Suspected freeway tagger arrested

A juvenile tagger known as "Hanging Over Freeways" is believed to have spent a lot of time covering freeway signs with graffiti.

But authorities said that "HOF" vandalized a Harbor Freeway sign (photo above) this weekend -- and got tagged himself.

HOF was arrested Saturday at his Gardena home by deputies assigned to the Transit Services Bureau Special Problems Unit, officials said. L.A. County Sheriff's Sgt. Augie Pando said the tagger caused an extreme safety hazard for motorists navigating the northbound 405 Freeway to the northbound 110 Freeway.

According to Caltrans, officials will have to deploy a special crew to close the freeway interchange, two lanes at a time, for four hours to clean up HOF's latest scrawl.

HOF was released to his parents from juvenile hall Sunday night, officials said. Pando said the juvenile was fitted with a GPS-enabled monitoring device.

--Richard Winton

Photo credit : L.A. County Sheriff's Department

Comments

[Sally]

The parents are the cause of this "juvenile's" criminal behavior. They should all be jailed for his crimes, which threaten public safety and are NOT artistic.

[Joe F.]

Wish HOF has fallen and been run over by a few large trucks.

[Gary]

The sentence for this punk should be swift and severe. Try him as an adult and put him in state prison.

[Roy from Atwater]

Make the idiot tagger clean it up himself...or, better yet, make the parents do it. Or, maybe even better, make both the tagger and the parents work off the cost of the clean-up doing community service (figuring their pay at minimum wage)!!! This needs to be painful for them so they remember it and it teaches them a lesson.

[mike]

How about locking up the parents! i am SO sick of these taggers being treated with kid gloves

[German G.]

IM GLAD THEY GOT THIS KID, HIS PARENTS SHOULD HAVE TO PAY FOR ALL THE DAMAGES HE'S CAUSED. IVE SEEN HIS TAGGINGS IN ORANGE COUNTY ALL ALONG THE 5 FREEEWAY I HATE SEEING HIS WORK ITS AWFUL.

[Matthew Rayburn]

How come his parents aren't paying for this to be fixed?

[Emerson]

What was his bail? I like the GPS monitoring device idea!

[Doug Gentry]

I so agree that he and his parents should have to spend time cleaning up and repainting the tagging that happens.

back when they had the riots and they had a a bunch of people arrested and trying to figure out sentencing. I thought they should all be sentenced to help rebuild what was burnt down.

This would give them a new meaning or value to what is in their community.

when you have spent hours or days constructing, building, painting and planting you then take ownership of it.

6 months later when you drive down the street and see some dude with a spray can painting YOUR building, you just might stop and tell him in now uncertain terms to stop messing with MY building. I built that! I sweated and bled to make that what it is.

Same thing goes with these taggers. make them go out and start cleaning it up and making it look better.

[anthony]

Folks, what if the parents have zero control over this kid? There are plenty of kids who don't give a crud about their parents or their own lives. Not saying we should give him hugs, but the kids these days are just nuts.

[KingS]

Prosecute, prosecute, prosecute! This freak must be punished. Restitution is also in order. The safety of LA drivers is at stake. Signage obfuscation is more dangerous than a motorist with a cellphone in his hand.

[Arnold]

Neither the juvey nor his parents would have anywhere near the amount of (tax) money that will be spent to clean this up.

What a loser.

[P J Evans]

I think of taggers as the two-legged version of stray dogs, running loose and making messes everywhere they go.

[John]

You're all a bunch of philistines. How brave he must be to have risked his life for his art!

[joe]

Lets enforce grafitti vandalism with realism instead of the typical USA joke enforcement. Parents & tagger should pay FULL costs of ALL damages and cleanup related to ALL his tags. In addition, all convicted taggers should be given a choice (1) One year jail time or (2) assigned to a tag cleanup crew for one year.

This is how a tag cleanup crew should function: Pay is 75 cents per hour. The pay is applied towards their lunch meal cost and their tools and materials fee. They will picked up each morning at 5:00 am by a police bus at a designated pickup point in their neighborhood. They work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week and 50 weeks a year. Two weeks off for vacation and 5 days max fof sick leave. Any days they are late or absent beyond vacation and sick days covert to mandatory jail days.

