C Drew - Street Artist Adventures

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Latest Court Developments
a Free Speech Artists’ Movement Newsletter

http://community.icontact.com/p/community1112/newsletters/blog/posts/latest-court-developments

Teachers, nurses, firefighters, students, police officers and others protesting in Wisconsin have occupied the Capitol building and streets of Madison for the past eleven days.

Yesterday, on Saturday at noon, their protest went national. In cities across the nation, including every state capital, we came together to stand in solidarity with the people of Wisconsin.

This time the Republicans have gone too far in their attempts to bust unions, slash state budgets, and give tax breaks to their wealthy friends.

So Saturday we stood up in Chicago to say that we’re sick of the attacks on workers’ rights. That we’re sick of an economy that showers corporate executives with bonuses while squeezing middle-class families. That we still believe in the American Dream. And that we’re willing to fight for it.

John Sheehan was out at the MoveOn.org’s rally to show solidarity for the workers in Wisconsin who are struggling to maintain their bargaining rights in the face of a right wing attack by conservative Governer Walker. Walker is a puppet for the Koch energy billionaire whose goal is to destroy worker’s rights to organize and bargain for a fair wage in America.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylzCTW8OtUc

John Shot this video of me while I was printing at the rally and posted it to allow me to tell the world about our fight for freedom in Illinois. It is illegal to audio-record a policeman in public in Illinois. In fact, I have been charged with a class 1 felony for this act while being arrested for the misdemeanor of selling art for $1 on State Street in Chicago.

I brought my art patch screen made for this occasion to the rally to spread the knowledge of our fight to other activists. The battle is on across this country. The TeaParty which is funded by Koch and a few wealthy corporate industrialists have a plan. They intend to use this depression and their money to manipulate the anger of those hurt by the hard times to turn working people on working people.

We must work together to create a new awareness and movement for freedom. The issues of people fighting at the grass roots level are many and varied but can help us band together to support each other. We are all a part of a whole. We can change this nation.

I gave away all the patches I pre-printed and all the patches I printed on the spot. The people came to me to get the patches as I printed them. By the end of the rally very few patches were left. The People united will never be defeated.

The latest Free Speech Artists’ Movement E-mail is posted at
http://community.icontact.com/p/community1112/newsletters/blog/posts/illinois-viewed-from-egypt

I wrote:
"I watched a TV drama on Rosa Parks tonight. It is very good to be reminded about the real heros here in America. The risks and trials we take and live under are small compared to what they dared do. I remain humble in comparison but certain it is my duty to be truthful to this cause and my duty to be the best test case for your right to audio-record police in public. And to defend artists’ rights to sell their art in public."

Kami Wrote:
You’re in good company with Rosa Parks as a humble civil rights fighter, Chris. I think we’re all in sync with each other working on this critical issue and watching the history happening in Egypt and Haiti. I’ve been hearing some interviews on Democracy, Now — have we talked about that show before?? It airs on NPR but it’s also featured on the liberal radio station out here (Green960am) in San Francisco and it’s on free podcast in itunes for both the audio and video feed of the podcasts. I’ve been glued to their coverage but they’ve also had some great recent interviews with Noam Chomsky and Harry Belafonte, in the shadow of the unrest and Obama’s tepid State of the Union speech, reminding us to stay radical and keep our politicians and judges honest and sensitive to what’s going on with the common people. Hearing their voices is so healing and inspiring. It’s too easy to distract and numb ourselves to the truth of what’s going on and not see the connection we have to the injustices and horrors in Haiti and Egypt as well as our own cities and all across the states. Your case is a major civil rights issue for this new tech era we’re living in. How many Egyptian protesters have had the crap beaten out of them by pro-Mubarek goons for carrying tape recorders, cameras and video recorders?? What would it have been like for you if you had been all alone on State street that day and encountered some of the more unsavory variety of bullying, abusive Chicago cops?? Your fight is our fight, Chris. You’re making history for every artist in this country.

much love,

Fifty Degrees on New Year’s Eve

I was late getting together for the Critical Mass here in Chicago on 12/31/2010 so I left my bike at the “L” Train at Howard at the end of the Red Line and brought only my screen printing supplies fitted into my brown leather carryall bag.

Because New Year’s Eve parties were flourishing everywhere around Chicago the crowd for the December Critical Mass was small, even though it had stopped raining, the sky had cleared and the temperature was abnormally above fifty degrees. This might not happen again on New Year’s Eve in Chicago for another 100 years or longer. I couldn’t help remembering a week earlier handing out art-patches in the snow and cold on December 21 when Nancy Bechtol shot her video of our Winter solstice Art Patch Project art give away.

