San Francisco Mayor Protests Planned JGR Event
From SegaDojo:
Willie Brown, the infamous mayor of San Francisco, has stated his displeasure in regards to a Jet Grind event taking place this Saturday in his city. It seems the event, where grafitti artists can SAFELY paint their works for prizes and moolah, is taking place just a few blocks from an anti-grafitti volunteer gathering.
The situation is, Sega got a permit for the event weeks before. But that didn’t stop Willie from protesting anyway. It’s really, really irresponsible. I expect better from Sega, he said.
P.J. Johnston, Brown’s press secretary, further added, It’s probably too late to stop this, but we’re going to press them to take this promotion out of San Francisco.
Today, Sega of America’s Heather Hawkins responded to this story:
All of our permits were in order, then the mayor’s task force on graffiti found out about the event and got very upset that they had given us permits. They actually tried to revoke our permits. But we got our permits completely legally, so the event is still going on. This is a big part of the reason why we’re doing this event – because people misunderstand graffiti art so much that they can’t tell the difference between somebody tagging the bus with a fat marker and people actually creating art.
On the possibility that Sega might face legal action:
We don’t think that we’ll be getting any repercussions, but we have been receiving some nasty phone calls today. It really amazes me the way that people who are fighting against something that they think is disrespectful can be so disrespectful themselves. It’s like they’re almost worse than what they’re fighting against. We have received several phone calls today from people who fit that bill exactly.
Her closing thoughts:
We are trying to educate people as to what the idea of the event is all about. It’s about trying to gain respect for the graffiti art community. So when the artists come down [to the event], we’re reminding them, ‘Hey, all eyes are on you now. This is your chance to show these people that you’re artists.