This will provide an incentive for these punks to refrain from tagging. It's not art, it's trashes and destroys neighborhoods.

[joe]

How about tagging his face with a big pink tattoo and releasing him.

[DC]

They should cut off his hands.

[Tom]

Nah, break every bone in both hands with a ball-peen hammer.

After they've healed, THEN he gets to clean up someone else's tags for 40 hours a week, AT NIGHT (the highest risk period) for a year.

[Peter]

RISKED HIS LIFE FOR HIS ART?!? Are you kidding me. Graffiti is NOT art, it is a young punk giving the local community a big middle finger.

It is too bad that he didn't fall under the wheels of an overloaded 18 wheeler.

[steve rodriguez]

LA is becoming a city know for illegals and taggers more than anything else!

[eric]

ahh... there's nothing like an angry mob to pose clearheaded solutions to this crime against humanity.

[insert rolled eyes]

[Sean K]

"Cut off his hands" ... "break every bone in both hands with a ball-peen hammer"... "Arrest his parents and throw them in jail"... You people sound like the Taliban. There's a good reason you aren't judges. You have awful judgment and think purely based on emotions without a shred of reason or objectivity. How about "give him and appropriate amount of time in juvenile hall and let him know that a second violation will land him prison time". And don't act like your kids (if you even have any... and if you don't you should probably stop talking that naive nonsense) aren't out there acting like monsters when you're not around. I'm a substitute teacher and I can tell you for a fact that you don't have complete control over your kids either. In a day where I see 150+ kids come through a classroom, I see 5 or 6 who are genuinely well-behaved without force. And yet EVERY parent thinks they have great kids.

[Helen]

I'd be for jail time if it didn't involve wasting even MORE of my tax money to give scumbags free room and board...

[TVanNuys]

I agree with Steve Rodriguez and the poster who said we should hold the parents liable for the child's actions, regardless of whether they have control or not. Maybe that would give them incentive to get control! Clearly this boy needs a spanking!

[Cathy O'Dell]

Both the parents and the juvenile tagger should be severely fined. The tagger should also be forced by a Judge to clean up numerous tagging sites. Then the tagger should be placed in a juvenile detention facility to get a reality check. These taggers are like the plague.

[Doug]

Let him paint on the Freeway, End of problem.

[Paul]

The tagger's parents should be forced to pay all of the costs of cleaning up their son's vandalism. The article says that they have a home in Gardena. If the parents have to sell their home to pay the clean-up costs, that's what should happen. Until people are forced to take responsibility for their own actions, and the actions of their children, we will continue to see this sort of dangerous vandalism. And it won't be long until people are killed because road signs are covered over with graffiti.

[Tornadoes28]

All I have to say is I hate him. I hate this little loser and I have contempt for his parents. Just because he is a juvenile he should not remain anonymous. His name should be public information.

[SeanJean]

It's comical when you see the liberals on this board berating the majority that are sick and tired of bleeding heart judges merely slapping these thugs on the wrist while they slowly graduate from tagger to gang member to murderer to ward of the state. We see how these taggers respond to a liberal court system, whereby they just get a little community service and get right back to tagging and a life of crime. Harsh penalties need to be enacted in order to deter these kids of pathetic parents who have no control over their lives. I bet the liberals on this board want to just hug the taggers and encourage them to sing Kumbaya while they hold hands and all will be right in this world. Sorry, but these kids are wired differently than law-abiding people.

[steve rodriguez]

Send him to LAUSD so he can learn proper grammar and sentence structure,
then and only then can send him back into the streets!@&*$#@@#$%

[steve rodriguez]

Hey John let him tag your house!!!!

[Agnostic Free Thinker]

This punk kid and his parents need to be heavily fined and the kid should do at least 6 months in a juvinile facility plus another 6 months doing graffiti removal. I have zero sympathy for behavior like this that defaces property and endangers motorists. Make an example out of this little bastard.

