Pigtown man’s political messages get to stand
ACLU defended him from city citation calling his words a graffiti violation
In what the ACLU says is a victory for free speech, a Baltimore agency has withdrawn a code-violation citation against a Pigtown homeowner who spraypainted “Black Lives Matter” and other messages on the side of his house.
In September, Baltimore Housing officials ordered Maurice Whitehurst to remove the messages, which the agency described as “carving, marking or graffiti” that violated city codes, according to a violation notice.
But the ACLU of Maryland said it successfully argued that the messages don’t meet the state’s legal definition of graffiti: “a permanent drawing, permanent painting, or permanent mark or inscription on the property of another without the permission of the owner of the property.”
Whitehurst, who has owned the home on Washington Boulevard since 2007, said he’s a free-speech absolutist and is concerned about societal issues, including gentrification, police harassment and deaths of black people in police custody.
“I felt compelled to give suffering a voice,” he said Wednesday in an interview outside the three-story red-brick home. “Without open dialogue, democracy won’t survive.”
Whitehurst’s home is next to a community garden that was once a vacant lot. Other messages on his house include: “Israel Apartied gets no news just spin,” “False Flag Is pointing to Black on Black Crime when the issue Is Police ABUSE” and “God damns USA.”
Whitehurst has clashed with neighbors over other issues, including a tree he wanted cut down because he said it was causing damage to his home’s foundation. Citizens of Pigtown president Richard Parker said that the spray-painting appeared this summer after that conflict, and that many believed it was related to the tree dispute.
Parker said he is one of the people who called the city to complain about the spray-painting.
“We certainly believe that he’s entitled to express himself through free speech, but it is shameful that he’s not taking into consideration that his expression is affecting potential new homebuyers and others in the community who otherwise seek to work with him,” he said. “We’ve looked to work with him on ... police-related matters and matters of racial equality.”
Whitehurst said that city workers have visited his home three times over complaints about the spray-painting and that they painted over some of it. He appealed the city’s September violation notice.
In an October letter to the city, the ACLU’s Nick Steiner wrote that Whitehurst’s spray-painting did not meet the legal definition of graffiti.
“This is Mr. Whitehurst’s property, so he can’t, by definition, be committing graffiti,” Steiner said in an interview.
Whitehurst was notified by housing officials in November that the violation notice had been canceled.
Baltimore Housing spokeswoman Tania Baker said an inspector issued the notice in response to a complaint to the city’s 311 hotline and believed the painting had been done by a third party.
“As soon as Baltimore Housing was advised that the owner of [the home] was the author, we canceled the notice,” Baker said in an email to The Baltimore Sun.