Chalk artist Joshua Hinson was finishing up a community art project in Leon Valley, Texas when local cops confronted him over his art, which they incorrectly described as “graffiti.” Hinson’s arrest, which was captured on video, has raised questions about the protection of art under the First Amendment, and the overreach and abuse of power exercised by police in regulating public space. The charges against Hinson were ultimately dropped, but the problems his case raises about the police as an institution remain. Police Accountability Report investigates.
Production: Stephen Janis, Taya Graham
Post-Production: Stephen Janis, Cameron Granadino
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Taya Graham:
Hello, my name is Taya Graham, and welcome to the Police Accountability Report. As I always make clear, this show has a single purpose: holding the politically powerful institution of policing accountable. And to do so, we don’t just focus on the bad behavior of individual cops. Instead, we examine the system that makes bad policing possible. And today, we will achieve that goal by showing you the video of the arrest of a Texas man for reasons that I think will shock you, but even more alarming is what this encounter says about an ongoing problem with law enforcement in the US that we will address in detail.
But before we get started, I want you watching to know that if you have video evidence of police misconduct, please email it to us privately at par@therealnews.com or reach out to me directly at Facebook or Twitter @TayasBaltimore, and we might be able to investigate for you. And please like, share, and comment on our videos. It helps us get the word out and it can even help our guests. And of course, you know I read your comments and appreciate them. I know you see those hearts down there. And we do have a Patreon called Accountability Reports, so if you feel inspired to donate, please do. We don’t run ads or take corporate dollars, so anything you can spare is truly appreciated. All right, we’ve gotten that out of the way.
Now, as we’ve talked about before on this show, our country might not have enough doctors, nurses, school teachers, or electricians, but one thing we certainly have in abundance is police officers. Just to be clear, I’m not talking about the debate over how many cops, cities, or small towns say they need or the jobs that are budgeted for but not filled across the country. What I’m talking about now is the expansion of policing as a social process. That is, how law enforcement has expanded to infiltrate more facets of our lives without debate over why it’s happening or if we need it at all. Because let’s face it, a recent report shows that crime is actually down 12% across the country.
Meanwhile, police departments say they’re understaffed or having trouble hiring a full compliment of cops. So that seems odd, right? Fewer police and less crime, which is why I think we need to do some digging into why fewer cops have actually led to less crime and what it says about how we use police, how many we hire, and hopefully what we can do to reveal why we need less, not more. Because even though some cities say they’re having trouble finding cops, the officers that are on the job do not seem to have trouble producing useless arrests. Just a few weeks ago we showed you this entirely bogus DUI charge against a Dallas firefighter who lost his job despite the fact the case itself was never filed with prosecutors.
But an even more glaring example might be the video I’m showing you now. It involves a man in Leon Valley, Texas who was engaged in exercising his first amendment rights until a cop who apparently disagreed used handcuffs to prove it. The story starts on May 15th, as I said, in Leon Valley. There a man named Joshua Hinson, who is also known as Lakey 360, was using sidewalk chalk to complete another piece in the series of work he does to beautify communities across Texas. However, unbeknownst to him, someone, I’m guessing an Art Karen, had called the police and complained that he was “creating graffiti.” This led to a visit from not one, but two Leon Valley police officers. Let’s watch.
Speaker 2:
Somebody called because you do graffiti. If you don’t have a permit, unfortunately, you have to stop.
Joshua Hinson:
It’s freedom of expression to create on public property.
Speaker 2:
It’s public, yes.
Joshua Hinson:
Yeah, I’ve been arrested, going to court three times now. I mean, if y’all need to arrest me for it, you can arrest me and then we can go to court after that.
Taya Graham:
Now, interestingly, the sidewalk chalk does not meet the legal definition of graffiti, and there is a reason for that. Because as cops failed to recognize, it’s not permanent, a fact that these officers seem to overlook as they escalated the encounter. Just watch.
Speaker 2:
Graffiti?
Speaker 4:
A what?
Speaker 2:
The whole crossing from the corner by the bus stop on the… How do you call it?
Speaker 4:
Marker or what?
Speaker 2:
No, it’s chalk.