[An]

Tax payers are paying millions of dollers paying for this ugly distraction of our cities. This kid and his parants should be forced to clean up his graffiti and pay the city for interrupting traffic.

[Steve]

His name was withheld to protect his parents.

[Robert NO longer in LA]

Our politicians and stooge judges will blame ALL OF US for these diseased vermin's 'difficulties.' The vermin will sue us, with the help of the ACLU, and get a few million to comfort him, while he gets therapy at some Hollywierd joke of a 'TheraPEST.'

[Jose Tario]

Funny how people asking for his head while the pigs from Enron and Bernie Madoff gets to sit in his penthouse and mail away his valuables after committing the biggest heist in American history.

[steve rodriguez]

Make an example out of this little bastard.

Amen to what you said: Agnostic Free Thinker

[steve rodriguez]

Hey Jose Tario: Bernie Madoff doesn't run wild into the streets defacing public and private property!

[Michael Scarn]

Haha. Im sorry but only about three people within this entire page have said anything remotely ethical. I disagree with the idea of defacing public property, but at the same time you sound like extremists to me. The child obviously doesnt recieve the amount of attention needed, but rather then thinkin about the worst possible punishment, we should be helping this child. Not one of you know the child's family situation, for all we know he lives on the streets.

[Jom Ama]

This form of art needs to be in a proper place. If there were legal spots to paint, the amount of "graffiti/vandalism" would decrease. The reality of all this is that all of the ridiculous attempts at penalizing the victim discussed here will never see the light of day. It's here and it's gonna stay, get over it. The first forms of communication were painted on a wall, labeled today as"cave paintings". Isn't that a form of graffiti then if it's painted on a wall? These people are not looking to thrash upon your fence/wall, they are looking to communicate with others like them saying, "This is me (my style of art) and what I'm all about". If there is no outlet to release these feelings through art in a legal area then of course they will go out of their way to show their talents to the world.
Assuming these people are low income/homeless or anything other than decent is simply absurd. People have made their lives successful as "graffiti" artists and make very good income compared to your average blue collar worker. Some of the most popular clothing lines have also come from "graffiti" artist:
Tribal Gear
Ecko Clothing
Wild Style Technicians
Panic 39
and many more......
Lets be real....it's someone painting a wall. Not killing someone. The taxes you and I pay as well as the parents or the painter themselves go to the government and are disbursed however and whenever needed. We have no say where the money goes anyways so why would it concern you if it never did before?

==ART is NOT a CRIME...NEVER has been and NEVER will==

[el fat caps]

yo you people are so ignorant! like Joe F. for example what kind of crap is the " oh i hope he fell and got runed over by nig trucks" alright so the kid did his thing. its vandalism but dude if that was your kid! i dont think you'd like some one saying oh i hope he falls and dies. c'mon man

[tanguy]

lol, bunch of fascists are funny, '' we should send him to jail, cut his hands off, kill his parents blas bla bla''
all that for a kid mesing about... 'sigh'

[King James]

Kill him, cut his hands off, put him in jail. Wow. Great ideas you guys. Pretty typical American way of thinking. Lets spend more time putting people in jail and waste more money on jail time for such a petty thing. He didn't kill anyone. He wasn't dealing drugs, he never raped anyone, assulted, stabbed. A little paint on a sign and everyone gets their panties in a bunch. It's not the parents fault either. How can you seriously sit there and blame them. It seems as though you all forget what being a teenager is like. You could tell someone a million times to not do something. But as a teenager you won't know until you find out yourself. How about put up some free walls and support your local scene rather then trying to sweep it under the carpet for years until the pile gets so big you can't deal with it at all. Try a new way of thinking rather then being so closed minded.

[one2sicc*nse*ark]

He did more than any of you people woulld ever have the nuts to do.

He made you break away from your borning commute and ponder on a subject that is regarded as garbage.

GRAFFITI IS LIFE. . . LOVE

[presston]

screw all of you hating on this kid, he risked his life for his love of art, they should just make him clean it and let him be on his way

[getukilled]

props to hof for the fame, keep destroying the freeways son

[sheep01]

vandalism gives jobs to middle class people, support the scene!!!

