(FROM THE VAULT) That Time Pro-Public Defender Graffiti Ran For A Year And A Half!!!

It was a cold dark night in early 2023. In honor of Martin Luther King Day, I left some messages supporting many good folks who I always hoped while getting up I would never have to meet, that is, the people in the public defenders office. I got caught by a cop on the underpass, and they turned on their lights and I jackrabbited it out of there. I am lucky that the cop was too fucking lazy to cause a snarl on one way 7th Street, or I would have been in the area a lot longer. Luckily I got away.

One piece of graffiti, "Public Defenders Rock" on a pole on the NE corner of 7th and Bryant IE on the same block of the courthouse, managed to last for over a year and a half. You'd think they would buff graffiti near the criminal courts pretty quickly, but it ended up being my longest running piece.

What does that mean? That means that not only public defenders, but prosecutors, judges, witnesses, victims, defendants, bail bonders, private lawyers, stenographers, bailiffs, cops, sheriffs, recently sprung county jail inmates, people showing up doing court support, and DPW workers all got to see this, and they all agreed, public defenders do rock, and I'd like to think that's the reason nobody bothered to buff this out for a really long time.

And one SF public defender, Elizabeth Hilton, saw what I did a few weeks later and thanked me for giving her encouragement, but admonishing me to clean it up. Photo is attached.

I would return on holidays and see it still there, until the 4th of July 2024, when I saw it got buffed. I cried for a few days; I know that the buff is a part of life, but when a piece runs for so long, you get emotionally invested in it. As practicioners of alternative neighborhood beautification, we all know that our babies are not going to last forever, but if they live a long life, we are eternally grateful.

My only regret is that I didn't write "Jury Nullification" instead. But then again, it would likely not have lasted as long. But still, if I was ever arrested and put on trial, I would hope that the public defender would do so good a job, that there would be a Beavis & Butthead deadlocking the jury because they thought that even though they know I am guilty, they won't vote guilty because "what she did was cool".

And that is what its about. You know I love playing with fire, but I don't want to get burned, as the Runaways once sang.

You know you love me,

Snookie (she/her)