I sat down next to the city government building of the Picasso Plaza and laid out Art Patch Project art-patches on my scarf. I taped a "Free Art-Patches" sign to the plaza stone. I began to print the art patch from my arrest that I had created from a frame-grab from Nancy Bechtol’s video of my arrest. It is the image of my hands in cuffs shot just before they whisked me away. Bicyclists milled around watching me print.

It was not long before someone stopped by to ask how my case was going. I kept printing as I prepared to answer his question. It has been thirteen months that I’ve been fighting this 1st class felony for audio-recording my own arrest for selling art for $1 on State Street while attempting to challenge the constitutionality of Chicago’s peddlers license law. In Chicago many elected officials have no shame and no respect for the First Amendment.

The answer to the man’s question about how my case is going can be found in the oral arguments from our October 22 motion to suppress the evidence from my audio-recorder which we just published on our website ( art-teez.org/free-speech.htm ). In this 148 page document Mr. Jeff Allen, the Assistant State’s Attorney on behalf of the State’s Attorney of Cook County, laid out his plan to convict me of 1st class felony eavesdropping.

This is a multiple assault on the First Amendment. To begin with it is a transparent attempt to silence a cultural critic for his support for the rights of artists to express themselves in public by selling art on the sidewalks and in the parks of their city. Of equal importance the State is using this high profile case to establish a law that takes away the right of citizens to gather audio evidence of what police say to us in public. This retards our ability to perform our democratic duty of overseeing our public servant’s (police) actions in public. This same law prevents us from gathering the evidence we need to bring to court to protect ourselves and others from abuse by police officers by audio-recording what they say to us in public while they arrest or interrogate us. These rights fall under the First and Fourth Amendments. Thus, this case is more about your rights and less about me. This is an attack on everyone with a cell phone who could use it to record a questionable police action in public.

Mr. Jeff Allen plans to attack your rights by claiming I am a terrorist type seeking to bug the Homeland Security apparatus of the Chicago Police Department. It may sound like a stretch to pick-up a harmless artist for selling art for $1 on the street and then claim he is a terrorist and worthy of a 1st class felony, one step below attempted murder. However, in Chicago where the Cook County State’s Attorney has no shame and few ethical limitations, it is possible.

People stopped by and looked through the Art Patch Project art. New people picked up art-patches they liked. Critical Masser’s who know me and my work found new art-patches from artists whose work was recently submitted by the artist and printed to be given away to the public.

Now to the evidence which suggests the State’s Attorney’s strategy. Mr. Allen begins in his opening statement of the motion describing the arresting officer as doing a terrorism/counter-terrorism walk looking for terrorist activity when he encounters me (page 10-11). Mr. Allen then fast forwards to the police station where in my red poncho, in a cellophane sandwich bag the inventorying officer finds a digital audio recorder and notes that a red light indicates it is on and recording. Mr. Allen continues to suggest my devious intent is to spy on the Chicago Police Department by stressing that this recorder has captured the secret sounds of the arresting officer’s hand radio during the arrest and now is a bug in the tactical office where police planning for undercover activities takes place. Thus, I am said to be spying on the head of the Homeland Security team leader and planting a bug in the tactical unit office of the Chicago Police Department, the State’s Attorney, Jeff Allen, claims.

In summary, the State’s Attorney’s plan to prosecute me appears as follows. The arresting officer is on a terrorist watch walk. He encounters a possible suspect breaking the law. The suspect is seeking to be arrested with the intent of spying on the officer who is the head of the Homeland Security detail and of spying on the Chicago Police Department by secreting a bug in his leather bag to smuggle the bug in his bag into the tactical office of the Chicago Police Department to undermine their efforts to protect the public from terrorists. This crime deserves the 1st class felony charge, one step below attempted murder, to deter terrorists from attacking the security apparatus of the United States of America in this manner. Mr. Allen is saving your lives by prosecuting this dangerous artist!

As I said, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office has no shame. They are cynical and calculating. They do not believe the people of Illinois are watching them. Innocence or justice do not figure into their power calculations. Can they get away with this without political damage is the only question they ask. That part is up to you. Do you care about your rights? If so, you must fight.