[Tears!]

FREE HOF! I love the Graffiti movement and i hate to see a writer get bagged by the fuzz... FREE HOF! Graff is art, and for a lot of writers it's a way of release, a way to escape all the BS in there lives, it's like therapy... FREE HOF!

[Garett]

You people seriously need to lighten up, why would you hope something so terrible as to fall 50 feet and get run over by a moving vehicle because he/she defased a stupid sign. GET OFF YOUR HIGH HORSE!

[concentrated adrenalin]

its sick to think that people in this society would rather have a kid fall off a street sign to fall to his death and be run over by vehicles...while you sit there and type on your computers while your government runs around committing crimes and major offensives, yet know one cares to say anything about that...and if you do you express yourself anonymously through text on a "created" post section, while the real people are "risking" their lives to put up works that express creativity and amazing athleticism that could even scale a freeway sign as a juvenile...and the worst thing is that this kid wanted fame in some way because of the scale he was doing his work and the L.A. Times just gave his just that and so did you all for responding...nice work H.O.F. graff will never die

[patrick]

You're all crazy. True, this kid did pose a hazard to motorists and himself, and his work in particular is neither beautiful or expressive, but you can only convict a graffiti artist for the one piece that they were caught doing, and that's usually enough trouble to put out their fire. Crush his hands, tattoo his face... you people are animals.

[JpR]

As somebody who is willing to accept that some "graffiti" is street art, this is trash. If hof is an artist, he is the least or amongst the least skilled street artists in los angeles - and stupid at that. A person driving down a freeway at 60 mph, straining to read past the over layering paint of a freeway sign, will not make them "ponder something beyond their boring lives", it'll make them crash and kill themselves, or someone else.

[metk]

how can you nut jobs sit behind your all mighty computer desk and actually say some of the stuff your typing.. letting a kid fall to his death and throw him in jail, there's murders on the streets, deal with that before you start sending out death threats to a kid cause he wrote on a sign and caused a minor inconvenience to a few drivers, amazing how people think.. and you blame this kid for crime

[free hofs]

he is just a kid having fun, some people like to play tennis, some like to risk thier lives for the things they love.

you guys dont know half of what a graff artists go through, and this kid has better work then this, that is called a simple, somthing you do quickly, so stop jumping into conclusions..

Free hof, mad respect

[Common Sense]

You people are disgusting.
Cut off his hands? Let him fall and die? Throw him in jail?

Yes lets punish his parents and punish him as an adult because that makes so much sense...

Paint on a wall is oh so bad, some paint creates broken windows, abandon cars, muggers, murders, robbery, drug trafficking, car crashes, war, famine, unkempt lawns, litter, ugly people, loud music, and fast cars.

In all honesty he should get in trouble for painting over a freeway sign like that, because of the confusion it would cause not being able to read directions. But the fact of the matter is I am sure half the commenters would destroy a kids life to "teach them a lesson" for giving a scummy-@$$ publicly owned wall in the middle of no where some color.

[EpicFailAmerica]

The comments on this page are a prime example of whats wrong with this country, I cant believe that most of you here can call yourselves adults after half the b.s. on here. Dont act like your crap dont stink, everyone made mistakes as a teen and some of your are probably still making them right now. think of all the illegal activities you engage in throughout your day, Remember that time mommy got really drunk in college and had sex with 5 diff guys at a party? Or when daddy and his buddies went on that coke fueled trip to cancoon, ofcourse no one ever remembers the stupid activities they engaged in when they were younger....You know what, I HOPE YOUR KID FALLS OFF A FREEWAY SIGN. dont forget karma works in mysterious ways.

not recognizing graffiti as a legit form of art is completely ignorant, the shirt your wearing right now was probably designed by an ex graffiti artist, or atleast uses the same laws and techniques founded by the art of graffiti.

It was wrong for the kid to paint the front of a highway sign, this is true. However, this is what happens when you dont let the kids paint anywhere else. Your tax money was in the bailout for the all the CEOs to keep their gold hottubs working, but i dont see anyone attacking them even half as vicious as this kid.

