Who was Loki?
I have decided, upon the arrest of a tagger, to post some basic, publicly observable information about the tag in question. I want to do this to help the community understand the context of the arrest, and justify the work of the Brookline Police, who work hard to catch these guys.
First in this series: Loki
Start: Loki tags started appearing in Brookline in late June of 2011. His territory was almost entirely in Brookline Village, which is where the guy the police arrested lives.
Characterization: Loki appeared out of nowhere and did huge, very visible tags all over Brookline Village. These were some of the most aggressive attacks Brookline has ever seen. He would tag a mailbox, I would remove it, and he would tag it again the next night. That’s pretty ballsy. I originally, and wrongly, thought that Mr. Nugs had done these, as I couldn’t see a new guy being so brazen. Yet, his handwriting was terrible and showed no artistic ability. So I was confused. But the police caught him and it became clear. (I did my own independent research after the arrest and was satisfied that they got the right guy.)
Here is an image of his main territory:
If you want to browse a live map where you can click on the flags, go here:
Also, on that map, you can zoom out and see a few tags that are in Northern Brookline.
If you want to see a mosaic of most his tags - the ones that I removed - here it is:
Conclusion: Loki was an new tagger who was inspired (egged on?) by more senior and experienced guys. He did huge tags from the beginning, including a lot of private property - unprecedented in this town for a new guy. When caught, he, according to news reports, turned in Mr. Nugs. So even though he wasn’t a big fish, he is a major player in the great Brookline Graffiti War of 2011-2012.
Lastly, even though I was tracking him and removing his tags, I had nothing to do with his capture. It was 100% good old-fashioned police work that caught him. Good for the Brookline Police!
