Street Art: McCain, Police and Thieves

ByMark Vallen
Police and Thieves oh yeah!
“Police and Thieves.” Anonymous street poster, 2008.

I spotted this anonymous street art poster of Republican presidential candidate John McCain in the North Hollywood district of Los Angeles.

The title of the poster, Police and Thieves, comes from a Jamaican reggae hit written and performed by Junior Murvin and produced by Lee “Scratch” Perry in 1976.

The song was popularized further in a 1977 punk version by The Clash. Rebuking gang violence and police brutality, the lyrics chide:

“Police and thieves in the street, Oh yeah!, Fighting the nation with their guns and ammunition. (….) No one stop it in anyway, And all the peacemaker turn war officer, Hear what I say – Police, police, police and thieves oh yeah!”

Similar Posts

  • Update: Myth of Tomorrow

    ByMark Vallen

    In July of 2005, I wrote about Myth of Tomorrow, a long lost but rediscovered mural by famed Japanese artist, Taro Okamoto. This article was updated on April 9, 2016 to reflect recent developments regarding Mr. Okamoto’s monumental mural. The video above shows the mural in situ at the Shibuya railway station in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Painted in Mexico between 1968…

  • Kent Twitchell: The End of Muralism?

    ByMark Vallen

    On May 1st, 2008, the Los Angeles Times reported that famed L.A. muralist Kent Twitchell settled his lawsuit against the U.S. government for obliterating his six-story mural depiction of artist Ed Ruscha. Starting in 1978, it took Twitchell nine years to complete his mural on an outside wall of the L.A. headquarters of the U.S. Department of Labor. In 2006…

  • |

    Mural Masterwork: Myth of Tomorrow

    ByMark Vallen

    An important antiwar mural painted in Mexico by famed Japanese modern artist, Taro Okamoto (1911 – 1996), has been rediscovered after thirty five years. In Spanish the work is known as Mito del Mañana (Myth of Tomorrow), and in Japanese, Ashita no Shinwa – but like all great works of art, Okamoto’s painting speaks a universal language. The gigantic mural…

  • In Defense of Art & Artists

    ByMark Vallen

    On August 6, 2015, a highly praised public mural funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and the D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities was defaced by a vandal or vandals. Unashamedly, a leading left-wing activist wrote a vile article celebrating the willful destruction of the artwork because it depicts eleven US presidents from Eisenhower to Obama. Then,…

  • The Bush Bust & Free Fall

    ByMark Vallen

    The National Guard Association of the United States commissioned a life-sized portrait bust of President Bush from famed artist, Charles Parks, who for the last 50 years has created over 500 sculptures in the realist tradition. In a special February 9th ceremony at the National Guard Building in Washington DC, Park’s bronze statue memorializing Bush’s service in the Texas Air…

  • What’s Left? Who’s Left?

    ByMark Vallen

    “If I can’t dance I don’t want to be in your revolution“ is a quote long attributed to anarcho-communist activist, Emma Goldman. Taken up by some on the modern US left as a catchphrase against artless bureaucratic organizing, the slogan has also been the organized American left’s feint at indicating concern for cultural matters. In point of fact, the saying…