Queens councilman Peter Vallone Jr. has a beef with urban fashion mogul and graffiti fan Marc Ecko. First, Vallone pressured Mayor Bloomberg to revoke a permit for a graffiti-themed block party Ecko was throwing; a judge ultimately granted Ecko his permit. Then Ecko funded opposition to Vallone’s anti-graffiti legislation; a judge knocked down Vallone’s bill. Now, on May 9, Vallone will introduce revised anti-graffiti laws. “We’re not backing down,” Vallone says, adding that he’s been in contact with law enforcement about one of Ecko’s close pals, graffiti artist Alain Maridueña (known as KET), who faces up to twenty years in prison for his tags. “Pete Vallone is like the Alberto Gonzales of City Hall,” says Daniel Perez, who is Ecko and KET’s lawyer, and suggests that Vallone’s influence—he chairs the committee that oversees the Police Department’s and district attorney’s budgets—could affect the case against KET. Vallone says, “I wish I had the power he’s insinuating. But this is a wacky theory they are putting out to help” KET, whom he calls “obviously guilty.” Says Perez, “Guilty, according to whom?”
Advertising
Most Popular Stories
Most Viewed
Last 24 Hours
- Paul Ryan: Free Lunches Make Kids Soulless [Updated]
- How Oscar Pistorius Might Avoid Prison
- The Best of Twitter Interrupting Cameron’s Phone Call With Obama
- After Newsweek Reveal, Man Insists He Isn’t Bitcoin’s Creator
- The Plot From Solitary
- Mike Lee’s Tax-Reform Plan Does, in Fact, Suck
- The Hijacking of Satoshi Nakamoto
- Broke Law Firm Dewey & LeBoeuf Was Also Fraudulent, Prosecutors Say
- Only 39 Percent of New Yorkers Approve of This Bill de Blasio Character Now
- Bro Who Never Worked at Goldman Sachs Deemed Unqualified to Write Goldman Sachs Elevator Book
Most Emailed
Last 24 Hours
- The Plot From Solitary
- How Not to Talk to Your Kids
- Justin Davidson: How Can the Vienna Philharmonic Change Without Changing?
- Why You Truly Never Leave High School
- Bar-onomics
- Space of the Week: A Firehouse, Revisited
- How I Got Over My Al Gore-a-phobia
- By Noon, These Two Will Have Brought In Another Half a Million More Dollars
- Listening to Xanax
- New York Wedding Guide - Makeup Artists Directory