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Comment by rdouble | Hacker News Reader

This is what happens to graffiti artists, though. If you get busted you get charged for every instance of graffiti that looks similar to what you got caught doing.

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Whether or not additional examples of graffiti are actually the work of the same artist is a fact to be determined by a jury. What do you expect the prosecutor to do? Believe the defendant's word of honor, only after being caught red-handed?

Choosing to commit a crime that closely mimics the details of previous criminal activity by others (or yourself) is not the brightest idea. That is a kind stupidity that I am not sure we need special consideration for.

It's determined by a cop who has a binder of graffiti photos. Graffiti cases never see a jury. The defendant gets slammed with a potential $500K fine and decade in jail and then they plea bargain it down to a lesser fine, probation and community service, maybe short jail time if it's not the first offense.

Is there a difference between graffiti art using permanent paints / inks / dyes, and temporary political sloganeering using water washable chalk?

I'm not sure how a judge can exclude the constitution from a court case?

I dunno about the judge or the specifics. It's a RT post so not sure how accurate it is. The guy is in San Diego which is a very uptight republican town, so they are using gang graffiti laws as a hammer. Sucks, but pretty typical of how differences in locale can affect outcomes in the USA. If this happened in SF nobody would care.

Jury isn't there to decide constitutional questions, but factual ones.

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