Police arrest man caught graffitiing subway with #LoveTrump after building and hiding behind fake wall
When President Donald Trump said “build the wall,” he probably wasn’t referring to this.
According to the New York Police Department, pro-Donald Trump graffiti started to appear inside Brooklyn’s Court Street subway station on the R line in January. After being cleaned up on two separate occasions following rider and MTA workers’ complaints, transit police and subway station managers got a bit creative.
To catch the vandal, a wall was constructed to build a room, which police hid in while waiting to apprehend the person defacing public property by writing “#LoveTrump” on a beam. The room was placed just feet from where the graffiti was being repeatedly scrawled.
Arrested for #LoveTrump graffiti. #NYPD captures man who tagged support of @realDonaldTrump at least twice inside #NYC subway station in #Brooklyn. Police say passengers and workers complained about the graffiti. @NY1 pic.twitter.com/n3kSchrLhR
— Dean Meminger (@DeanMeminger) March 19, 2019
The wall, which was similar to temporary walls erected around stations undergoing repairs, even included a padlocked door to give the illusion that workers were only allowed access. The room was put up on March 12.
NYPD Chief of Transit Edward Delatorre told NY1 that plainclothes officers caught 43-year-old Jamie Montemarano vandalizing the property three days later on March 15.
Police say that Montemarano was shocked to be caught and he apologized for vandalizing subway property. He has never been arrested before, but now will face charges of making graffiti and criminal mischief.
“We take graffiti very seriously and work closely with our law enforcement partners to prevent it in the subway system,” an MTA spokesman told The New York Post.
In this specific case, a wall did work to deter crime.
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