Guy behind that SMS-printing protest bike arrested at the RNC
By Peter Rojas 
posted Aug 30th 2004 12:07AM
posted Aug 30th 2004 12:07AM
That was fast: Joshua Kinberg, the man behind Bikes Against Bush who was planning to use a bike with a wirelessly-enabled printer attached to spray paint protest messages sent via the Internet or text message at this week's Republican National Convention, managed to get himself arrested on Sunday morning. The printer on the bike is only supposed to spray non-permanent chalk rather than paint, but he's being charged with vandalism anyway.
[Thanks, Ben]
anybody surprised how protests are dealt with in Bush's USA ?
Yeah, I know what you mean. First, Michael Moore was executed by firing squad after a speedy trial by a secret military tribune. And Joseph Wilson and Richard Clark ended up in orange Gitmo get-ups. Then, jackbooted thugs gunned down those few brave souls who dared take to the streets at the start of the Repug convention. And now this. When will the horrors end?
Maybe his inkjet violated the DMCA and Lexmark called the cops on him.
Joshua was indeed arrested, and his bike was confiscated – along with his laptop and phone – but he was released without charge.
They haven't yet given his stuff back, however.
It's my understanding, based on some previous articles about this bike, that it in fact printed water-soluble chalk. While it still does print, this could make a world of difference in terms of a vandalism charge. We don't charge kids for drawing with sidewalk chalk...if this bike is using chalk, could we really charge him?
Oops, i only skimmed the entry first time.
It is water soluble chalk, and he avoided being arrested the first time by pointing out that it would be like arresting kids for playing hopscotch...
The info on this chap and his bike can be found here.
'here' in this case is http://www.bikesagainstbush.com
oops. that's what i get for using HTML.
N.Y. Admin. Code sec. 10-117 provides:
No person shall write, paint or draw any inscription, figure or mark or affix, attach or place by whatever means a sticker or decal of any type on any public or private building or other structure or any other real or personal property owned, operated or maintained by a public benefit corporation, the city of New York or any agency or instrumentality thereof or by any person, firm, or corporation, or any personal property maintained on a city street or other city-owned property pursuant to a franchise, concession or revocable consent granted by the city, unless the express permission of the owner or operator of the property has been obtained.
N.Y. Admin. Code sec. 19-138(b) provides:
Except as otherwise provided by law, it shall be unlawful for any person to deface any street by painting, printing or writing thereon, or attaching thereto, in any manner, any advertisement or other printed matter.
Microsoft was fined in NYC back in 2002 for "guerilla marketing" tactics for their MSN service which included a similar water-based marking chalk used to paint their butterflies on the sidewalks.
More recently, NBC was fined for using water-based marking chalk to stencil slogans in San Francisco for their upcoming series 4400 on USA Networks.
> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/07/24/BAGIT7SDFK1.DTL
Here's another interesting link to a site discussing legal and not-so-legal methods of corporate vandalism.
> http://www.forbes.com/2002/11/12/cz_as_1111graffiti_print.html
So it's not just the little guy who gets it for trying to be nice use non-permanent methods to get their message across!
Glad to see the NYPD put a stop to this. Regardless of political ideology, it sets a dangerous precedent - commercial sidewalk spam, chalk or not - would surely be next.
As for evidence of him in the act, just see his website. That evidence should help prosecutors make their case against this misguided individual.
Truth, Misguided protest? Is that what you guys call it?