Shepard Fairey Arrested in LA
There are, apparently, consequences for those who don’t obey: George Hunter is reporting in the Detroit News that street artist Shepard Fairey was arrested on Monday.
According to Douglas Baker, chief of criminal enforcement for the Detroit Law Department, customs agents at Los Angeles International Airport took the artist famous for creating the Obama “Hope” posterand the creator of the “Obey Giant” campaigninto custody on Monday, just as he returned from a trip to Europe.
Wayne County prosecutors last month had charged Fairey with maliciously destroying property, though each instance of damage was valued at less than twenty thousand dollars. He’s alleged to have vandalized fourteen different buildings and walls, including two city-owned properties.
Fairey spent Monday night in an LA jail, as officials checked to see whether Detroit’s prosecutors would want him extradited. But Baker said that Wayne County “[doesn’t] extradite on lower-level cases like this.” Fairey was released from jail the next day.
The artist “is not available and has no comment at this time,” said a representative from his Obey Giant Art firm. Several weeks ago, The Independent reported that Fairey called the outstanding arrest warrant issued by Detroit prosecutors “hilarious” in light of the fact that he’d been commissioned to do a mural in the city.