Speaker 4:
Okay, is that an arrestable offense?
Speaker 2:
Yes, because it’s chalk marker, permanent marker, all that stuff. I’m going to read the statute again. I want give you a break.
Speaker 4:
The marker for class D has to be indelible, meaning not erasable. Chalk is washable.
Speaker 2:
I don’t know, the water is not washing off, so it’s going to take a little time.
Speaker 4:
Chalk is not considered a permanent marking.
Speaker 2:
Okay. I told him, hey, what is he doing? I’m going to give him a break. Okay, just stop. No, no, I’m doing the art. This is my right. I can do this in public.
Speaker 4:
He did it on the sidewalk?
Speaker 2:
On the sidewalk.
Speaker 4:
Okay. That’s [inaudible 00:04:50] going to be arrestable offense.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I’m going to check right now. If that is the case, just let him go.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, double-check. But tell him to be careful, because if we bring something back here like that and then if we unlawfully detain him, then that opens up stuff for lawsuit.
Speaker 2:
Okay.
Taya Graham:
Finally, after ignoring Joshua’s explanation, said he was merely doing what the First Amendment allowed. And what the transient nature of sidewalk chalk would permit in the light of the law, the officers used the most destructive tools of the over-policing industrial complex, handcuffs and a cage. Just look.
Speaker 2:
You have any weapons on you, man?
Joshua Hinson:
No.
Speaker 2:
You got any knives or anything’s going to poke or stick me?
Joshua Hinson:
My backpack, my artwork over there.
Speaker 2:
All right, man. Just give me a minute. Just go ahead and I’m going to go ahead and take him the back my patrol car, and we’re going to figure out what we’re going to go ahead and do, all right? At this time, you’re just detained. You’re not free to leave. These are the elements of the crime. These two, this one.
Speaker 4:
Okay, we’re going to book him?
Speaker 2:
Yep. For graffiti. [inaudible 00:06:10].
Taya Graham:
Now this was not the first time that Lakey 360 had faced law enforcement pushback because believe it or not, this was not the first time he was arrested, cuffed, and taken to jail for chalk art in Texas. In fact, this was just the beginning of his struggles with police criminalizing his work, an ongoing ordeal that is the classic tale of the consequences of over-policing. And for more on that, we will be joined by Lakey 360 later. But first I’m joined by my reporting partner, Stephen Janis, who has been researching the law, reaching out to police and delving into the details of the case. Stephen, thank you so much for joining me,
Stephen Janis:
Taya, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Taya Graham:
So first, what do the graffiti laws say in Texas? Did police have the right to arrest Joshua?
Stephen Janis:
Taya, I think this is a perfect example of why if you’re going to enforce the law, you should read it. Because basically the graffiti law says paint, indelible marker, an etching process. Not anything related to sidewalk chalk. So really this is a perfect case of a cop who doesn’t seem to understand the law, have read it, be familiar with it, or also perhaps doesn’t understand the distinction between paint and an etching device and sidewalk chalk. So it’s almost funny if it didn’t result in an arrest and a detainment, but it certainly shows the cops need to brush up on the law before they enforce it. That would be my recommendation.
Taya Graham:
Now, what are the police saying in Leon Valley, Texas about his arrest? How have they handled the fallout over it?
Stephen Janis:
Taya, what’s very different and I think interesting about this case is it wasn’t the police who were doing the apologizing. The city council was apparently so embarrassed that Lakey 360 had been arrested for sidewalk chalk that they apologized publicly. Very, very odd because usually we’ve seen city councils or mayors tend to hide behind the police department and not comment. But in this case, I guess they were just so utterly embarrassed by the whole ordeal, they felt like they had to say something publicly and they did.
Taya Graham:
So Stephen, you have done a lot of reporting on this idea of over-policing. Why is it so important and why do we have to stay vigilant about it?
