6-Year-Old Girl’s Chalk Drawing: Art or Graffiti?

• L
  October 16th, 2007 at 4:43 pm

  I certainly wouldn’t count it as a crime. It’s not like spray paint. It will wash off next time it rains.

• biltmore
  October 16th, 2007 at 4:53 pm

  Someone smack that city worker upside the head for being both an asshat and a dribblecup.

• Erik
  October 16th, 2007 at 5:01 pm

  first - what the hell? people suck.

  second - i wish i could have been that bad-ass when i was six. keep up the great “graffiti”!

• Justin
  October 16th, 2007 at 5:09 pm

  It’s unfortunate to see well intentioned laws go this far to the extreme.

  To be just though, you are supposed to enforce the laws equally.

  Otherwise it will just be abused. Now, obviously most of us wouldn’t mind children making innocent chalk drawings, but then where do you draw the line legally? What if the child was writing offensive words, or gang signs?

  The real person to blame is the uptight neighbor who called the police. Once they are called onto the scene, the cops have to uphold the laws.

  It’s not like the police were roaming the streets in search of child chalk drawings…

• Denita TwoDragons
  October 16th, 2007 at 5:14 pm

  Oh for Montezuma’s Mother In-Law’s sake…if they’re going to be that uptight about a kid’s chalk drawings, they’d die of apoplexy at the sight of my carport floor.

  My son has a passion for drawing maps and floor plans all over it. I don’t get mad, I get more chalk!

  –TwoDragons

• Levi
  October 16th, 2007 at 6:02 pm

  she just looks guilty… throw the book at her…

• jonn
  October 16th, 2007 at 6:27 pm

  Justin makes a good point - you gotta enforce the laws, otherwise they are just guidelines.

  BUT!

  She’s a kid. It was chalk. She did her job…

  Now let’s hope (and I know they won’t) that NY does a good job amending this law to make it do what they wanted it to do.

  AND!

  That neighbor should be (and this being the only time I will ever quote from Jim Davis’ absurdly terrible comic) “drug out into the street and shot.”

• Lea
  October 16th, 2007 at 6:29 pm

  That neighbor needs chalk shoved somewhere unpleasant. Seriously though, they tried to pass that in Cincinnati a while back.
  IT WASHES AWAY and its CUTE.
  At least she was outside and using her imagination, not watching TV or doing something equally immobile.
  Once again, it is proven that people suck. A LOT.

• Izzy_Evil
  October 16th, 2007 at 6:38 pm

  Under that deffinition, Advertisments would become illegal. If only.

• The Slapster
  October 16th, 2007 at 6:46 pm

  They should organize a Chalk-a-thon, with ALL the neighborhood kids they find, covering every single square inch of sidewalk with chalk art. Peaceful protest baby, use it!

• Johnald_Chaffinch
  October 16th, 2007 at 7:00 pm

  we really should boycott corporate advertising in streets, we dont want them there!

• Eric Monse
  October 16th, 2007 at 7:07 pm

  This is the lamest thing ever. It’s amazing what some people are threatened by.

• Snappy
  October 16th, 2007 at 7:16 pm

  To be fair, they should give citations to Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke as well. (And don’t forget flinging them halfway across town with a giant, baited slingshot! Wee!)

• five_fingers
  October 16th, 2007 at 7:39 pm

  What about this guy?

• Sam
  October 16th, 2007 at 9:50 pm

  Better outlaw sidewalk chalk.

  Where are you supposed to use sidewalk chalk if not on the sidewalk?

• Brad
  October 16th, 2007 at 10:28 pm

  If that law is stated in it’s fullest, there is no law against writing on sidewalks. It states “commercial building or residential building”

• Jacki
  October 16th, 2007 at 11:55 pm

  How anal…

• XuYu
  October 17th, 2007 at 1:16 am

  This is America folks — LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT!!

• lDAVE
  October 17th, 2007 at 10:22 am

  “Once they are called onto the scene, the cops have to uphold the laws.”

  NO THEY DON’T!!!

  Cops Selectively enforce laws EVERYDAY!

  In fact there has been a provision in western common law for selective enforcement since the Middle Ages! Learn some effin history folks!

  As for the Idiot who said “This is America folks — LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT!!”

  Why would i want to leave America just to be Victimized by it’s Foreign Policy?

• Sid Morrison
  October 17th, 2007 at 11:55 am

  I’m pretty down on grafitti (read some of my prior posts on Banksy, et al), but a kid using chalk on a side walk is non-destructive, good creative entertainment, and has been part of being a kids for hundred of years. No harm done (as long as it’s “clean” and non-threatening)… these neighbors are being pricks.

  I also occasionally follow Shorpy.com, a blog with old photos. The following one from NYC 1911 shows some city sidewalk chalk “graffiti” (near the kid running at lower right). Great photo.
  http://www.shorpy.com/node/1783?size=_original

  (there’s a smaller version at here:
  http://www.shorpy.com/node/1782?size=_original)

• Justin
  October 17th, 2007 at 1:17 pm

  IDAVE,

  Perhaps my wording was a little off, instead of “have to” I would say “they are supposed to”. This doesn’t change my previous statement.

  As for not knowing my history… I think it is you who should re-read what Common Law actually is.

  I’ll give a quote for you and cite it so you can read the entire article.

  “In common law legal systems, the law is created and/or refined by judges: a decision in the case currently pending depends on decisions in previous cases and affects the law to be applied in future cases. When there is no authoritative statement of the law, common law judges have the authority and duty to “make” law by creating precedent”

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_law

  Common Law deals with judges and how they can decide cases. It does not apply to police officers even if you see a similarity.

  I don’t mean to flame you, but as a history major I get a little riled up when people accuse me of not knowing my “effin” history.

• Hayofa
  October 17th, 2007 at 4:32 pm

  grownups suck

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