Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/07/17/chalk-black-lives-matter-o.html
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Don’t tell them about Mary Poppins.
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i wonder what would happen if, instead of using chalk, people used that hydrophobic coating that makes water bead off of virtually anything, so that normally you can’t even see there’s anything there but when you add water the message is revealed.
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25 years accumulated chewing gum, utilty dig markings and dog shit - No Problem
Chalk spelling out a social message - Pressure Washer
Methinks the local constabulary is a bit too touchy on this subject
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In the past I’ve inquired about these sorts of anti-grafiti laws, suggesting using stencils and cleaning products to simply clean the message into the sidewalk mildew/dirt. Here at least, anything that leaves a visible mark is considered to be grafiti under the law.
eta: in case it needs saying, the town’s response is screwed up and illustrates exactly why we need the BLM movement
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Well that stuff needs power-washed to be removed. So if it is on not your property and someone that doesn’t like you saw you … welcome to the criminal justice system.
increase likelihood of physical damage to your body if you are a person of color.
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Fuck the authorities there.
As a matter of fact, fuck all authority while I’m at it.
The only thing consistent about it is its abuse against people who don’t deserve it
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That still involves coating a surface with a chemical, so is probably legally considered to be graffiti. I’m curious if people could get away with reverse graffiti though.
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Hold on… people wrote messages on their own bodies, and some City dude came along and hosed them down to remove those messages?
Isn’t that assault and suppression of free speech?
Hell, if those people wrote ‘I heart KKK’ on their bodies and the City hosed them down then folks should still be outraged.
Sigh. Where is the Federal Government on this? FBI?
I bet if they chalked “Blue Lives Matter” on the sidewalk they wouldn’t get in trouble.
And yet it’s the exact same act, with a different message.
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You have misunderstood.
People wrote messages on the sidewalk, some City dude came along to hose the sidewalk down to remove the messages, people used their bodies to protect the messages. People got hosed.
Juvi in that town is full of kids who drew butterflies and hearts on their sidewalks. /s
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Ahhh. Still, if a city worker in my town ever did that to citizens. holy hell to pay. You ask for help to remove the people interfering with your duties rather than spraying away.
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Yeah. You come back later. Or you embrace the city worker stereotype and stand there, on the clock, waiting for people to move,
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This is definitely the solution.
Everyone on the planet grant me ultimate authority. (in exchange for a comfortable stipend for me of course).
In return I promise to ignore most requests, occasionally and begrudgingly issue a sarcastic set of instructions, then largely return to not giving a F.
I promise that my rules will be largely ridiculous and shameful, but fair.
I used to be a city worker. If I was sent out to clean off a sidewalk and there were people on it who didn’t want to move I’m 99.9% sure my supervisor would have just said “OK, just come back later.”
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Found the anarchist 
You‘re spot on, though. Still, most people are afraid to come to that conclusion, because it means they‘d actually have to take responsibility for what happens around them. And if they did that, they‘d have to step in and stop the authorities from doing stuff like that.
No you found an intensely angry hermit instead.
I just find modern human society to be atrocious and intensely wish I could live someplace like Ball’s Pyramid, separate from all of you.
Except there’s no internet or room to set up a cnc machine there.
I have a long history of hating authority due to directly seeing how it’s abused with aplomb.
You make it sound like anarchist is an insult. Far from it. The older I get, the more I discover that I might have become one myself.
That’s maybe not literally what Bakunin said to Marx, but probably pretty close