Your parents should be held responsible for some of the comments that you left on here because they FAILED.

[Dave Cesk]

You people are truly ignorant.

Obviously you don't realize the time and dedication that is needed into this art. Yes it's art, you try risking your life hanging off a freeway sign with a backpack full of paint knowing that the smallest slip can make you die instantly.

We go out night risking ourselves. When I go out and paint at night I know I could be shot,arrested,ran over anything, and what will happen if I die? "Oh he was just a little punk vandalising" We don't get anything out of graffiti you ignorant shmucks, we do this for the city, we add colour to the city, what do you do? You probably work at a store like Walmart that sells clothing made in sweatshops.

Yeah but we're the bad people in this situation.

Graffiti IS art!
Free HOF!

[Think]

FIrst off, its been mentioned before. No matter how hard some parents try to stop their kids from doing whatever, kids will find a way if they want to. Often times with graffiti the only way for parents to handle the situation is kick their child out of the house... That is extremely hard to do to your child and this will also make it easier and leave even more time for the child to do graffiti. And this kid is doing is directing his youthful, rebellious energy in a different channel than many other kids who instead spend their time getting trashed and high with friends. Unfortunately graffiti is art no matter how much of an obstruction to the freeway sign it is. There are colored squares in museums and canvases with lines on them... And the only reasonable punishment to sentence would be cleaning up the graffiti, does it seem logical to throw a kid in juvenile detention or prison with murderers, dealers, rapists, professional thieves and people with assault chargers just for scribbling on walls, signs, etc? NO! Even if it is a lot of scribbling on a lot of walls, that's all it is nothing more nothing less. Yes it is viewed as a huge nuscince (spelled incorrectly) by a lot of people but its just a nuscince (spelled incorrectly) and not a serious crime.

[Jonny]

graffiti dosnt cause the downfall of society. all the richies who just hold on to there money and buy pointless things wile the rest of up work al day trying to make it by even though i have a collage education an never made any mistakes in life. Graffiti is a full expression and a out cry of society. if you want to fix graffiti fix the way the world is run. for now your wasteing time trying to arrest kids for this stuff. they will beat the case and go right back out and do it agen.

[Facedorateur]

Completely agree
People here need to understand graffiti before even talking about it. Graffiti is a crime, but its not related to gangs or drugs. A graffiti writer will want to go in and out and only leave his mark. He decorates the city. They actually want to do something with a greater meaning. I mean, he didnt kill anyone, he didnt promote gang violence, he just painted hs name. He just caused confusion on this single part of the highway for about a week. Were I live we've been having a transit strike for 3 full months and we dont kill or destroy the lives of the people who started it.
Seriously most of you punks are grey guys that dont do anything for yourselves, stop thinking about society and be alittle egocentric, go write your name
But still freeway sign bombing can be dangerous for both him and the motorist.

[joker]

free HOF
yall haters

[icolorfreeewaysignsalso]

mad respect stay up HOF,
I have a gps too and it still hasnt stoped me from bombing

[McDick]

Until all u stubborn people become involved in graffiti, dont bother opening ur mouths. Graffiti artists are completely dedicated to this art form. More dedicated than u can ever imagine. Just because it was all started by poor kids growing up in new york doesnt make it an invalid art form. You may not see it as art, but it is more than that. It is a symbol that we still have freedom from the corrupt social standards that have been set for us. And graffiti isnt something that all kids do to become some sort of rebel against society. Graffiti is something most kids do becasue they want to assume an alter ego to get away from all the crap they have been through.
But im just a kid. So i obviously dont know what im talking about, right?...

[pomme de terre]

I don't think the parents should pay for what their kid have done. I'm glad that poeple like HOF get up and yo bomb outside..he is just expressin hisself.

peace out folks

[MendZ.One]

Wow all you guys be haten on a kid with a can... you may not realize this but the majority of "taggers" are in there 20's-30's.. you are all just pissed off because you have to look at art on the way to work..

