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Astor Cube Attacked with Chalk
By
Jacob Dobkin
Published Apr 2, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jacob Dobkin
Published Apr 2, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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Apparently some kids chalked the cube at Astor Place yesterday and got arrested. Here's the account from Gothamist Contribute:
So I go to the street fair near the east village in st. marks, muck around for a bit, and leave. We took a grand old stroll near the cube in Astor Place. On the sidewalk around the cube, we saw a ginormous yin yang drawn in chalk on the sidewalk, and two girls drawing stuff around it. We grabbed some chalk and joined in.
It started innocently enough, a police outline of me there, a something awful grenade there. Then, I had a stroke of genius. "Hey guys, K-Mart's over there, lets go get a bunch more chalk". So we did.
We started drawing some stuff. I drew some nice messages. I wrote "YOU ARE A NUMBER" in enormous letters, and a favorite quote of mine, "If you wish to test a man's character, give him power", as said by Abraham Lincoln. Also, "Smoking kills but it looks cool"
Then, we came back to Astor Place, dumped it all on the sidewalk and continued the drawing. Others joined in and left whatever messages they pleased. Eventually, one of the girls started to draw on the cube itself. Verily, this was the trickle that started the flood, as everyone else followed afterwards. Including us.
People climbed ontop of the cube to defa-- draw on it. It was a grand old time.
Cops didn't show for a couple hours, amazingly. These two women were the ones that ruined it by calling the cops and got several kids arrested:
Once we heard the cops were coming, we announced it to everyone there, and left to get a bite to eat at a nearby eatery. We returned later to learn of the unfortunate fate of our friends.
The cops came and took several people to jail. Once they showed up, though, the two girls from the very beginning began to shout "LET THEM GO, LET THEM GO". This chant spread, but not without the cops arresting those girls too.
It turns out those girls had heroin on them. A large ball of it. Not just heroin, a freaking ball of it. It's possible that it was planted, though. Regardless, those girls are fucked.
Anyways, this is a true testament to how awesome people can be sometimes. Heres a nice little quote that sums up this whole day rather nicely, from the cube itself.
What. A. Day.
There's a couple of lessons in this tale. First, chalk art is still graffiti in the eyes of most cops, and they most definitely will arrest you for it. Explaining how it will wash off with water will not help your cause. Second, if you're going to do some chalk graffiti, best to leave the BALLS of heroin at home. More pictures of the adventure can be found here.
Update: Adam sent us the below photo to further illustrate the story...
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Jacob Dobkin
Jake Dobkin co-founded Gothamist with Jen Chung. In 2019, Jake released Ask a Native New Yorker, a book based on his Gothamist advice column.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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