The town of Leon Valley has issued an apology after local police arrested street performer Lakey Hinson on May 15. Body camera footage posted on social media shows the 36-year-old San Antonio artist telling officers his sidewalk drawing was chalked up and would be washed away in the rain just before he was handcuffed and taken back to the nearby police station .
Hinson, who also goes through Lakey360, has developed a social network following for chalk public art, he creates freehand in cities across Texas. His colorful illustrations vary from en symbolic images focused on building community, but his most common design is a six-petalled “flower” he creates using circle shapes paired with a personal quote: “Overlapping circles of friends allow a community to flourish.
“I always go out to create in public because I think it’s important for us to reclaim public property. So many places want to charge artists to show up and sell their art, or they offer artists a “exposure” instead of paying,” Hinson told Hyperallergicadding that he likes to use sidewalk chalk as his primary medium, as the art form “is about as accessible as it gets”.
But Monday, On May 15 at around 6:30 p.m., Leon Valley Police officers did not hesitate to detain Hinson outside a bus stop for alleged vandalism.
Officer Jorge Breton, who has worked in law enforcement for at least a decade, was training Officer Alan Gonzalez that day when they received an anonymous call complaining about graffiti, according to information from San Antonio Express News. Hyperallergic requested comments and a police report from the ministry.
Apparent body camera footage obtained via a Freedom of Information request and later posted to social media by Hinson shows the officers asking Hinson what he was doing, to which Hinson replies, “Sidewalk chalk. ” In the video, the officers explain that they had received a call complaining about graffiti and that he had to stop because he did not have a license. Hinson responds that the work is “impermanent” and that the rain would soon wash it away, and defends his chalk mural as “freedom of expression”. The officers then ask for his ID as Hinson begins recording the event on his phone. Within seconds, officers are handcuffing the street performer and escorting him into a police cruiser.
“We wanted to give you a break. Now you are pushing us to do it,” Officer Breton says in the video.
“I’m not pushing you to do this. You choose to do this because you are a tyrant,” Hinson replies.
Officers then took the Texas entertainer back to police headquarters where he was “detained in the local compound for 30 minutes” while confirmed at Hyperallergic by the city’s director of community relations, Crystal Miranda.
But according to Texas Penal Code 28.08chalk art does not constitute illegal vandalism.
“[The police] chose to put me in the car, and I just stayed quiet to see how things would unfold. I knew I was right,” Hinson said, recalling the incident in an e-mail to Hyperallergic. “They put me in the cell maybe 15 minutes before Breton came back and tried to make it look like he was going to do me a favor and let me go after talking to the prosecutor.”
Body camera footage later shows Breton’s supervisor warning him to “be careful as chalk is not considered permanent marking”. The sergeant told Breton: “If we hold him illegally, that opens us up to a trial.
After Hinson’s release, the City of Leon Valley and the Leon Valley Police Department publicly apologized in Hinson and held a “Chalk the Walk” Event at the Leon Valley Public Library on June 11 “for the purpose of showing that [officials] Welcome to chalk public art.
In response to the official apology, Hinson said Hyperallergic that he had mixed feelings. He admitted that he was partly happy that they admitted their wrongdoing, because in previous cases when he had been “wrongfully arrested, or just fined and harassed”, he said he didn’t had received no apology.
“On the other hand, it’s kind of a slap in the face,” Hinson continued. “The thought that two guys with guns and body armor working for the city found it necessary to handcuff me less than 60 seconds after talking to me in sidewalk chalk, [and then] they offer me the chance to create for free at a ‘Chalk the Walk’ event in temperatures over 95 degrees – it kind of feels like they’re giving as little as possible.
June 6, Hinson spoke at City Hall about his dissatisfaction with the department’s handling of the case, citing that Constable Breton was not fired from his position, according to San Antonio Express Newsbut only removed from training duties and given a written reprimand.
“I asked for Breton’s dismissal and explained that I think he will probably hurt someone and leave town to face its consequences,” Hinson said. Hyperallergicnoting the irony that “chalk art can get you arrested faster than carrying a gun”.
hinson said Hyperallergic that he plans to sue the City of Leon Valley once he finds affordable legal representation or a lawyer willing to work voluntarily since he can’t even pay for his own residence.
The latest incident isn’t the first time Hinson has been targeted for his chalk art. About six hours east of Longview, where Hinson graduated from high school in 2005, the artist faced opposition from local police and civilians for creating artwork public. He said his work was deliberately covered several times in 2019, and on December 11 of the same year he was also arrested, searched and detained to Gregg County Jail for drawing his chalk mandalas on the sidewalk in the downtown arts district.
On Jan. 19 earlier this year, his work was again met with opposition, this time by local Confederate sympathizers outside the Longview town courthouse where Hinson was inscribing Martin Luther’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech. King Jr. on the sidewalk. in honor of MLK Day three days prior.
Hinson continued to write until one of the antagonists returned to the scene “with a barrel of water and took away four hours of writing”.
Hinson captured the entire encounter on camera in a video that shows individuals taking away his work as he attempts to write. He returned to the site to complete the work over the next two days. Later he spoke at Longview Town Hall about his ordeal but said he received little support. Shortly after, Hinson decided to pack his bags and leave his hometown.
Just last week, on June 18, Hinson and local artists created another sidewalk mural outside San Antonio’s historic Pearl Brewery in honor of Juneteenth to see the work carried away. He returned the next day to continue working on the play only to be threatened with arrest.
In an email, the San Antonio Police Department said Hyperallergic that no officer “responded to any call for duty at the Pearl on June 19” because the facility has on-site security. Hyperallergic contacted the Pearl Brewery for more information and comments.
“It was private property so I left, but it was just frustrating to see how [local officials] let’s invest all this time creating the art just to wash it away,” he told Hyperallergic.
“They didn’t clean the dirt off the concrete; they just washed the chalk away,” he said.
Hyperallergic contacted the Leon Valley Police Department and Leon Valley City Hall for comment. Hyperallergic also contacted the Longview Police Department and the Longview Town Manager’s Office for comment.
