"O" Street Blogger vandalizes new Bagley Bridge

[bartock]

It would have been condemned by the minority as an outsider defacing their community. It would have been defended by the majority as good natured fun. The minority would be accused of being hypocritical. The cycle continues.

It is difficult to tell whether you are talking in generalities about Metro Detroit, or about the City of Detroit itself. If you are talking about Detroit Proper, then I guess the minority you speak of would have to be the people of Southwest Detroit, the majority of which make up a minority of the City. I am not either one, so I couldn't comment on what the Groupthink would be, and the regular meeting of my particular ethnicity and race isn't until next week, so I haven't been told how we'd respond to something like that yet. Not even sure it is in the minutes.

Either way, you are not really describing a cycle, more like a 180 degree half-moon. I really couldn't see anyone in this area - "minority" or "majority" - defending vandalism as "good-natured fun." .

There was probably a thread on this, but shortly after the section of the Dequindre Cut was opened, despite all of the grafitti enveloping the cut, it seemed the lightposts, emergency phones, garbage cans, and even parts of the path were vandalized with sharpies. [[I'm not blaming O Street for that...yet).

[Ravine]

It would have been condemned by the minority as an outsider defacing their community. It would have been defended by the majority as good natured fun. The minority would be accused of being hypocritical. The cycle continues.

OK, I'll bite. You just may have the right take on that one. Interesting point.

And it is a cycle, and cycles do continue; it's that forward-motion thing.

[mpow]

many ways to deal with graffiti, here is one answer: http://i.imgur.com/ZNecI.jpg

[Michigan]

Why haven't you been banned yet?

Maybe the powers that be enjoy seeing you look foolish on occasion.

[English]

Isn't this blogger originally from NYC? Or am I mistaking her for someone else who frequents Flashpoint?

[Baselinepunk]

An interesting thing occurred to me yesterday. I was at the restaurant and had a beer while waiting for our table. When our table was ready, I paid for our drinks at the bar. Bartender comes back with the "credit card" slip for me to sign, leaves a pen and takes off. I'll be damned. The pen quits right when I'm about the sign the slip. Waited about 10 minutes for the 'tender to come back and gave me another pen to use. While I was waiting [[nobody else around me had a pen for me to use), I reflected on the posts earlier on this thread that talked about carrying a pen "just in case, you never know when you'll need one". lol. I guess I'll be packing from here on out.

[wolverine]

An interesting thing occurred to me yesterday. I was at the restaurant and had a beer while waiting for our table. When our table was ready, I paid for our drinks at the bar. Bartender comes back with the "credit card" slip for me to sign, leaves a pen and takes off. I'll be damned. The pen quits right when I'm about the sign the slip. Waited about 10 minutes for the 'tender to come back and gave me another pen to use. While I was waiting [[nobody else around me had a pen for me to use), I reflected on the posts earlier on this thread that talked about carrying a pen "just in case, you never know when you'll need one". lol. I guess I'll be packing from here on out.

Nobody ever said carrying a pen was foolish. Unless you are confusing a pen with a marker or highlighter. Either that or you misread.

[Baselinepunk]

Neither. I just thought is was ironic. Not ball pointing any blame.

[RealityCheck]

Isn't this blogger originally from NYC?

Yup, she is . . . and mentioned that -- oddly -- in Saturday's quasi-apology as her tagging training roots,

I was excited when I saw the bench and that people had written on it and wanted to add my tag to it. That’s what we did in New York City when I was young: We put our tags on the park benches.

[RealityCheck]

The word goes forth nationwide . . .

. . . via high-traffic Poynter Institute journalism news blogger Jim Romenekso, who has this as his 3rd item as of Monday AM:

Detroit Free Press staffer apologizes for vandalizing new pedestrian bridge bench

The Detroit News caught Free Press copy editor and blogger Oneita Jackson writing on a new bridge bench. "Vandalism is the willful and malicious destruction of property. What I did was willful," she writes. "I was excited when I saw the bench and that people had written on it and wanted to add my tag to it."

Posted at 8:17 AM on May 10, 2010

[iheartthed]

Maybe the powers that be enjoy seeing you look foolish on occasion.

Still doesn't explain why you haven't been banned......

[gnome]

Insert your caption here:________________________________

[Detroitnerd]

Still doesn't explain why you haven't been banned......

Oh, be nice. I bet Michigan is just a poor, developmentally disabled kid who's just learning how to post online. Leave the poor tyke alone.

[RealityCheck]

Insert your caption here:________________________________

1.) Free Press bloggers, represent!

2.) If you're happy and you know it, then your tag will surely show it.

Your turns.

[Michigan]

Insert your caption here:__Iheartthed will love this!____________

Must add characters to post this caption.