I will admit, I did not know about the extent to which the Illinois eavesdropping law takes our rights away before I was charged with this 1st class felony. I read for years about how artists in New York City used their First Amendment right to record video and audio of what police who harassed them said to them in public. The artists in New York regularly go to court with audio recordings of police ticketing them for selling art in public in violation of the city codes. When the police are shown by the video and audio to be wrong about the statutes or abusive the artists will win the case. If it shows the police are correct the artist loses. That is only fair.

New York City artist/organizer Robert Lederman stresses the importance of video and audio in successfully defending one’s right to sell art in public. Until after my arrest I could not imagine not having this right in America but to my surprise, Illinois does not support that American First Amendment right. We have lost our tool to defend ourselves with audio evidence in Illinois since 1994 when an ex-policeman injected unconstitutional language into our State’s eavesdropping law. Now – unlike 48 other States where audio recording is perfectly legal - we do not have that freedom to defend ourselves. That’s why this is about you as much as it is about me.

Most people in Illinois do not realize any more than I did that this right has been taken away and will only find out when they open up their cell phone to record a public official in public who is stepping out of bounds. Then they will find out, like me, that it is a 1st class felony, one step below attempted murder, to defend yourself or your loved ones by gathering audio evidence in public. That is why the ACLU is suing Anita Alvarez, the Cook County State’s Attorney for prosecuting me and seven other unsuspecting citizens in Illinois. The best you can do in this state is your word against the policeman’s word and in an Illinois court you lose.

The State’s Attorney’s application of this law is ridiculous. My case is still pending before the court. That makes this is your best opportunity to speak out about this law and to change it before someone you know and love is threatened by 4-15 years in prison for exercising their First Amendment right to defend themselves in court with audio evidence gathered in public of police abuse. “What can I do?” the man listening to me talk asked.

“Spread the word.” I said. Just then someone blew a horn and the Chicago Critical Mass came together. I began to collect the art-patches I had printed as I talked about my case. As they rode off I looked across Clark Street at the Channel 2 News Room. Their huge video screen displayed above the showcased news room at street level played to the expansive plaza. I had some thoughts for them, as well.

Public officials who prosecute people like me with this law depend on you, the media, to be distracted or compliant. This law reduces the public’s ability to gather information in public on how public officials act in public and limits their ability to provide that evidence to you for your stories. Your profession is limited by this law. Your right and ability to gather information in public is directly affected, as well. Defend yourselves by covering this issue fairly and thoroughly. Not to do so is a conflict of interest.

The Picasso Plaza was deserted as I piled up the last of my freshly printed art-patches. I packed every thing into my leather bag and walked to the “L” train. This rare December 31st weather emphasized the uniqueness of every day, every moment. I am on a road that could put me behind bars for up to 15 years. This could be the last free New Year’s Eve of my life. I am betting your involvement and love of your rights against the cruelty of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. I am putting my faith in God and my hope in you. Your voices are powerful. Talk about this, please. Link to this page, please. Re-post this page, please. Fight for your rights.

We gave away Art Patch Project art today, 12/21/2010. It was one hour and a half of fun offering free art to a public pressured by the holidays. The art comes from more than 50 different artists and many of the 150 different designs already submitted to the Art Patch Project. Art Patch Project volunteers took over the intersection at State and Lake Street on the southeast and the northeast corners. We had a team of five volunteers bombarding people with free art to knock them out of their holiday rush. We urged them to re-focus on us as an art group. “What…?” many said after the third person tried to give them some free art. “Free Art!” we insisted. We gave out over 1,000 art patches in that short hour and a half. The hidden part of the Art Patch Project process is what happens after the art-patch give-away.

Of the over 1,000 patches we gave away, we found about five on the ground. “That’s bad – look there – how they’ve disrespected your effort,” someone might say seeing the few discarded art-patches. Not so – I have watched people who give away commercial fliers or even non-profit literature. It hits the trash fast and is scattered everywhere along the walks where the distributors pressure those passing by. Our art has people taking a second look and often results in further interest. People stop and engage in discussion. What we are doing is clearly more than passing out propaganda or a quick money-motivated, bring-your-wallet-our-way wrangle.

We’ve got local art. The art works over time quietly, humbly, waiting for someone to take a second look and get lost in trying to figure what the art is about. Later on the L or at home cleaning out their pockets they look again captured for a moment, caught by curiosity. Can you imagine them thinking, “what’s the artist’s intention? Who is the artist? Oh look – there’s the artist’s website! What is this safety-pin for? (will they pin it to something?) And let me read for the first time this small flier pinned to this art. Free Speech Artists’ Movement – what’s that?”

