Recently, a photo of a graffiti tagger tagging a cop car started making national news. It was big news because a teen named Luis Rodriguez reportedly outed himself by liking an action photo of himself on Facebook.
The story is this--After the Huntington Beach Riots, the Huntington Beach Police Department posted some photos of the alleged culprits on their own Facebook page. Then, a friend of Luis Rodriguez tagged him and liked the photo. Luis Rodriguez was subsequently arrested by the HBPD.
The mainstream media is reporting the story as an example of how foolish supposed criminals can be with social media. True.
However, the thing is, it is obvious that the police arrested the wrong dude. The guy tagging the cars is clearly a different guy that is shown in the other photos. The guy tagging the cars is wearing a red hat with a white emblem over the back side of the cap--the pictures of Luis Rodriguez show him wearing a different red hat with no white emblem. Furthermore, the dude tagging the cars has a clear 5 o'clock shadow where his facial hair stretches down from his sideburns. The clean shaven Luis Rodriguez does not have any hair stubble growth on his face. Perhaps Luis got into other mischief during the Huntington Beach Riots, but if the police are saying that they caught the dude who tagged the cop cars, well, then you've definitely caught the wrong dude.
On a different but related note, even though M&F has reportedly warned the street art community about the dangers and perils of loose behavior on social media, it hasn't seemed to discourage most folks from being completely open about 'vandalism'. But this story should serve as a stark reminder. Listen, M&F isn't telling you to do anything illegal, but, if you're going to be doing something that might be, be smart. Don't incriminate yourself over social media. And remember this street artists--Facebook is not a 'safe zone'! The Huntington Beach Police Department has a page for God's sake!
Stay up, and stay smart!
(Check out the pics below to see how it is clear that Luiz Rodriguez is not the cop car tagger!)
