Another no-no- Don't paint banks on fire or you will be called a terrorist

[n2doc]

An artist's incendiary painting is his bank statement


By Bob Pool, Los Angeles Times
August 28, 2011
Standing before an easel on a Van Nuys sidewalk, Alex Schaefer dabbed paint onto a canvas.

"There you have it," he said. "Inflammatory art."

The 22-by-28-inch en plein air oil painting is certainly hot enough to inflame Los Angeles police.

Twice they've come to investigate why the 41-year-old Eagle Rock artist is painting an image of a bank building going up in flames.

Schaefer had barely added the orange-and-yellow depiction of fire shooting from the roof of a Chase Bank branch when police rolled up to the corner of Van Nuys Boulevard and Sylvan Street on July 30.

more

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bank-painting-20110828,0,4395501.story

[hobbit709]

1. Wonder what they'll do if he paints a banker dangling from a lamp post.

[Kalidurga]

2. What happened to free speech???

Painting a bank on fire is hardly the same thing as issuing a threat to burn down the bank. Unless he is saying that is the next step because he is irate or whatever.

[hobbit709]

4. Today free speech means agreeing with TPTB, otherwise it's incitement.

[baldguy]

3. The police don't have anything better to do than harass artists?

They shouldn't be investigating Schaefer - they should be investigating whoever made the complaint.

[hobbit709]

5. Betcha it was a bankster.

[canoeist52]

6. "A terrorist certainly would not spend hours on a public sidewalk creating an oil painting of"...

"A terrorist certainly would not spend hours on a public sidewalk creating an oil painting of his intended target, he told the officers."

[hobbit709]

8. Logical thinking and police do not mix.

[lunasun]

7. artists/ art are often targets for fascism- off to the fusion center soon!!!

[mindwalker_i]

9. In the IKEA where I live

there's a big bunch of wooden mannequins when you go down the stairs leaving the showroom. I have a bad habit of arranging them so they have one arm bent up and the other holding it so it looks like they are flipping you off (as much as they can given the simple wooden paddle for a hand).

Along the same line, I was thinking of bending one over and have the other behind, then add a top hat and cane, Monopoly style, to the one in the back and add that to the B of A logo. Wonder if that would make me a terrorist.

[rucky]

10. They have corporate persons to serve and protect.

[lonestarnot]

11. Banksters have their ways of dealing with free speechers.

[lunatica]

12. Unless the police haul him away I don't see what they're doing as wrong or oppressive

It's an implied threat and the depicted bank probably called the police. If I was working in area I would be happy to find out it isn't a threat, and I could move on to admire the artwork. I'm admiring it now. It's really good.

[coalition_unwilling]

14. Did you read the full story? Two LAPDdetectives showed up at his

house the next day to ask more questions.

Um, that easily borders on harassment if not bumping up against 1st amendment issues.

I guess I have to call my councilperson tomorrow (Bill Rosendahl) to register my strong opposition to how my tax dollars are being spent on the goons at the LAPD. Don't they have better things to do?

[lunatica]

15. What if he firebombed the bank? Would that make it OK for cops to show up?

I guess you know who's a criminal and who isn't just by looking at them.

[socialist_n_TN]

19. Oh yeah, I can just LOOK at an artist

painting a picture and just KNOW he's a "terrorist". He should be treated accordingly!

For those who are sarcastically challenged, the above was :sarcasm:

[Iggo]

21. Yes, because firebombing a bank is a serious crime.

B-)

[coalition_unwilling]

22. Did you read the full story? - n/t

[Odin2005]

13. Is it FASCISM yet?

[demigoddess]

17. almost, all we need now

is a few detainee camps for people of a certain religion.

[krabigirl]

16. absolutely disgusting..this country is becoming a very sick joke.

[socialist_n_TN]

18. Well if this art suggests "terrorism"

than I KNOW my songs will. At least to the capitalistic fascists who rule us. Fuck it. Art does what it does.

[undeterred]

20. I just ordered that design on my new checks, I think.

[n2doc]

23. kick n/t