I have been giving out screen printed art on cloth patches to the public for over seven years and I know how people react. I’ve hawked other things to the public while working odd jobs alongside my creative work. These art-patches are perfect to fold up and tuck anywhere. No pocket, no problem, many a person has pinned the art-patch immediately to their clothes. Consequently, the art turns up later as the person goes through their daily motions and it gets a second look along the way. Someone that is very disposed to art will collect these art patches. Others will pin their art-patch up somewhere if it speaks to them. The ultimate compliment is when some young person sews it to their favorite cloths, like a jean jacket or a hat or pants or dress or… Some will be thrown out but usually not before someone has looked over the flier and become aware that artists in Chicago question the constitutionality of the Chicago’s peddlers license law. That’s all we need them to understand for the moment.

As a team of five volunteers wearing Free Speech Artists’ Movement t-shirts, we made an impression on the passing public. New artists expressed interest in our activities. The Gappersblock.com website sent a reporter. Our video artist Nancy Bechtol collected video for a Youtube posting. We need to make this winter solstice art give-away an annual event. Every December 21st we should give away art from the Art Patch Project. As we build our volunteers we can have a bigger effect and reach more people.

Before we went out, a rumor was spreading that we might be getting arrested at this Art Patch Project action. The following friendly blog reported…

http://www.chicagotalks.org/2010/12/12/free-art-takes-its-toll-on-art-activist-and-issue-of-freedom-of-speech/

“On Tuesday, Dec. 21 at noon, under the “L” train at State and Lake, Drew and some volunteers for the Uptown Multi-Cultural Art Center (UM-CAC) will give free art away as part of the Art Patch Project, and risk arrest in their effort to reclaim some downtown territory in the name of free speech.”

The writer was doubtful about the way the Chicago police might handle our completely legal action of giving away the art. The author might have reasoned, that because I have been accused of a 1st class felony for audio-recording my own arrest and because I have been out of jail on a $20,000 bail-bond for over a year, that the Chicago police might arrest anyone with me for completely legal behavior just because…they have been known to take liberties.

This did not seem likely to me - not on such a high profile occasion anyway – with a video artist and our photographer covering our action. Another person representing our issue before potential volunteers asked me about the possibility of getting arrested while giving out the art. I assured her that we intended to do everything to avoid arrest. We intended to assent to whatever authorities said to us. As a group we would listen, witness and evaporate, if need be, to report over the Internet our experiences giving art away in Chicago.

My original arrest was to initiate a court action to bring the question of the constitutionality of the peddlers license into federal court. In New York artists are ready for mass arrests but in Chicago the artists’ community is not. I would not ask other Chicago artists to be arrested at this time. My effort would be fruitless. In New York they are fighting not to lose real jobs, in Chicago we are fighting to create jobs yet unimagined to this generation of artists.

Luckily, I have twenty years of organizing art activities and some of our volunteers have known me that long. Our plan did not require a crowd, so five volunteers was all we needed to be effective. The Uptown Multi-Cultural Art Center is a qualified 501(c)(3) art organization and can legally collect donations. Our collective action confirmed giving away art is not illegal in Chicago. No one bothered us. Police ignored our presence. Our activity is normal and totally legal, although less orthodox and more unique.

To have experienced a hassle would have been an extreme act by authorities. They understand our public relations abilities and give us some respect. People speculated up to the last moment about being hassled. Then we did gave out the art and proved to those fearful that it’s ok to give art away – even in Chicago - even after challenging the system and being charged with a 1st class felony. It’s ok to give out art before Christmas in the Loop. We got our crew together and had our fun. Art for the people. Art to defend the people. Free art for freedom. Free art. Those are our chants.

At next year’s winter solstice Art Patch Project event we should have 250 designs by 75 or more artists and 20 volunteers offering the art – wow – twenty volunteers would blow the Loop up with art!

A quick shout-out to Charles Lewis - photographer excelente - who helped offer up the art but is not pictured here. Thanks Charles and all who came out to help.

On the 4th of January I need to gather another crew of 4 volunteers to give away the art for a visiting video journalist from Burkley, California. Our goal is to have as many different journalists and artists to tell our story in as many online locations as possible. E-mail me at umcac@art-teez.org if you can help.

Don’t be afraid – be free – help give out some free art. When was the last time I heard that “brave and free” phrase sung? Which comes first the bravery or the freedom? Help us offer art in public on January 4th, 2011 and at future Art Patch Project events in the New Year. Happy holidays.

