[News] Takeshi Miyakawa Arrested - I <3 NY

sixpackshaker · May 24, 2012

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/...astic-bag-i-love-new-york-bomb_n_1540367.html

An artist was arrested for hanging "fake bombs" all over NYC. The fake bombs were shopping bags with I<3 NY printed on them, suspended from trees and light poles, that are filled with LEDs so they would light up at night. Someone called in the suspicious packages and now Takeshi Miyakawa faces 10 years in prison for planting those "bombs." He was already jailed for 5 days.

Gared · May 24, 2012

Wow... just, I mean, I don't even... <sigh> the terrorists definitely won.

sixpackshaker · May 24, 2012

OK, he's just an artist putting out those lit bags. The first article that I've read about the arrest made it sound like he was the guy that started the "I <3 NY" campaign back in the 70's.

Necronic · May 24, 2012

Well, he was released without bail so that's a pretty good sign. In fairness to the courts though people should be smarter than this after the whole Aqua Teen Hunger Force thing a couple of years ago. And it's not like the police can ignore these things, that would be incredibly dangerous, as would saying "oh it's just a light display let's not look into it."

sixpackshaker · May 24, 2012

But you look into it, and see that it is just an art installation... then you arrest him for not having proper licensing. Not arrest him for planting bombs, or causing a bomb hoax.

Necronic · May 24, 2012

How do you safely look into something like that without using a LOT of government resources?

You don't just LOOK at it.

bhamv3 · May 24, 2012

He really should've known better, especially when he's somewhere like New York.

SpecialKO · May 31, 2012

bhamv3 said:
He really should've known better, especially when he's somewhere like New York.

Artists do weird shit in NYC all the time. This was more the perfect storm of weird that probably sounded cool and quirky at first.

The only truly thing bizarre about this story is the bomb-planting/terrorist charges stuff. Someone's probably trying to make a name for themselves as "hard on terrorists" or some shit, because it's hard to make headlines for charging a guy with public nuisance and collecting a fine.