Graffiti OK’d (if it’s pretend)

A U.S. judge overturned a ban imposed by New York City officials and ruled in favor of a fashion company’s right to hold a street party featuring graffiti artists painting mock subway cars.

The party, scheduled for today by designer Mark Ecko, had raised the indignation of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who said the plan for 20 artists to put graffiti on mock subway cars would incite vandalism.

But in Monday’s ruling, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff said the mayor’s view went against the 1st Amendment.

“By the same token, presumably, a street performance of ‘Hamlet’ would be tantamount to encouraging revenge murder,” he said. “As for a street performance of ‘Oedipus Rex,’ don’t even think about it.”

The judge said he was not suggesting the “actual painting of graffiti on subway cars is to be condoned” but that any heavy-handed censorship would fall hard on artists, “who frequently revel in breaking conventions.”

From Reuters