Responses: Letters from Tony, Dmitry and Chris discussing this post and the interviews

Tony Fitzpatrick & Dmitry Samarov interview podcast


C Drew interview podcast

Nick Digilio facebook comments about the C Drew Interview

An Open Letter to Tony Fitzpatrick and Dmitry Samarov

Hello Tony and Dmitry. You don’t know me. We’ve just met. I’ve been maintaining a community art center at the American Indian Center for the last 23 years as a volunteer. I’ve taught a free screen-print workshop for artists for 18 years offering artists free instruction in the basics of screen printing that has allowed hundreds of artists to get over the early hurdles of using screen-printing to print their art for sale and creative pleasure. Most recently, I am leading a team of Chicago artists in challenging laws that prevent artists from being “out and about in public.” I am not alone in this effort.

I want to thank Nick Digilio for introducing me to you two great (great disappointments as) Chicago artists, Tony Fitzpatrick and Dmitry Samarov. I respect your creative work. You were asked to comment on the First Amendment issues of selling art in public, on my act of civil disobedience protesting the peddlers license requirement for artists and on the First Amendment issue of audio-recording police in public. It has taken me years of study on the first issue, several decades of consideration to commit to the second action and a full year of study to understand the third issue. Why should I be surprised by your responses? We never talked. With perhaps an hour or two of thought and several e-mails you came to your conclusions expressed on the Nick Digilio Show.

I looked up the definition of a Mook: Mooks are archetypal young males(teens-early 20s) who act like moronic boneheads. They are self centered simpletons who live a drunken frat-boy lifestyle. Tony, as we explore the issues below, ask yourself again if I am a “mook” as defined above.

After some thought and listening to the audio I realize that you were both somewhat sympathetic to our cause but also somewhat confused about what it is and who I am.

Tony, you were very concerned that I went out of my way to get arrested. Just like Rosa Parks sat in a white’s only seat and refused to move until the police arrested her, I stood on State Street selling art until I was arrested. I did not resist or taunt the police. They did not beat or abuse me during the arrest. This action is called “civil disobedience” and is a standard form of protest common in America and is the accepted method of testing unconstitutional laws in our legal system of government. It is not weird or kooky or new. I was not crazy. I spent four years preparing to take this risk and found a pro-Bono First Amendment lawyer to support our cause before I did. A team of Chicago artists supported me in this action.

I believe this eavesdropping charge is a gift to us to give our arts group an enlarged voice for our mission to create art scenes around Chicago. Tony says about the eavesdropping issue that he can think of good reasons that it should be illegal to “record” officers but he only advances one. He says allowing recording would compromise Chicago’s many undercover officers. That does not hold up for several reasons. First assuming he is referring to audio-recording this reason makes little sense because it is highly unlikely that an audio-recording of someones voice will give away the identity of an undercover officer to someone hearing it as compared to the possibility that a video recording would give up the officers identity to someone seeing it. Video recording of police is completely legal and there is Federal Case law to that effect. No other reasons for not audio-recording police in public are offered and no reasons for citizen’s right to audio-record police were presented on the show. I was not present to support my viewpoints.

True, I did not know the details of Illinois eavesdropping law before I was arrested and later charged for violating this law. Most people do not know its details. For that reason I am not surprised that neither of you have considered the importance of our right to audio-record police in public. Since I was charged, I have studied the law and the related constitutional issues. The law was written to protect our privacy rights from people tapping our telephones in 1961. Police on duty in public have no privacy rights because even the State of Illinois audio and video records their actions to protect against citizens who might make false claims and to deter police misconduct. In Illinois, in 1994 an ex-policeman who was a state senator added the unconstitutional amendments to the eavesdropping law under which I am charged and those amendments have yet to be tested in federal court to create case law that clarifies their constitutionality.

Here are the reasons for our right to audio-record police. We have the First Amendment right of the press to gather information on what our public servants do in public while on duty to report on their actions to our fellow citizens. This right is required by citizens to do their democratic duty to oversee their public servants performance while on the job in public. It is a fact that without other evidence a citizen’s word is less credible than the word of an arresting officer in court. Therefore, citizens need to be able to bring evidence into court to defend themselves and others with the truth of what was said to them while being arrested or interrogated in public by police. Reflecting this fact, in 47 States in the Nation it is legal to audio-record police in public while they are on duty. Artists in New York use this right all the time to defend themselves in New York courts when tickets are written by police who harass them for selling their art legally in public.

