All it takes is one upset neighbor to call in the bullies....I mean police. The "noise" is just the excuse they use to harrass people.
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She says that the cops discussed taking her in for public intoxication, but "I had only had a few drinks," recalls Garcia. Instead, according to an HPD arrest report, Garcia was charged with "generating sound causing others to be aware of vibrations or resonance" and taken to jail, where she spent the night.
As explored in the Houston Press' "Sound Effects" cover story, this Class C misdemeanor is a similar charge levied against many local club owners and musicians since Houston City Council gave an a-okay to an overhauled noise ordinance in October. Due to its cryptic language, many of the cases have been bombing in court, including Garcia's.
"When the judge read the charges, "He laughed and said, 'This is why you're in here? Go home.'
"I work a nine to five and I work hard. It was my 30th birthday and we were just having a party," says Garcia. "The whole thing is just ludicrous, insane and crazy."
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CRIME
City Hit By Lame Graffiti
"GOAT" epidemic spreads
In case you haven't noticed the latest menace haunting Houston's streets, someone keeps spray-painting the word "goat" on stuff along Washington Avenue and in a couple other areas around the city. Recently they hit Kung Foo Saloon and the corner store by Blue Moose.
This is annoying for a lot of reasons. First, it's covering a lot more area than normal tags. City workers are running all over town trying to wash off the paint and keep Houston in (relatively) clean condition, although they don't help out with vandalized private property.
Second, it's not good. Unlike the warped, out-of-another-universe graffiti on Elgin and Crawford, this goat stuff looks like mindlessly lazy work. Marco Torres, a photographer who knows the graffiti scene, used the word "toy," which Urban Dictionary defines as "a graffiti artist's term for a novice," as in "that fuckin' toy threw up some shitty tag all over my graf."
But Gregory J. Snyder, a professor of sociology at CUNY who studies graffiti and graffiti writing, said he saw some potential in one of the goat tags. No need to crush the tagger's artistic aspirations, I guess, just direct him to the nearest canvas and away from other people's property.
"I'm a big fan of the arts. But I don't want people to use my building. I'd appreciate it," said Virgil Cox, who's dealt with his share of vandalism as the owner of Cox Hardware.
Back in 2000, LL Cool J came out with an album called "G.O.A.T.," which stands for "Greatest of All Time." No one knows if that's what the tagger means or if it's just a name he picked up, though everyone I talked to agreed it isn't gang-related.
Taggers like this usually don't get caught by police, and the four-letter word allows whoever it is to finish the strokes quickly. The best the city can do is paint over the tags fast and remove the fame aspect that taggers look for.
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