/category\/podcast_results\/?pr=ac249c74-350e-438d-ade5-a8d30112724c&#038;pl=08fdb07e-7380-42cd-9c5a-a8d30112725a&#038;n=The+Jason+Rantz+Show\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Subscribe to the podcast<\/a><\/em><em>. Follow @JasonRantz on\u00a0<\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jasonrantz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a><\/em><em>,\u00a0<\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jasonrantz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram<\/a><\/em><em>, and\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JasonRantzShow\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Facebook<\/em><\/a><em>. Check back frequently for more news and analysis.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"twitter-follow-button\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/jasonrantz\" data-show-count=\"false\">Follow @https:\/\/twitter.com\/jasonrantz<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Seattle councilmember Teresa Mosqueda thinks gang graffiti and Antifa tagging is \u201cunsolicited creative expression\u201d and art. She thinks cleaning it up is just a handout to \u201cfor-profit graffiti removal businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1739228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1739225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1739225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1739225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1739225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1739228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1739225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1739225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1739225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}