And fool Mosqueda is not even the craziest one!

from
https://mynorthwest.com/3710764/rantz-seattle-councilmember-defends-gang-graffiti-unsolicited-creative-expression-mosqueda/

Rantz: Seattle councilmember defends gang graffiti as ‘unsolicited
creative expression’
Nov 14, 2022, 5:25 PM | Updated: Nov 15, 2022, 8:57 am
1 / 4
(Photo obtained by Jason Rantz/KTTH)
Share
BY JASON RANTZ
The Jason Rantz Show, 3pm-6pm on KTTH

Seattle councilmember Teresa Mosqueda thinks gang graffiti and Antifa
tagging is “unsolicited creative expression” and art. She thinks
cleaning it up is just a handout to “for-profit graffiti removal
businesses.”

The city of Seattle is inundated with graffiti, much coming from local
gang members and Antifa thugs. It prompted a proposal by Mayor Bruce
Harrell to implement a six-point program to clean it up. The program
includes funding graffiti abatement and charging prolific taggers.

There are clear problems with Harrell’s plan. But Mosqueda expresses
remarkably irresponsible and ignorant criticism.

Mosqueda effectively endorses gang graffiti
Police do not arrest taggers, and they won’t be booked. The Seattle
Police Department is dangerously understaffed. More problematic, the
Seattle City Attorney is unlikely to prioritize their prosecution, no
matter how prolific.

While cleaning up the gang symbols and other tagging helps make the city
feel safer, without proper enforcement, painting over graffiti is an
extremely short-term solution. The Bartell Drug Store in Wallingford is
routinely tagged by Antifa (or Antifa-sympathizing) thugs who regularly
smear cops on the building’s exterior.

Mosqueda isn’t a fan of Harrell’s program, either. But she opposes it
for laughable reasons. She sees nothing wrong with gang and Antifa
graffiti. She endorsed what she thinks is an “insightful comment on
graffiti abatement” by Urban Artworks project director Paul Nunn.

Early release policy at Arlington Schools leads to downtown disruptions

It’s not graffiti. It’s ‘unsolicited creative expression’
Nunn chastised the “purely punitive approach to erasing graffiti from
the urban landscape” because he would rather incentivize what he’s
pretending is art.

Indeed, he argues tagging is merely “unsolicited creative expression”
and not “truly detrimental vandalism.” Tell that to businesses that are
tagged with gang symbols and messages calling cops murderers.

Businesses overwhelmed with graffiti often see fewer customers. No one
wants to frequent a restaurant, for example, covered in gang signs. And
it’s not especially welcoming walking into a coffee shop tagged with
“ACAB” at its entrance. Those businesses, many struggling to survive due
to the area’s crime surge, are burdened with the costs of cleaning it
all up. Mosqueda doesn’t seem to mind.

I mean … how dumb is this?
Pretending that graffiti is merely harmless unsolicited art is
stunningly obtuse. Mosqueda wouldn’t hold the position if she found a
pro-life graffiti message on her property.

Like Socialist Kshama Sawant calling the police she tried to defund when
poop was thrown at her home, Mosqueda would get the “unsolicited art”
removed from her property within hours and would likely demand a police
investigation.

In fairness to Mosqueda, if her council office were tagged at City Hall,
she wouldn’t clean it up. Not out of her principled stance against
giving tax dollars to for-profit graffiti cleaners, of course. After
all, Mosqueda doesn’t go to the office to work. She is still using COVID
rules to work from home in her pajamas. She wouldn’t even see the tagging.

Nevertheless, the graffiti that Harrell seeks to clean up isn’t art.
Murals are art. Tagging gang signs express one’s commitment to violence
and intimidation.

Rantz: Police-defunding Seattle CM demands protection as residence
targeted by feces

Equity agenda at work
A left-wing equity movement informs Mosqueda and Nunn’s positions.

Taggers, whether or not in a gang, are typically youth. Progressives do
not want to punish the youth because they think young people, especially
racial minorities, are victims of a white supremacist criminal justice
system. And they argue that entering the criminal justice system only
leads to worse outcomes. Sometimes that’s true.

But activists, like Mosqueda, believe the criminal justice system is
literally never the answer. It’s what keeps dangerous, violent kids on
the streets reoffending. Punitive measures can stop a teen’s criminal
activity from escalating.

Listen to the Jason Rantz Show on weekday afternoons from 3:00 p.m. –
6:00 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to
the podcast. Follow @JasonRantz on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Check back frequently for more news and analysis.