Legal vs. illegal
“I have a question for the city of Gilroy and the graffiti task force. I’m a family man and I’m tried of living in fear of my own art. I think it’s time to set a line between legal graph art and illegal graph art. About a month ago, a robbery occurred in my own home. I was about to call the GPD then out of fear, I thought it was the wrong thing to do because of the graph art around my house. At times I get scared and I think my child’s going to be without a father either because of police or the graffiti task force that’s out there looking for kids every day who are doing illegal graphs. I’m a grown man and I do this for the love of art, to put smiles on faces. I’m not trying to hurt no one’s feelings or cost them money over stupid, illegal graffiti tags.
“My question is now that Gilroy’s growing and looking at it’s best efforts, is it possible that someday we could have legal walls down here? How do you handle illegal tags from legal graph art? And PS, to all you youngsters who do this for the fun, think of the consequences and all the trouble. Graffiti is no joke. If you do this, do it for the love of art and keep it legal. Thanks.”
Red Phone:
Thanks for the call, but you’re not going to like the answer.
Gilroy Police Sgt. Kurt Svardal said the city has no plans to build a wall for “legal graph art.”
“Graffiti is a crime. We will not sponsor it,” he said. “We’re not going to put any wall up for graffiti and we will not tolerate graffiti and tagging in any way shape or form.”
Way too dark
“Hi, my message is that I’ve been encountering the tinted driver windows. The dark, dark, dark driver window. You can’t drive safely. … It’s a safety issue, not a personal issue. How can these businesses be tinting the car windows so dark? I thought it was illegal. Poor officers, if they pull over a car like that, they can’t even see what’s going on. Is it illegal and if it is, who’s tinting these windows? Thanks.”
Red Phone:
Sgt. Svardal provided the answer for this one too.
He said that it is not illegal for businesses to tint car windows. However, it is illegal for individuals to drive a vehicle with tinted windows on public roadways.
“There is nothing that says businesses can’t tint windows,” Svardal said. “In California it is illegal to tint your car windows, but in other states it’s not. Tinting windows significantly reduces the heat inside of a car. Tinting windows is a solar issue in some cases.”
According to Svardal, if and when police see vehicles with tinted windows on the streets they are pulled over and issued a ticket.
“If we see them we will write them a ticket, and we do,” he added.
More on barking
“I’m contacting Red Phone about the ignoramus who complained about people who complain about dog barking. ‘It’s what dogs do – they bark.’ That’s like saying ‘boys will be boys.’ … Dogs that bark while captive are miserable. Dogs that bark while captive are suffering. Barking dogs spread hostility, anxiety, illness, disease and plague to innocent humans by way of sound. A heartless society is one where whatever the individual wants, goes – screw those around you – screw the common good as implied by the caller’s attitude of ‘if you don’t like barking, up yours.’ Dogs as a species are congenitally unsuited as co-habitors near, or in, human dwellings, period. And just so you know, dogs in the wild do not bark much. Do your homework.”
Red Phone:
This one came through e-mail, but the Red Phone could still hear the hostility – editing is a lovely thing.
Readers, thanks for all the comments on barking dogs, but shall we move onto a new topic? Red Phone thinks so. For those who have problems with barking dogs, contact the police and animal control at 846-0350.