Stephen Janis:
Taya, I’m going to talk about this subject by telling you a story. I was a young reporter, I was doing investigations on police overtime and we had cops logging in 24 hours a day saying they’d worked 365 days a year, including holidays, and it didn’t make any sense. And when I exposed it and I went to a counsel hearing where they confronted the cops, the counsel said this. “Do you need more money? Are we not giving you enough money?” And to me that was representative of what is wrong with over-policing. Because basically what it does is it circumvents the process of accountability and it ends up infiltrating all of our lives with bad arrest, bad policing, and unproductive use of government resources. It is something we have to think about, it is something we have to understand and it is something we have to stop.
Taya Graham:
And now to get more details about the consequences of his arrest and of his other encounter with Texas police that ended badly, I’m joined by Joshua, also known as Lakey 360. Lakey 360, thank you so much for joining me.
Joshua Hinson:
Thank you very much for having me.
Taya Graham:
So first things first, why were you drawing on the sidewalk?
Joshua Hinson:
I just like creating in public places. Sometimes I do it in places where it’s somewhat expected. Other times it seems sort of absurd. That one ended up just being right down the street from a friend’s house and there was a storm coming in and I was like, oh, well let’s see how much art I can do before it rains today.
Taya Graham:
So you have actually been noted in local newspapers for your efforts to beautify the city, and you’ve even taught kids chalk art too, isn’t that right? You’ve been publicly acknowledged as an artist?
Joshua Hinson:
Yeah, out in east Texas and Longview and then little bit here in San Antonio area.
Taya Graham:
When you were approached by police in Leon Valley, what did they say? I mean, how did they approach you?
Joshua Hinson:
So they got out of the car, they were approaching me. And I don’t know, just sort of the body language, I figured it wasn’t going to be the most positive encounter. But just stayed calm and everything because I’ve had the police interrupt me in pieces before. Every once in a while, it’s a compliment, some nice words. But this one he was telling me early on that someone had called me, called on me for graffiti or something and I was like, well, this is chalk, it’s going to be washed away. He said something else about how I needed to stop and I said something along the lines of how I’d been ticketed for it and everything multiple times in the past and nothing ever comes of it. And it ended up being less than a minute of us speaking before I was in cuffs then.
Taya Graham:
Do you know why you were put in cuffs? All you had in your hands were chalk.
Joshua Hinson:
He was saying it was because of graffiti. I haven’t spent a ton of time in Leon Valley, but I do know that they’re trying to tighten up a whole lot on homeless people. And even I went to their city hall a couple of nights ago and that was one of the points that they were going to talk about in there. So part of me wonders if he thought that I was homeless and technically, that line is gray as a traveling artist. I haven’t had my own home in a long time. And then he also saw the tip jar and asked if I was doing it for tips out there and I said yes. So part of me wonders if it was like he saw me as a homeless person. He’s like, I need to get that person out of here. Or if he really thought it was graffiti. But I mean, the box of chalk that I had out there is Crayola. So it says washable, non-toxic sidewalk chalk.
Taya Graham:
Were you surprised that a supervisor had to tell the arresting officer he might be violating your constitutional rights, allowing the department to be sued? Were you surprised when you overheard the conversation they had when you got your body camera video?
Joshua Hinson:
I knew he had asked someone and they told him that he didn’t have anything against me, but seeing it on camera, I was like, wow, I couldn’t have expected anything better. Just being like, “Hey, this is wrong.” I’m also a little bit weird, like why didn’t this supervisor try to stop this situation? Those are things that myself and every internet justice, I can’t think of the word, people who think they’re a lawyer or whatever, they’re like lawsuit, lawsuit. But it does feel way different to have his superior say that. Like someone who is very clearly an officer, him acknowledging that that was the issue there. And then also it was weird that the superior officer wasn’t like, “No, you can’t lock him up. We need to fix this right now before it goes any further.”
Taya Graham:
Now, this isn’t the first time that you’ve been arrested for sidewalk chalk art. Didn’t this also happen in Longview, Texas? Can you describe what happened during that incident?
Joshua Hinson:
I wish I had pushed further on that one because I feel like it was even deeper and more weird because first I was front page news for my sidewalk chalk there and a few of the different news stations covered it on the nightly news and everything, and that’s while they were applying for an art district in that city. And then I did my summer travels through 2019 mostly in Chicago and then I came back and they had the art district and it was the day before art walks. So I was like, well, I’ll go out here and cover as much downtown as I can with art before the event. It’ll be like this first art walk, will be some great thing. And a couple of hours into it had a couple of guys approached me asking me to stop and maybe explaining situation and saying that I wasn’t going to, and then some police coming and asking the same thing.