Tony, I am eager to give you an opportunity to provide me with any other reasons citizens in Illinois should not have this same right enjoyed by citizens of 47 other states.

Dmitry, the art I was selling was 24 different art patches by eight or more different artists. I thought it important that we establish our First Amendment right to sell art as speech and not just to sell only our own art. I spent four years writing on my blog about my activities screen-printing patches of both art and political expressions in many locations where it is illegal to sell art. I gave this work away free to the public during that time to demonstrate that art and political expressions should be protected equally by the First Amendment at those locations. You see, some in our legal system feel that political expressions should be protected by the First Amendment but art should not and the City says selling art in public is a safety hazard for pedestrians. I proved both of these assumptions wrong by my actions over this period before stepping out on State Street to test the law.

The art I was selling is from the Art Patch Project. The art of the Art Patch Project is submitted by local artists from around Chicago who support our efforts to change the laws that prevent artists from creating art scenes where artists can sell their art without a license in public. We want to change the face of Chicago so artists can be “out and about in public” as you suggested on the show. Normally, we give the art of the Art Patch Project away to educate the public about artists First Amendment right to sell art in public without a license or permit. To confirm that this is our right – review what artists are doing in New York City to establish and defend our rights as artists under the First Amendment. Both of you should consider submitting a work of graphic art to the Art Patch Project. You are leaders. Why not lead?

Presently we have over 130 designs and more than forty artists involved. The Art Patch Project will continue to grow until we gain our rights. We are planning to tour the art-patches nationally. Guess how easy it is to send an exhibit of 200 4×5” cotton cloth art-patches somewhere for exhibit? Guess how many exhibits we can print and send off? I developed the Art Patch Project for a year before selling a few select artists work along with two pieces of my own on State Street, December 2, 2009. My work was posterized photo images that are not on my website. Dimtry, I am not the great artist that you and Tony are but in my humble way I enjoy my work.

Tony said he is “Not familiar with the in’s and out’s of that (peddlers license) law.” Neither was I.

Twelve years earlier, when I first read about what artists in New York were doing to fight for First Amendment rights, I reacted to their actions a bit like you did to my actions. After the Iraq war began I explored reaching the public by screen-printing my work on patches on the street. I studied the First Amendment as it relates to artists’ rights to sell art in public. Gradually, I realized what the New York artists were talking about. I realized how marginalized artists are by unconstitutional laws. Unless someone takes time to understand how the First Amendment works with respect to artists selling art in public, they can’t understand our position. We have a lot of work to do to educate and inform the public.

What are our First Amendment rights? Any time the government (City) wants to limit our speech rights they must have a very good reason. They must write a narrow law that addresses that reason and give us an ample alternative that we consider fair in exchange for limiting our speech rights. If the safety of pedestrians is the City’s important reason then a narrow law would be - no selling on the public way without leaving 7′ for pedestrians to pass by. The City writes broad laws that prohibit selling anywhere in the greater Loop which is an unconstitutional law. For a detailed analysis of our First Amendment rights and the effect of the City’s laws and policies on arts activities in Chicago visit “A Modest Proposal” on my website.

“You can’t sell art in the City? I’ve been selling art in the City for 25 years!” Tony says. Then he admits that he hasn’t sold art on the City’s streets since he was in high-school. When he was in high-school it was legal to sell art on the street in Chicago without a peddlers license and Lee Godie was selling her art in front of the Arts Institute on Michigan Avenue. During Mayor Washington’s administration it was legal to sell art in the parks in Chicago. Mayor Daley made it illegal to sell art anywhere in public without a license in 1994 (the year Lee Godie died) and illegal even with a license to sell it pretty much wherever you could do good business in public. The cold-hard fact is that today there is not one single open-air market where artists can start out selling their art and build an audience in Chicago, period. This is a first amendment right that we should enjoy according to existing First Amendment case law. It is a right that many artists in cities around the world enjoy in countries that have no First Amendment. What’s wrong with us? Don’t we value our core values?

Art Fairs. Tony says that art fairs are an adequate alternative. They are not. I have sold our t-shirt art from the many artists involved in our screen print workshop for artists in art fairs and interviewed many artists around Chicago struggling to make a living in art fairs. Few artists believe it is the great opportunity that Tony suggests. A small percentage of artists do well in them. They have an established audience, a well managed mailing list and they give the public just what it wants in order to pay the art fair fees demanded of them.

