In Tucson, Ariz., police found a young woman passed out behind the wheel of a running car stopped at a green light. When an officer approached the car, he noticed the woman's dress was pulled up above her waist and her underwear was pulled down.
The Daily Wildcat (my college news paper) reported the officer knocked on the window in an attempt to wake the woman, and when unsuccessful he opened the door of the car and shook the woman's arm. The officer reported smelling a strong odor of alcohol when he opened the car door. A mostly empty bottle of rum was also seen inside the vehicle.
The woman awoke after about two minutes and was asked to pull up her underwear and pull down her dress. As she was adjusting her clothing, the car rolled forward. The officer reached inside the car and put it into park. After the car was stopped, the woman reportedly asked the officer what the problem was.
Upon questioning, the woman is said to have admitted that she had been drinking, but refused to take a field sobriety test. She was arrested for suspicion of DUI and taken to the University of Arizona Police Department station for a breathalyzer test. She registered blood alcohol content readings of .19 and .17 and was charged with DUI-Impaired to the slightest degree, DUI-BAC greater than .08, Extreme DUI-BAC greater than .15, minor under 21 operating a vehicle with liquor in the body and obstructing traffic.
WOAH- People sure act kooky when some one is on the rise, especially hipster star & street artist Shepard Fairey. Home boy is blowin' up outta control. This sure is entertaining. He is right on the money with this one and deserves all the credit and fame. Fuckin haters trying to claim.Fairey seeks to “vindicate” himself after the AP earlier accused him of copying the AP photograph on which the artist’s red-white-and-blue image of Obama is based, according to a complaint filed today in federal court in New York.
The Los Angeles-based artist and his company, Obey Giant Art Inc., used the AP photograph “as a visual reference for a highly transformative purpose,” according to the complaint. “Fairey altered the original with new meaning, new expression and new messages.”
The photograph that inspired the disputed Fairey image was taken by Mannie Garcia in April 2006 at the National Press Club’s panel discussion about the humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region, according to the complaint.
Fairey seeks a court order that the image, created in January 2008, doesn’t violate AP’s copyright. According to the complaint, Fairey’s work is protected by the Fair Use statute, which allows limited use of copyrighted material to make original works of art.
Permission Required
“The photograph used in the poster is an AP photo, and its use required permission from AP,” Paul Colford, an AP spokesman’ said today in an e-mailed statement.
“AP believes it is crucial to protect photographers, who are creators and artists,” Colford said. “Their work should not be misappropriated by others.”
The lawsuit took AP by surprise, Colford said, because the company was “in the middle of settlement discussions” with Fairey’s attorney last week and had agreed not to sue during the negotiations.
The AP, which claimed on Feb. 4 that Fairey’s image infringed its copyright, threatened to sue Fairey by tomorrow, according to the complaint. The AP said it used “special technology” to determine the image’s original source.
Fairey’s work, often found in the form of street art, focuses on social and political subjects with media including screen prints and stencil paintings, according to his complaint. Earlier this month, the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston opened a 20-year retrospective of Fairey’s work.
The Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery unveiled a poster of “Obama Hope” on Jan. 17.
The case is Fairey v. The Associated Press, 09-cv-01123, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