And since I was in a small town and I had family there and I was thinking about staying longer, I was like, well, I’ll go ahead and move to at least this other area where I’m even more sure that it’s public property. I’m in front of a sculpture garden, not even by any businesses. So I went over there and started creating and within 20 minutes the police showed up again asking me to stop and I told him I’m not breaking any laws, I’m going to go ahead and keep going. So they went ahead and handcuffed me and took me in and they decided I needed a cavity search and then locked me up in general population for the first time in my life and I was in for 18 hours just over sidewalk chalk.
Taya Graham:
So what were the charges and how were they adjudicated?
Joshua Hinson:
So on that arrest, it wasn’t a graffiti one, they said it was encumbering a public right of way. So I was encumbering the sidewalk, they said. Even though I’m usually very mindful of let people know you can walk on the artwork, it’s public property, don’t worry. So saw the judge from jail, and at first I pleaded not guilty and then I pleaded no contest because someone had told me I’d be able to get out quicker and I wanted to go to the art walk that day, but then ended up getting released soon thereafter. Then I went to the courthouse to pay the hundred dollar ticket and they said they had dropped the charges in the interest of justice and then there was never any apology or anything done to make anything better, but the charges were dropped.
Taya Graham:
So what do you hope will be the result of sharing your experience? What do you hope happens next?
Joshua Hinson:
With this officer, I feel like if you are going to arrest someone over something as minimal as sidewalk chalk and be so quick to do it, you probably shouldn’t be policing people. Because had I been nervous or any number of things could have gone wrong or I panicked, or let’s say I was a person who had a record and I was like, “Oh no, I didn’t expect chalk was going to get me in trouble.” And you respond in some negative way. So with him, I feel like he should probably be fired.
And then with how officers should respond to it, I feel like it’s pretty obvious. You should just let it fly. But with other people, like average individuals, I don’t think people realize how powerful of a tool something as silly as sidewalk chalk is because it’s impermanent. You can make positive stuff. There’s so many different kinds of creative ways to use it to be kind of a jerk activist that really pushes the envelope, but no one can tell what you’re doing wrong, or there’s other ways of just trying to create very positive things and it still rises up people’s negativity, certain ones of them. It’s weird to have power with something so like cheap, insignificant, childish, and to see the responses people give to it.
Taya Graham:
Now, as I discussed with Stephen, my concerns about over-policing are not just focused on how much or how little law enforcement we have or need, it’s just another iteration of the more cops are good, less cops are bad debate. The reason I talk about this concept is because there’s an aspect of policing that goes beyond the number of people authorized to wear a gun and badge. A distinct facet of law enforcement we often overlook when we discuss what good policing might look like. Because while ostensibly cops are supposed to focus on fairly enforcing the law or solving crimes, police have another purpose made necessary by our wholly unequal society, a role that gets less attention but must be considered if we’re going to discuss what it means when we say there is just too much of it. That’s because police are in part social boundary enforcers.
What I mean is that in this country where the top 1% owns 32% of the nation’s wealth, law enforcement plays a critical role in allowing that imbalance to flourish. So let’s just think about it. If a smaller and smaller group of people control a larger and growing share of our country’s resources, the imbalance of power is destabilizing. When the top 1% controls 20 times more wealth than the bottom 50%, the result is a type of fiscal power, which means the political process, the path to equitable representation, and even the media are all tainted by the undue influence of excessive wealth. And this imbalance, this basic and excess influence, creates instability. It punishes and protracts poverty and it hoards and obstructs opportunity. It overwhelms accountability and induces institutions that are meant to protect us to instead attack us. But most important for this discussion, it demands enforcement. And that’s where the aforementioned role of police as social boundary enforcers comes into play.
