April 18, 2006, - 5:26 pm
Is This Real?: Did Hip-Hop Designer Vandalize Air Force One?
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Is this video (click on plane/upper left-hand pic), of hip-hop clothing designer/ubiquitous punk, Marc Ecko, breaking into a U.S. Air Force Base and spray painting graffiti on Air Force One, for real? Looks like it.
And if it is, it’s quite disturbing. We think the U.S. Secret Service (and U.S. Air Force agents, too) ought to be paying him a visit . . . and sending him on a lengthy visit to cell block H.
Ecko, the White punk who thinks he’s Black, and is a gazillionaire from his urban “Ecko Red,” “Ecko Unlimited,” and other clothing lines, sees himself as some sort of crusader for the right to commit vandalism a/k/a graffiti on other people’s property. Read his blog about his absurd cause and his silly video (upper right hand corner) about how he’s mad that New York City will only sell spray paint and broad-tipped markers to 21-year-olds and up. He praises “subway art.”
Again, it ain’t art. It’s vandalism that costs taxpayers millions. Ecko thinks it’s about free speech. But free speech never involved using someone else’s property (without their permission) as your tabula, canvas, or personal soapbox. Ecko says he “tagged” (spray-painted) Air Force One because “the President can’t fly around like a rock star talking about how America’s the greatest country in the world,” when graffiti is restricted. Huh? Who let this guy out of the asylum?
If this video of Ecko spray painting OUR property–as in Air Force One–is legit (and it looks like it is), that’s vandalism. And if it’s that easy for this punk to do so, how hard would it be for terrorists to get close to the plane or plant explosives on board?
So, is it for real? Ecko says it is. And if it is, what is Ralph Basham, Secret Service Director, doing about it?
Basham is an Arab American we are proud of here at because he is a patriotic, loyal American who sought to fight Islamic terrorism. In a secret memo (a copy of which we have in our possession), Basham tried to protect the turf of the Secret Service and U.S. Customs in investigating terrorism money laundering, counterfeiting and funding cases. He protested a Memorandum of Understanding signed by then DHS and Justice sachems Tom Ridge and John Ashcroft, giving all terrorism cases to the FBI. (Though, Basham is soon out of the Secret Service, as he’s awaiting Senate confirmation of the President’s nomination of him to head up Customs and Border Protection.)
Now, though, we wonder how this annoying punk of a hip-hop designer got so close to Air Force One, if he actually did (if this is for real).
Very scary. If anyone knows more details on this, please contact me and/or write about it in the comments section.
****UPDATE: Reader Eric says that it is FAKE (was staged)! Who knows?
Tags: America, Debbie Schlussel Is, designer, director, doing about it, Ecko Unlimited, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Hip-Hop, hip-hop designer, John Ashcroft, Marc Ecko, New York City, President, Ralph Basham, Senate, spray paint, Tom Ridge, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Air Force Base, U.S. Secret Service
It was staged:
http://www.stillfree.com/legal.html
Eric on April 18, 2006 at 7:07 pm