Thanks to Metroblogging LA for the shout out on my post about tagging. I’m a big believer in posting photos to illustrate my blather. I almost posted the photo of the graffiti, but then when Verizon Wireless wouldn’t let me log in to retrieve the photo from my phone, I got to thinking. First, I had a weak mental moment in which I engaged in that “maybe this is a sign” thinking—like maybe I *shouldn’t* post the photo. That was a mistake. I think that kind of thinking is major BS.
But, and I mean big but – I had *such* a strong negative reaction to what was clearly a gang tagging. Pasadena has had 5 homicides since May. I had just spent a bucolic afternoon at UCLA watching tennis. Watching for free, since Kiefer pulled out of the previous night’s match and they offered us free tickets for Sunday to compensate. I’d had a free glass of wine courtesy of the Wolfgang Puck bartender who was packing up the bar after the final match. I’d even said a friendly hello to my favorite tennis commentator, Cliff Drysdale and collected an autograph from him and Patrick McEnroe. I’m that much of a tennis geek. I had a relaxing afternoon. I was prone.
That’s the context for making that turn from northbound Lincoln onto Montana and seeing the big doo-doo. It was slap-in-face, blow-to-gut. We are getting nowhere fast on the kids-killing-kids issue.
I feel like I need to post it so you can see just how gang-y it is. It isn’t like these examples posted by Zach Behrens at LAist. It’s a benign graffiti vs crime graffiti thing. (Anyone else remember the best benign graffiti ever: “Agnes Moorehead is God” (scroll down a bit) in Hollywood?)
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Sigh. Had a call from Jacque Robinson to tell me that it has been painted over (!) so I’m gonna post it. As long as gangs don’t start coming here to see what tags they missed (ha ha), I feel okay about it. But let’s not get artsy-fartsy about how the letter ‘T’ appears to have hips or anything.
Update: Another shooting reported in the Pasadena Star-News
Police investigate Pasadena shooting
Article Launched: 07/24/2007 09:07:35 PM PDT
PASADENA – Pasadena Police Department detectives Tuesday were investigating a shooting in a parking lot July 18 that left two men wounded.
The shooting was reported at about 11 p.m. in the 100 block of West Washington Avenue. Police said an argument between two groups of people in a parking lot escalated into a fight.
When police arrived, all the people involved were gone. However, some witnesses drove the victims to a hospital. Investigators later arrested five people, but it was not clear whether any of the five were booked in connection with the shooting.
West Coast Grrlie Blather 