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Judge Rejects Challenge to Injunction Against Tagging Group 'Metro Transit Assassins'
Photo by Nuno_Oliveira via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr
Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich sought an injunction against the tagging crew known as the "Metro Transit Assassins" in 2010, and today his offices have announced that a judge has "has rejected a challenge" to the injunction.
CBS2 reports that the defendants' arguments were centered on the group members' First Amendment rights as artists, however Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Deirdre Hall ruled that the city had indeed had sufficient grounds to obtain the injunction last year.
The crew, who leave their "MTA" mark all over the city, particularly on property belonging to the Metro transit agency, are thought to be behind at least 500 pieces of graffiti. One piece was the massive L.A. River "MTA" tag, which stretched a quarter-mile long near Downtown and cost $4 million to remove.
The injunction would block the 10 members of MTA "from associating with each other or possessing graffiti tools or weapons [and] impose a mandatory curfew on each member of the crew." A civil suit filed against the taggers "asks the court for $1.25 million in fines and $3.7 million for damages" for the hundreds of tags left around the city.
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