- Title: USA: FEATURE - GRAFFITI IN NEW YORK
- Date: 18th February 1996
- Summary: NEW YORK CITY, UNITED STATES (RECENT) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. PEOPLE WALKING PAST GRAFFITI ON WALL 2. NEW YORK POLICE TALKING TO MAN 3. GRAFFITI "TAGS" ON TELEPHONES/ POST BOXES 4. STREET CLEANER 5. NEW YORK CITY TRANSIT POLICE CONEY ISLAND OFFICE 6. PLAIN-CLOTHES VANDAL SQUAD POLICE BEING BRIEFED 7. DETECTIVES TOM WEINER AND JERRY DASSARO IN BRIEFING ROOM 8. WEINER AND DASSARO WALKING PAST GRAFFITI 9. GRAFFITI ON WALL 10. WEINER AND DASSARO WALKING BESIDE RAILWAY TRACK 11. DETECTIVE TOM WEINER, NEW YORK TRANSIT POLICE, SAYING WE STARTED DOING THIS ABOUT TEN YEARS AGO...ME AND JERRY DECIDED, WAIT A SECOND, WHO ELSE WOULD KNOW ABOUT WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE AREA IF NOT THESE GRAFFITI KIDS...ME AND JERRY TOOK IT ONE STEP FURTHER. WE STARTED USING VANDAL WRITERS TO GO OUT AND SOLVE OTHER CRIMES (ENGLISH) 12. WEINER AND DASSARO WALKING THROUGH SPRAY-PAINTED RAILWAY WAGONS 13. WEINER SAYING HERE'S A GOOD EXAMPLE. HE'S COME FROM FRANKLIN AVENUE. SNIPER- HE HAS A GUN; CLICK - HE'S NOT AFRAID OF USING IT. WE AFTER SEEING THIS WE ARE DEFINITELY GOING TO LOOK INTO IT ON THE STREETS. WHY IS HE COMING BACK ? WHY IS SAYING STAY AWAY FROM ME BECAUSE I'M READY TO GO? (ENGLISH) 14. DASSARO SAYING THIS HERE IS A GANG CALLED ACC --ALL CITY CREW...HE'S WRITTEN IT OVER SOMEONE'S TAG. ITS A SIGN THAT SAYS WE DONT LIKE YOU, WE DONT WANT YOU HERE SO WE PAINTED OVER YOU. 15. VARIOUS OF GRAFFITI 16. REPORTER STANDUP 17. SHOP WITH STREET-LAMP OUTSIDE 18. WEINER SAYING HERE'S A GREAT EXAMPLE. THE BOTTOM OF THE LAMPPOST IS SPRAY-PAINTED GREEN. THIS REPRESENTS THE GREEN CAPS ON THE CRACK VIALS, WHICH MEANS THIS AREA IS SELLING CRACK COCAINE. ANYONE DRIVING BY CAN SEE THE CLUE AND FIND OUT WHERE TO BUT THE CRACK. (ENGLISH) 19. WEINER AND DASSARO PHOTOGRAPHING GRAFFITI 20. DASSARO AND WEINER SAYING TOS. TERMINATE ON SIGHT. YEAH, THEY MEAN TO KILL HIM..YOU DON'T SEE TOS TOO MUCH BUT WHEN YOU SEE IT YOU KNOW THAT SOMETHINGS GOING ON, MAYBE HE DID SOMETHING TERRIBLE TO HIS FAMILY. (ENGLISH) 21. EXTERIOR OF STORE CATERING FOR STREET ARTISTS 22. GRAFFITI ARTIST "DUKE" LOOKING AT MARKERS AND PAINTS 23. DUKE SAYING THEY'RE JUST SCAMMIN' SOME STUPID CAPTAIN, GRAFFITI, SO ALL I HAVE TO DO IS WALK AROUND ALL DAY LONG READING GRAFFITI AND BUST WRITERS.' HEY, THAT'S NICE, I'D RATHER DO THAT THAN HAVE TO DEAL WITH COKE DEALERS, AND MURDERERS AND RAPISTS (ENGLISH - NOTE THIS SOUND BITE CONTAINS OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE) 24. GRAFFITI ARTIST "CUZ" WALKING ALONG STREET 25. DETECTIVES SHOWING "CUZ" BOOK OF GRAFFITI AND TAGS 26. CUZ TALKING TO DETECTIVES ABOUT MURDER OF GRAFFITI ARTIST 27. WEINER AND DASSARO TALKING TO CHILDREN AND GRAFFITI ARTISTS ON STREET 28. GRAFFITI ON WALLS NOTE NARRATION VERSION AT 10.20.03 to 10. 25.38 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 4th March 1996 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- City:
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVAA55F3RSB0ZCD783T4VYUNA2X1
- Story Text: SUGGESTED NEWSREADER INTRO: New York's trains and subways are notorious for graffiti. The city spends tens of millions of dollars trying to keep the transit system clean. But now authorities have a new weapon against the graffiti gangs: Tom and Jerry. Reuters Television's Stefan Kotsonis reports.
----------------------------------------------------------- Graffiti is an established part of the American urban landscape. To some, it is the art of the disenfranchised. To others, it is simply vandalism.
Down streets that are like corridors of angry conversation, many New Yorkers go about their business oblivious to the spray-painted messages that surround them.
The New York City government spends tens of millions of dollars annually scrubbing walls and subway trains...and paying policemen to pursue graffiti writers.
