Vandal Squad Cop Cashes in Graffiti Tales
Photo of NYPD Vandal Squad undercover at Adidas’ End to End Project by Trubdizzle.
For the past couple weeks, stories have been going around about a former NYPD vandal squad cop set to release a book on some of New York’s most prolific graffiti writers. This rumor was confirmed when Amazon added the forthcoming book to its website. The book, Vandal Squad by Joseph “Joe Blow” Rivera is expected to be released by Miss Rosen Editions, the “urban culture and lifestyle” imprint of Powerhouse Books, in December 2008.
Recently, Graffnews.com, which has sourced the most information on the book, posted a list of writers who are expected to be named, which include SI, LES, FEES, FACET, PEN, SHINE, DECK, CAP, MENOS, JA, FOE, and SKUF. They also posted an excerpt from Rivera about tracking down MENOS.
After several months we caught a break at a graffiti exhibition in lower Manhattan. I was on the roof of a three-story brownstone with binoculars. It was abeautiful night. Half of them were gathered outside,just hanging out, flipping through their photos, the usual. Then one of the guys pulled out a can of spray paint and tagged the sidewalk. When several spectators moved out of the way I could read the tag: MENOS.
Predictably, some people are pissed off and nervous.
this fucker is gonna blow up maaaaaaad spots
By TH on April 23rd, 2008 at 3:38 pmthis one didn’t catch me in that tunnel in ’cause he’s so f*cking fat. he’s really a fat a$$ slug, he just doesn’t know
By jahman on April 25th, 2008 at 1:09 pmCatch tags in his book when it hits the shelves.
By DL on April 25th, 2008 at 3:19 pmjahman is full of shit,
By truth on April 26th, 2008 at 11:47 amThis guy can go get hit by a truck or something, i hate when vandal squad acts all hard an pretends they are beating graffiti even though graffiti is growing and spreading and is getting easier. dipshits.
By RAZZ on September 9th, 2008 at 4:59 pmDO NOT SUPPORT.. LET BOOK ROT ON SHELVES
Review of the book:
By OLD SCHOOL on November 5th, 2008 at 1:03 pmblog.smart-crew.com/2008/11/05/joe-blows-review-of-new-vandal-squad-book-by-joseph-rivera.aspx
could be an interesting read – some of these knucklehead cops are graffiti’s biggest fans even though they can’t admit it
Just don’t pay for the book – rack that up so Joe Blow doesn’t profit from it
By rehabilitated on March 25th, 2009 at 9:37 pmrehabilitated,
By jyoks on May 14th, 2009 at 5:45 amu fuckin idiot weather u rack it or pay for it, he still made the money by it being on the shelf, haha fuckin spazticc