When we witness unnecessary tickets, useless arrests like what we just encountered, excessive fines, superfluous demands for ID overly harsh sentencing, or when we watch pretextual stops, warrantless searches, warren drug style warrior cops, it all boils down to a simple truism. All of these inexplicable misuses of police power are about enforcing the line between us and the elites. It’s all to ensure that our political efficacy is sullied and that our inalienable rights are subject to the whims of those who have the power to negate them. It is simply put a pretty efficient way of making sure we stay in our place. That we, the people who create the wealth of this country through hard work, dedication, and creativity, don’t demand our fair share. In other words, excess police power is intentional. It’s designed to seep into our lives as an impediment to true freedom, a thoroughly anti-democratic impulse that if not tamed, could implicate all of us.
How do I know? Well, let me show you. Take a look at this intriguing video of one of the most ridiculous arrests I’ve ever witnessed, and that of course is saying something. It started when a New York resident decided to do what any American should be allowed to do, exercising the recently enshrined right to enjoy a joint in a public park. New York, like many other states, has done away with the principle pillar of the country’s notorious war on drugs and allowed residents to legally enjoy a plant that our brains literally evolved to benefit from. But this fact that marijuana is legal did not inhibit this aggressive intervention by the New York City police. There they swarmed on the suited gentlemen when not one, not two, but eight officers encircled him, demanded his ID and otherwise threatened him with arrest. When he stood on his right to privacy and refused to comply, this squad of social boundary enforcers pounced, placing him in handcuffs and under arrest for exercising his right to move about freely and smoke a wholly organic substance.
What this video shows and the arrest itself is that the power to arrest indiscriminately is the most profound tool for the aforementioned social boundary enforcers. It is the single most potent way to simply annul our constitutional or legal rights with the click of handcuffs. Because what this encounter shows is that our rights and the law is provisional. That is even when a legislative process enshrines freedoms for us under the law. A single cop, just one, can simply extinguish that right at their discretion. In other words, the entire system we expect to guarantee our rights is completely susceptible to the arbitrary power of policing. What this example illustrates is the idea I discussed prior to showing the video. That is when we witness over policing, we are actually watching the enforcement of social boundaries. When we watch a man being harassed, intimidated, and finally incarcerated for exercising his lawfully granted rights, we are also observing firsthand how police turn democratic space and individual freedoms into a completely provisional idea.
And once that happens, they are no longer right. Instead, they’re simply ideas on a piece of paper which can be balled up and tossed in the trashcan at the discretion of a person wearing a badge. That’s how much they’re worth when over-policing becomes the norm. That’s why I think it’s essential we understand and analyze policing in ways that provide fresh insight. And that’s why I think it’s also important not just to report on the examples of over policing, but work to understand and acknowledge the broader imperatives that drive.
We must in order to fix it truly comprehend what makes it possible in the first place. That’s why we produce this show, which as we say is not just about the bad behavior of individual cops, but the system which makes bad policing possible. And in this case, it’s the system that needs to be fixed. I want to thank my guest Lakey 360 for taking the time to speak with us and for using his art to bring some beauty into the world. Thank you, Lakey 360. And of course I have to thank Intrepid reporter Stephen Janis for his writing, research, and editing on this piece. Thank you, Stephen.
Stephen Janis:
Taya, thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.
Taya Graham:
And of course I have to thank mods and friends of the show, Nolie D and Lacey R for their support. Thank you. And a very special thanks to our Accountability Report Patreons. We appreciate you and I look forward to thanking each and every single one of you personally in our next live stream, especially Patreon associate producers, John ER, David K, and Louis P, and super friends, Shane [inaudible 00:24:45], A Pineapple Girl, Chris R, Matter of Rights, and Angela True. And I want you watching to know that if you have video evidence of police misconduct or brutality, please share it with us and we might be able to investigate for you.
Please reach out to us. You can email us tips privately at par@therealnews.com and share your evidence of police misconduct. You can also message us at Police Accountability Report on Facebook or Instagram or @eyesonpolice on Twitter. And of course you can always message me directly @TayasBaltimore on Twitter and Facebook. And please like and comment, I do really read your comments and appreciate them. And if you can donate, please do. We don’t run ads or take corporate dollars so anything can spare is truly appreciated. My name is Taya Graham and I’m your host of the Police Accountability Report. Please be safe out there.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