Art fairs in the Chicago region are more like sharecropping for most artists. The artists are the attraction but the fairs make most of the profit. The fairs charge from $150-500 for a weekend and most of the customers want low price gifts for friends and relatives. The fees come off the top of the artists’ income and all the risks of bad weather are born by the artists. Artists work long hours preparing, long hours setting up and showing and too often make less than minimum wage for their efforts. If early art fairs in the spring are rained out, many artists can’t afford the fees the fairs charge up-front to rent a piece of the public sidewalk – something the artist is promised for free by the First Amendment but denied by the laws that we are protesting.

Artists selling in galleries to wealthy clientele do not experience this struggle. They live in a different world. Our First Amendment right to sell art freely in public is the first rung of opportunity to emerging and struggling artists. If we create art scenes in Chicago, even established artists will find advantages in this activity. Take this opportunity away and the arts community looses plus the public is deprived of an opportunity to meet many different artists in their everyday life. Because street art culture has been dead so long in Chicago few people understand what they are missing. Both of you indicated on the show that you believe community art and the idea of artists in public are to be supported.

We dream of creating art scenes around Chicago where artists can thrive and inspire each other. We want to change the face of Chicago to accentuate its creative voices and visions. Is this a greater artistic principle - free-speech and free art scenes - that you can support or this the vision of a self-centered simpleton living in a frat-boy dream world?

Birthday to Birthday – One Year of Resistance

Donate to the Uptown Multi-Cultural Art Center
https://www.networkforgood.org/donation/MakeDonation.aspx?ORGID2=363554496

I’m writing this blog post to continue the journey I began one year ago when, on my birthday, I tried unsuccessfully to get arrested for selling art for $1. It was a cold Friday afternoon in front of the Arts Institute. Nancy Bechtol, Jenny Rotten and others were there to support me. I wrote it up on my blog. WBBM radio covered it. Later attempts morphed into a fight to also change the eavesdropping law. Today it is history. This, my 60th birthday is a great moment to review that history in a nut shell and to project it into the future for all to consider the nature of what we are accomplishing.

First – the law! The First Amendment case law says that whenever a government writes a law that limits speech it must have a very good reason, must write a narrow law tailored to effectively address that reason and to the extent that it limits speech it must provide an ample alternative to those whose speech is limited. There is no difference made whether the speaker is paid or not. If you can give the art away in a public location you should be able to sell it there, as well. These are your rights as an American.

The City of Chicago completely takes your right to sell your art away in every public park by a simple policy statement. The City outlaws your right to sell art completely in the areas of the City you are most likely to succeed by broadly defining “prohibited districts” in the peddlers license that it demands you buy to exercise your speech rights. It will deny you your First Amendment rights if you owe the City money for a parking ticket or anything else. If you do not have the fee for the license you can’t afford your inalienable rights as a citizen. For more details on this read my archived blog writings, the “FreeSAM Newsletter Archive (first link under Pages, right hand column) and the many legal cases linked to the right of this post.

My Arrest History
October 9th we attempted to test the peddlers license selling art for $1 in front of the Arts Institute. On Monday, October 19th, Nancy Bechtol armed with her video camera and two of her artists friends with still cameras accompanied me as I tried again along Michigan Avenue from the Watertower Place to Millennium Park to be arrested for selling art for $1. I had the opportunity to be arrested at Millennium Park but that would have been a test of park policy and we had targeted the peddlers license, so I declined this chance and crossed the street seeking arrest. We did not find a challenge from the City that day.

On November 13th the same crew again sought successfully to engage the City. On that lucky day I was written a ticket for selling art for $1 in front of Macy’s on State Street. The four female policewomen told me I would be arrested if I proceeded. After a huddle with my team, I proceeded but the City did not arrest me. This action is documented on Youtube by Nancy Bechtol. They had a paddy wagon waiting on me on State Street for over an hour and a half and uniformed and plainclothes officers standing at the corner, phone in hand, watching us but the order to arrest apparently never came. We gave up after 4:00 and went to dinner in Macy’s basement. Our team returned December 2nd to the same lucky spot. This day a Sargent, head of the elite Homeland Security crew patrolling Macy’s and its State Street beat, arrived with clear orders to arrest me. I was arrested peacefully in a documented action which we later uploaded to Youtube where it resides today for all to see.

