Steal a cop’s radio.

What is urban music?

No one, I repeat, no one, who works for the government is trying to do anything more than the bare minimum AT THE MOST. Half don’t even do that. Like most things in life, if you just keep your mouth shut and play dumb, you’ll be fine.

That’s awesome! What do you do? Is it your job or a volunteer thing?

That’s interesting. I feel the same about the term “African-American.” To me it seems like othering. Most black people I know were born in the USA, so they are simply Americans. But, I’m also very white, so I’ll call whoever whatever they want to be called.

Yeah. We are saying the same thing.

The term political correctness has existed since the early 1900’s, so this isn’t a nowadays thing. The past and the present are the same. People were mad about it back then too. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Whatever. I’m not trying to win debate class. Just offering a different point of view for our friend here.

Can’t really speak to that. I just look at it from a linguistics perspective and to me it makes more sense to use the term unhoused. Most people still say homeless, so I think you’ll be fine if you want to keep using that terminology. No one is out here caring about words that much, except on the internet. The real world has bigger shit to worry about.

Well, not really. I think it’s important to remember that a house is a specific type of building, where as a home can be defined in many ways. Even if you are sleeping in a tent under a bridge, while it’s not a house you could still consider it your home. So, unhoused is a more accurate term.

This difference in verbiage can also affect how we view actions taken against the unhoused. I think some people see a tent city get busted up and what they see are a bunch of squatters being removed from an area they are “trespassing” on. But, if you consider that encampment their home, which it 100% is, then it can be easier to empathize with those unhoused people.

I know “wokeness” and PC culture are annoying, but words can shape how we view the world, so sometimes it’s important to utilize terms like this to better describe the thing.

Dude, you have to calm down. I didn’t spray paint anything on your house or whatever. I’m just here trying to defend the artistic merits of graffiti. Also, no “edge” intended. These are my honest opinions.

You do know that different types of art exist, correct? I can certainly appreciate all the lovely architecture you described while also appreciating the art applied to the exterior of said architecture. The only thing that differentiates a tag on a wall from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is your opinion. Are you mad at the hunter gatherers who drew on the sides of caves because they fucked up the sacred wall of that millennia old cave? Of course not. But how is that different than a tag on a wall? Just someone leaving their mark. One is just old you you accept it.

We are in agreement on one thing, it is typically considered by most writers to be bad form to tag personal property. A bridge is one thing. Even an abandon building is usually considered fine. Houses, cars, nature, historic anything is considered toy shit. Again, I’m no expert, so take this with a grain of salt. I feel for your neighbors. Personally I’d let that ACAB shit ride, but I know such statements are not for everyone.

Oh buddy. This is quite an assumption.

I don’t vandalize things. I can still respect the art form. Sort of like how I don’t like you, but I can still have this respectful exchange.

Art is subjective, so I can’t really argue with you there. I’m am certainly no graffiti expert, but if you hate the scribbles I might encourage you to explore the art of handstyles. For instance, did you know Baltimore has it’s own style that’s completely unique? Here is a fun little video about Baltimore graff if you’re interested. It’s only like 4 minutes long.

Again, as this is completely subjective I can’t say you are wrong or right about how you feel about tagging. I love throws and hollows and pieces and all styles, but to me tagging is the purest form of graffiti. It’s how most people get started, just scribbling their name or some random word on a bathroom stall.

Yes. You have correctly identified the sole purpose of graffiti: to make people look at your dumb tag every day. Just because you don’t like it, doesn’t mean it isn’t art. Certainly seems to have gotten an emotional response here, and isn’t that the entire point of art? To evoke emotion and feelings inside a person? I certainly think so.

Regardless of your feelings about the merits of tagging, I also think there are much larger problems we can throw that money at rather than wasting it on removing paint from a bridge or whatever. Paint that is going to be reapplied at the writer’s earliest opportunity. I say just enjoy some local art.

Graffiti keeps rent low.

You know, I never thought of it that way. Graffiti = murder. Consider my mind changed. 🙄

Graffiti keeps rent low.

Antony Jewelers out in Owings Mills is great. Family owned. Great service.

Twelve O’Clock Boys

Alex Doucette at Have Fun Be Lucky

Apparently you have to be named Alex to do blackwork in Baltimore. And he’s in Hampden.

Do we just, like, start a gofundme? Anyone have an uncle with $400,000,000,000 dollars laying around?

There seems to be a big misconception that cops have something to do with 988. They do not. The cops will shoot you if you are having a mental health emergency. It is important that we are not giving them any credit for this, despite the fact that the implication seems to be that they are somehow involved, whether by them or outside parties.

It’s just like the two wonderful women who tracked down and found that missing baby and then the cops posing for pics with the baby and implying they were somehow involved. It’s called copaganda. Police departments hire entire PR teams to do shit like this.

The cops have done nothing but imply that if you call them instead of this number, which they did not set up and have nothing to do with, they will murder your loved one having a mental health crisis. This number was set up by the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline because they do what cops pretend to do.

This dude is a fucking cop. Ignore.