'Penis Man' Graffiti Artist Arrested by '25 Heavily Armed SWAT Officers'

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[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

How is this "police misconduct"? This person was painting obscene graffiti all over the place. The cops can kick his teeth in for all I care.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

How is this "police misconduct"? This person was painting obscene graffiti all over the place. The cops can kick his teeth in for all I care.

Yeah, thats not what I am trying to say, let me clarify.

This guy should definitely be arrested, and the force isn't what concerns me about this.

Sending 25 SWAT officers to arrest a graffiti artist is a tremendous waste of resources. Resources that are paid for with our tax dollars. A couple of regular squad cars should have been more than sufficient for a non-violent criminal like this.

[–]BravoVictor 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

25 maybe is overkill...but overkill is the best kind of kill!

To be fair to police, the kind of person who would do this much tagging almost certainly has some serious mental issues, and is also probably a drug addict. If he was also armed, there's no telling how he'd react to police showing up. Just because a crime is non-violent doesn't mean the offender isn't violent. A lot of taggers are members of drug gangs who are anything but peace loving hippies. And based on the mugshot, I'd bet good money all that's true of him.

So police tactics are to use overwhelming force so no one gets hurt. Granted, they probably could have done the same thing with 5-10 cops.

And please stop calling him a "graffiti artist". He's not an artist. He's a scumbag vandal who doesn't give a shit about anyone other than himself. If I piss on your on foot, I'm not making "foot art". I'm assaulting you and ruining your shoes.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

To be fair to police, the kind of person who would do this much tagging almost certainly has some serious mental issues, and is also probably a drug addict. If he was also armed, there's no telling how he'd react to police showing up. Just because a crime is non-violent doesn't mean the offender isn't violent. A lot of taggers are members of drug gangs who are anything but peace loving hippies.

Yeah, I am not defending the 'vandalizer' here, fuck him, but this argument could easily apply to the commission of any petty crime. Deploying an entire SWAT brigade to serve every single arrest warrant is 'overkill' as you said. My problem with this isn't the level of force, its that policing like this would cost the taxpayers a fucking fortune, and isnt even close to necessary.

[–]BravoVictor 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I generally agree. However, again, I don't think they're doing this for every petty crime. Something about this guy made them think he'd be more trouble.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Something about this guy made them think he'd be more trouble.

That could very well be true, I wish the article had maybe asked why they did this as well, but like most media these days it was pretty one sided