Full Video of "Sunset 3" Ticketed for Legally Chalking During Second Saturday Vigil
Channel: Nevada Cop Block (NVCopBlock.org)
Date: 2013-06-15

On Saturday June 8, 2013, three members of the Sunset Activist Collective were participating in Nevada Cop Block's monthly "Second Saturday" vigil and protest for victims of police brutality at the headquarters of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

As has been the case for about nine months, this included writing words of protest and tributes to the people (and animals) that have been murdered by Las Vegas area police on the sidewalk out front using chalk, which is completely legal. However, Sgt. Michael Wallace of the LVMPD drove by and decided he would declare it illegal and issue tickets to the three of us for supposedly writing graffiti.

When it was pointed out to him that it wasn't graffiti and that not only was it legal, but that a federal judge had ruled that it was protected as free speech by the First Amendment, he insisted that he was a "graffiti expert" because he works with the gang unit and "that's what the courts are for."

After Sgt. Wallace spent at least 45 minutes in his car figuring out how to write a ticket up for a crime that wasn't actually happening, two other cops eventually showed up including his supervisor, who he had originally refused to call (because he is THE supervisor). During that time we had actually called into the non emergency dispatch number and asked them about the legality of writing on a sidewalk with chalk to which the dispatcher responded, "I don't think that is a crime."

Lt. Liberty then informed us that he had called a D.A. and a judge to ask if drawing with chalk was considered graffiti (hence the long wait for Sgt. Wallace to write the tickets). When he also was informed that the courts had already decided whether writing with chalk was illegal and that none of those people he talked to in Las Vegas outranked a federal judge, he insisted that "it was the city manager that wanted it to be prosecuted" because they don't like when their crimes are exposed and therefore spend money on making sure the chalk is cleaned up right away instead of allowing it to stay there for a few days while passersby read it.

Read more: http://nvcopblock.org/895/las-vegas-metro-police-chalk-washes-off-but-injustice-never-will/