Post Arrest History
After arresting me for selling art for $1, a misdemeanor, they cuffed me to a wall for five hours while they conspired with the State’s Attorney’s Office to later charge me additionally with a 1st class felony. They found an audio-recorder in my confiscated bag and listened to it. I spent a night fighting hypothermia in in the coldest cell at that police station on a very cold night in December. They decided I deserved a 1st class felony for audio-recording my own arrest and sent me for two more days in Cook County Jail until my wife found the two thousand dollars needed to meet my bond. The Office of Cook County State’s Attorney, Anita Alvarez, confirmed my 1st class felony charge, in severity one step below murder and made my bond $20,000. They proceeded with their intentions to prosecute me for this crime obviously because art and outspoken artists are very dangerous individuals.

At my first court hearing on December 9th, Judge Frank Deboni heard the arguments of Morgan Creppel, Assistant State’s Attorney, that I deserved the 1st class felony charge. The Arresting officer was there to whine about how I had violated his privacy rights and therefore deserved a 1st class felony, one step below murder. Judge Deboni agreed. Deboni, Creppel, ha-ha, I didn’t make these names up – they are on the court documents.

My lawyer, Mark Weinberg, argued my First Amendment right to gather information in public, as we had agreed, but Judge Deboni ruled Mark’s argument irrelevant. Creppel then asked Judge Deboni to dismiss the two misdemeanors leaving the State’s Attorney’s Office and Anita Alvarez only the 1st class felony to hang me with. Judge Deboni did so with a quick slam of his gavel and the next case was called. With no fanfare or remorse the State began to prosecute me along with rapists, armed robbers and attempted murders for a crime that harmed no one and which is legal in 47 of the 50 States as one of our basic rights, for gathering the information of what a police officer said to me in public while arresting me. This is Illinois.

Since that time my case has appeared before Judge Stanley Sacks at 26th and California in room 602 ten times, we have submitted a motion to dismiss based on my First Amendment rights which became the central argument by the ACLU in their subsequent law suit against Anita Alvarez for charging myself and others with this law. That motion was dismissed. I am still free on a $20,000 bond and Anita Alvarez, the Cook County State’s Attorney, is still trying to convict me of a 1st class felony for audio-recording my arrest.

We have through our public relations on my case helped to make this a national issue. A long list of local publications have told my story. The National Public Radio has covered us well but other national media have to date avoided this story. A congressman from New York has introduced H.Res.Con.298, a Sense of Congress Resolution stating that government should not prosecute citizens for video or audio-recording police on duty while they are in public. Time magazine wrote on a Maryland case where a motorcyclist was charged with a similar law in that State. The court has since dropped his case. On October 22nd we will appear in court again for a hearing on whether the court will suppress the audio-evidence found on my audio-recorder. If they decide to suppress it the States case will fall apart and I will likely be set free. If not, I will surely be headed toward a trial before a jury on this charge early in 2011.

The Future
When the State decided to prosecute me for felony eavesdropping they gave me a microphone to publicize our cases, the right of artists to sell art in public and the right for everyone to use their cell phones to protect themselves and others from out-of-pocket police in Chicago and Illinois. I have used that microphone effectively, without fear of the consequences.

They thought they would distract us from our mission to defend artists rights. However, the fight for artists rights is not a short battle. It is a long war. I knew that when I wrote about it in my blog for over three years before I moved to challenge it in 2009. This ridiculous 1st class felony charge has helped to educate thousands of people in the Chicago area to our issues.

The Chicago Tribune article after the ACLU sued Anita Alvarez and especially the Reader article by Deanna Isaacs has informed artists around Chicago of their rights and setup an environment where other artists are motivated to challenge the City for our rights.

Some think that by dropping the misdemeanor charges for selling art for $1 the State has avoided the legal issues in Federal Court. They have not. As soon as we defeat this felony charge we will be initiating law suits of our own. We will sue the City for artists rights and the State to create case law on the eavesdropping law that forces them to change these unconstitutional laws.

Most important, we will form a committee to do the difficult work of collecting the evidence we need to show just how much Chicago’s laws have undermined artists street culture and what the effects have been on the standard of living for citizens and artists. We must collect and tell the stories of Chicago’s many artists denied their rights! We must demonstrate the wholesale nature of this censorship. This is a job bigger than I am capable of by myself.

We must build a well supported Citywide initiative with the mighty actions of an artists’ collective behind it. Artists your voices are powerful. We will continue to build the Art Patch Project into a major exhibit and a popular community art give-away able to bring the public to our side. Submit art to the Art Patch Project. The future is ours to live and build. Talk it up. Re-post this. E-mail it to friends. Change your City. Change your State. Change your Nation – with your art.