[Jokrr^]

I personally think that the kid got the right punishment, i think of the kid as a Juvenile with an creative mind and that he needed somewhere to express it, nobody ever thinks of that, they just think it's some Deliquent trying to cause trouble. I'm 14 and my mother takes me places to do "Spray can art" her self. All you people that responded to this in a negative way should be ashamed, and the only reason you might have even thought the way you did was either you don't have kids or you're nothing but a Hypocryte parent, EVERYBODY HAS AN IMAGINATION AND SHOULD BE ABLE TO EXPRESS IT!! So what if he Tagged a sign, THE WORLDS NOT GOING TO END. Someone wash it and get over it...

[why not... John]

to quote "John" "This is how a tag cleanup crew should function: Pay is 75 cents per hour. The pay is applied towards their lunch meal cost and their tools and materials fee. They will picked up each morning at 5:00 am by a police bus at a designated pickup point in their neighborhood. They work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week and 50 weeks a year. Two weeks off for vacation and 5 days max fof sick leave. Any days they are late or absent beyond vacation and sick days covert to mandatory jail days."

WOW!! Okay, there arent even punishments this severe for most drinking and driving charges which are alot more dangerous to everyday people. This is utterly ridiculous. So he is a graffiti artist, does that give you the right to take away a year of his life and sentence him to what is essentially child labour? Haha. If you think this is just punishment for someone who paints a building or a street sign, you really need to give your head a shake. If more people would learn to actually appreciate what went into his graffiti, then not everyone would be in such bad moods when they see it. Personally when i see graffiti, it usually brightens my day, I am one of the lucky ones who is able to see not just scribbles on a wall, but art that describes a certain persons style, name, and even who his friends may be. Any artist who is worth a damn has put alot of time and effort into his work, and should be regarded as an artist in the same way that a musician, or any other artist is viewed.

[Ryan]

Really people? It's just Graffitti. He could be doing something much worse like dealing drugs, gang activity, stealing etc. And this isn't somthing to blame the parents on either. Tagging Is a form of art and expression, granted this guy didn't do it in a very smart location, if it's done in the right place it can really bring an otherwise bland areas to life. I ocassionaly like to bomb sometimes myself and it frustrates me when people like this guy give all taggers a bad name.

[J]

why nail his parent this guy could be a 25 y/o man otherwise what did his parents do anyways its a trend these days to tag its "cool" .... nice letters he probably loves the fame from this article and is waiting to go out and smash more spots !

go hof

[ipaintedyourhouse]

bump hof puttin in workkkk son

[MINES FST]

You people are crazy! Saying things like you wish he fell and got ran over by big tracks!!! Try him like an adult and put him in a state prison? For spray painting on something? Wow... I'm a lot more afraid of you people than this kid.

[Mr. Hippo]

This is what makes LA beautiful

[LOCAOL ARTIST]

YEAH WELL WHILE ALL OF YOU SUCKERS HATE ON THESE TAGGER KIDS I SAY LET THE PARENTS DEAL WITH HIM AND IF HE IS STUPID TO GET BUSTED THEN TO BAD LET HIM DO THE TIME.....MEAN WHILE HIS HOMIES GO OUT AND HIT UP OVER LA. STREETS EVEN STRONGER.......GOOD LUCK ON GETTING ALL OF THEM

[Reset 231]

I'm glad this kid did it.. Arresting him and writing about him online, in newspapers, magazines, etc is doing nothing but giving him more fame- probably what he wanted in the first place. All you fools saying "It's his parents fault" are ridiculous. Do you honestly think that his parents encourage him to go out and hang over free-way over passes 15 feet above speeding cares? My guess is that they didn't even know. You guys wake up early, commute to little cubicals and get pleasure bashing people like HOF who in reality will and probably already has gotten more from life. If you think you could honestly walk out on a 2 inch ledge above a freeway and paint letters that are better than most people could even trace while still knowing you can go to jail, then feel free to give opinions but if you are just going to bash the kid- keep it in your head because this kid has more balls and drive than any of you.

[su]

Let's out where this kid lives and spray paint his family's motor vehicles.