Day 974: The Grey Ghost Strikes (Again) In My Hood

New Orleans City Business seems to be catching on to the menace that is Fred Radtke a.k.a. The Grey Ghost, The Blobster, etc. and the carte blanche offered him by NOPD.  You may wonder “Why is graffiti and painting over it such a big deal when New Orleans floodwalls may have been stuffed with newspaper and John McCain should not be in the Ninth Ward much less be allowed to speak about it?”  It’s because this ongoing story is actually a microcosm of how things are over here: the City spiting itself by haphazardly assigning responsibility and authority for services it cannot provide, the misplaced priorities and allegiances of NOPD and the outright exclusion of New Orleans citizens and ground truths in the process. 

Gray Ghost launches offensive at café

[Mojo Coffee House barrista, Alicia Adams] said she asked Radtke to please don’t paint on our private property. His response has left her shaken and afraid for her own safety.

Adams said Radtke verbally attacked her with the most offensive of obscenities, letting her know that he could care less what she thought and was going to do whatever he wanted.  I was going to call the police,” she said, “and he started mocking me, yelling, ‘Oh murder! Someone call the police! Help me! Help me!“”

According to Alicia, Radtke’s precise words were “F*** you, you stupid b****,” but I guess NOCB wasn’t about to print that.  What happened next puzzles me because there is an NOPD cruiser parked outside Mojo and across the street from the St. Vincent Crack Guest House at any given time of day.  Where is NOPD when you need them?  Block their coffee, I say.

After his tirade, Radtke got into his van and pulled away. Adams said she called the police, reported the incident, gave them Radtke“s license plate number and asked them to come by the cafe but the police never arrived.

A Vortex Of Stupid: Observe the lack of care in painting over a red Frenchmen St. building in grey, which only serves as a fresh canvas for a retaliatory tag.

Radtke claims that he has never painted on the Mojo building.  Instead, he openly admits that NOPD officers accompany him when he is painting in the area because scary people armed with cameras may capture his soul in their little flash boxes, or some such nonsense.

Usually when I go to take out graffiti near that coffee shop I bring a police escort so I don’t get intimidated, Radtke said. If I’m taking out graffiti across the street, they walk over to us and start taking my picture. They do it all the time, which is why I need police escorts.”

This brings up two troubling points: 1) NOPD supposedly offers him cover when he paints in the vicinity of Mojo, but when a Mojo employee complains about him (or anyone, for that matter) defacing private property when asked not to and his threatening verbal onslaught, not a single cop shows or follows up.  2) Did no one at the coffeeshop have a camera/cameraphone with which to take pictures during the dustup?

Commenters on the situation constantly ask if no one can talk to the City and stop this guy.  The first problem is very typical of New Orleans: no one in city government “owns” Radtke.  Furthermore, even if Councilwoman-At-Large Jackie Clarkson asserts that “the city would never give (Radtke) authorization to do any of what he is doing,” the City Council has not gone the step further in issuing him a Cease and Desist order.  Moreover, he is NOPD’s good buddy in the Quest Not To Help Criminals Stay Off The Streets But Instead To Show Those Spraypaint-Wielding Thugs Who’s Boss By Asking Some Guy To Paint Over Their Work In Grey.  Until all of City Council and the Public Works Director work up the nerve to engage NOPD and set them straight on this issue, we will continue to watch Radtke and the taggers try to outdo one another in the game of painting over this city in shades of stalemate.