It's morning roll call at the Coney Island Vandal Squad. These plainclothesmen plan the day, trying to figure out how to catch the young bombers, as they call themselves.
BITE WE'RE HITTING 63RD AND LEX, WE'RE HITTING....
But one day, two of these cops decided to stop running after teenage vandals and to start studying their work instead.
Detectives Tom Weiner and Jerry Dassaro discovered that graffiti was full of clues to crimes that had confounded their colleagues for months.
-------------- CAPTION: DETECTIVE TOM WEINER, NEW YORK TRANSIT POLICE "WE STARTED DOING THIS ABOUT TEN YEARS AGO...ME AND JERRY DECIDED, WAIT A SEC, WHO ELSE WOULD KNOW ABOUT WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE AREA IF NOT THESE GRAFFITI KIDS...ME AND JERRY TOOK IT ONE STEP FURTHER. WE STARTED USING VANDAL WRITERS TO STOP OTHER CRIMES.
They are known on the stret simply as Tom and Jerry. They are considered experts, and the police department gives them free rein to roam the city's back streets anmd railway yards.
---------------- CAPTION: DETECTIVE TOM WEINER RIGHT HERE IS A GOOD EXAMPLE...HE'S FROM FRANKLIN AVE IN BROOKLYN, SNIPER, THIS MEANS HE'S GOT A GUN, HERE HE SAYS 'CLICK' WHICH MEANS HE'S WILLING TO USE IT...WE'LL DEFFINITELY STAY ON TOP OF THIS ONE. WHY'S HE BACK? WHY'S HE SAYING 'I'M READY TO GO'? ---------------- CAPTION: DETECTIVE JERRY DASSARO THIS HERE IS A GANG CALLED ACC --ALL CITY CREW...ITS A SIGN THAT SAYS WE DONT LIKE YOU, WE DONT WANT YOU HERE SO WE PAINTED OVER YOU.
------------------ Much of the crime surrounding graffiti is about 'beef' (AN ARGUMENT OR FIGHT). Two artists will paint over each other's work in a competitive race across the city's five boroughs. This can escalate into deadly violence.
Here, one writer is careful to let another know that he was not the one who 'covered' his work --He was not the one who 'dissed,' or disrespected him.
------------------ REPORTER STANDUP WHAT LOOKS TO MOST OF US LIKE A WALL OF MEANINGLESS SCRAWLS IS ACTUALLY A WINDOW INTO A WORLD OF STREET ART --BUT ALSO OF STREET CRIME. THERE ARE BOASTS, THERE ARE THREATS, THERE ARE ADVERTISEMENTS FOR THINGS SOLD ON DARK CORNERS --GUNS, FOR EXAMPLE.
AND INEVITABLY, DRUGS.
------------------ If you know what to look for, there is just such an adertizemnt on the corner of 115th and 2nd Avenue. Tom Weiner knows what to look for.
------------------ CAPTION: DETECTIVE TOM WEINER HERE'S A GREAT EXAMPLE. THE BOTTOM OF THE LAMPPOST IS SPRAY-PAINTED GREEN. THIS REPRESENTS THE GREEN CAPS ON THE CRACK VIALS, WHICH MEANS THIS AREA IS SELLING CRACK COCAINE. ANYONE DRIVING BY CAN SEE THE CLUE AND FIND OUT WHERE TO BUT THE CRACK.
------------------ They have cabinets full of photographs of different tags. They memorize styles,they keep track of who is fighting whom. And there are certain messages that immediatley set off alarm bells: ------------------ CAPTION: DETECTIVES JERRY DASSARO AND TOM WEINER TOS. TERMINATE ON SIGHT. YEAH, THEY MEAN TO KILL HIM..YOU DON'T SEE TOS TOO MUCH , BUT WHEN YOU SEE IT YOU KNOW THAT SOMETHINGS GOING ON, MAYBE HE DID SOMETHING TERRIBLE TO HIS FAMILY.
------------------ There are sceptics. At a graffiti shop that caters to most ofhis whims, Duke shops for the tools he needs. Duke doesn't believe Tom and Jerry actually solve crimes: ---------------- CAPTION: "DUKE", GRAFFITI ARTIST (NOTE FOLLOWING SOUND BITE CONTAINS OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE) THEY'RE JUST SCAMMING SOME STUPID CAPTAIN, MAN. LIKE, 'OH, I'M SO HIP, I KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT GRAFFITI, SO ALL I HAVE TO DO IS WALK AROUND ALL DAY LONG READING GRAFFITI AND BUST WRITERS.' HEY, THAT'S NICE, I'D RATHER DO THAT THAN HAVE TO DEAL WITH COKE DEALERS, AND MURDERERS AND RAPISTS." ------------------ Cuz is a famous writer. The detectives have known of "CUZ" for years, and he has known of them. But, as so often happens in the world of the street, they've never met face to face --until today.
They keep a book and invite writers they meet to draw something.
It's an offer Cuz takes up with relish. But as he goes through the book, he learns his friend TEZ was recently found stabbed 40 times: ------------------ CAPTION: "CUZ", GRAFFITI ARTIST HEY, THAT'S MY MAN TEZ( HE'S GREAT, HE'S ALWAYS GETTING ARRESTED THOUGH...
------------------ It can be the saddest part of their job: Getting to know these young New Yorkers, learning their real names and figuring out which one belongs to which tag, so that in trouble, in crime, or even in death, somebody knows who they are, and how to contact the parents.
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