“Outlaw” Artist Nabbed by Cops

The Brooklyn Paper reports on Cobble Hill’s “outlaw” artist Ellis G and his recent run in with the law:

Brooklyn Paper: Second Chalker Nabbed by Cops: The city’s crackdown on sidewalk chalk “vandals” is officially out of control! It was bad enough when the Sanitation Department threatened the parents of a 6-year-old Park Slope girl with a $300 fine if they did not remove the offensive “graffiti” — her sidewalk chalk drawings on their own front stoop.

But after we ran our front-page story about Natalie Shea and her chalk “vandalism,” a Cobble Hill chalk artist who had never been arrested before suddenly found himself in handcuffs and spending a night in the lockup.

Coincidence? Not likely, considering that the artist, Ellis Gallagher, had been quoted in the original Brooklyn Paper piece — a story that the desk sergeant just happened to be reading when Gallagher was brought in.

“The cops had spent about half an hour debating whether to arrest me, so they finally called the sergeant who said, ‘Bring him in,’” recalled Gallagher. “And when I get to the 76th Precinct [stationhouse], sure enough, the sergeant is reading The Brooklyn Paper and laughing at me.” (Full story)

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