[hybridy]

interesting...

Oneita D Jackson
Female | 40s

Parker St
Detroit, Michigan 48214 show full address[[313) 822-2159

[southwestsaavy]

FIRE HER. Was she on official Press business? that event was community and press focussed. far as I know, she does not live in Southwest Detroit, so I can only assume she was there as a Press representative.

[eno]

FIRE HER. Was she on official Press business? that event was community and press focussed. far as I know, she does not live in Southwest Detroit, so I can only assume she was there as a Press representative.

Rather than firing her, how about Oneita do some form of community service in the area where she did her marking.

[REL]

interesting...

[[What's interesting about posting information with the sole purpose of harrassing someone in their home? Would you care to post your personal information, hybridy? People have her contact info [[including her work number) on the Freep. Why put her personal safety [[and her son's) at risk? Shame on you.)

As for my 2-cents, I am disgusted by her actions. I truly enjoy her blog, and appreciate what she writes, but don't find this funny at all. It's so sad. Not just that she did it, but she only wrote about it after she had to. She knew it was wrong, because when she saw the camera, she froze and pulled away immediately, like a child who had been caught. And her explanations sounded like excuses [["it easily washed off, other people did it first, we did it when I was a kid," etc).

[[For the record, folks, it was a green Pilot fine-point pen, not a Sharpie. But I've enjoyed the Sharpie discussion)

It's not "tagging", O, it's VANDALISM. It's a crime. And the more you trivialize it by calling it a cutesy name, the more acceptable it becomes You said you feel stupid about it, and you should.

If you're reading this, Oneita, I hope you take this advice seriously: You now owe the city of Detroit. You not only committed a crime, but did it in broad daylight, and left a mark inspiring others to follow your lead [[remember your excuse of "other people did it first"? Ironic, huh?). If you are truly repentant, you will volunteer some serious time to clean off other peoples' stupidity, and write about how vandalism and blight contribute to the city's problems. Use your blog as a tool to combat the disrespect people show when they commit vandalism.

Then you can start championing the funding of arts in Detroit Public Schools, because clearly young people [[and unfortunately many adults) have limited ways to express themselves and have no creative outlet. I truly believe there is a connection here. Arts have all but disappeared from DPS, and have been among the lowest priorities and we are all paying for it.

Although, you have a well-known blog to express yourself, so what's your excuse?

Argh. I'm done.

[SWMAP]

I'm not for 'capital punishment" in any form so I think the Freep should let Jackson should keep her real, behind-the- scenes job as copy editor. But she should probably withdraw her preachy blog and the regular article publication. There's nowhere that column can go now. Rather than the responsible adult she has positioned herself to be publicly, she is really an adolescent with a sharpie. What else has she defaced around town when she's excited?

[RealityCheck]

Isn't she the blogger who talks about how well she is raising her son? How she has taught him to do the right thing? She appears to be a Kilpatrick in Jackson clothing. Saying whatever gets the bucks, but doing whatever gets the yucks.

Roundup of "what people are saying about the fallout" has that Saturday afternoon post as the third comment selected.

[RealityCheck]

Quickie animation created yesterday by 'AdventuresInJournalism' via a service called Xtranormal.com. Just 1:52.

"I'll have to punish you." - Editor Paul Anger

"You do remember we work for Gannett." - Oneita

Count how often you chuckle or laugh aloud, then tell us.

[detroitsgwenivere]

Graffiti is as old as apple pie.

Well yes, and no. It's even older. Cave drawings are widely considered the first forms of graffitti art. People have been leaving their mark as long as they have been able to do anything but eat, sleep, and sh*t. They can't help it, it's part of the human self-expression. I just wish they would do it on surfaces that don't attract such negative responses. Tagging up places not meant for individual self expression make the more considerate graffers look bad. Tagging on that brand new bridge was completely selfish and disregards the fight we Detroiters are in to clean up our city. She could have drew on the walls of the Dequindre Cut and no one would've cared.

[R8RBOB]

Roundup of "what people are saying about the fallout" has that Saturday afternoon post as the third comment selected.

I agree with the poster who said: Rival tried to paint her in a bad light because she is employed by the Free Press.

There was graffiti on the bridge but the story turned into: Free Press blogger vandalize bridge. The poster made a point. The News should have led off the story with; "Oneita Jackson, Free Press blogger vandalized new Mexicantown bridge" instead of "Vandals mar new pedestrian bridge in Detroit" when the only vandal that was caught in the video was Oneita Jackson. Since she was dumb enough to get caught on camera marking her spot then the News should have put her on blast.

[RickBeall]

All this over writing her name with a sharpie on a wooden bench? Awful lot of hand wringing going on. God forbid that any of us get caught on camera doing something silly.