Sparty Graffiti
So I am writing because I don't live in AA and I wanted to ask the board if it is common practice to see graffiti all over town after a game? I ask because the wife and I were walking around town on Sunday enjoying our last day in AA and saw "go green" and "go white" painted on side walks and other things in quite a few places. Do other teams do this? Do Michigan fans do this to MSU's side walks? I sure hope not because I found it rude and classless. We already put up with their fould mouths through the entire game and that was enough but to see that they had actually spray painted their drunken slurs as well was just too much. So does this kind of thing happen often in AA or is it an MSU thing?
October 12th, 2010 at 1:32 PM ^
and not playing the politics card, other than random student groups and ice cream socials, the only things i saw scrawled consistently was YAF or relating to them. never saw OSU stuff or anything else. in fact, i would hazard a guess the only fanbase to ever do physical damage to stuff was MSU. of course they then crutch this with Sparty being painted but they've often taken it beyond the diag and onto buildings, etc
October 12th, 2010 at 3:04 PM ^
I'd add BAMN to that list, joining YAF in over-the-toppishness.
October 12th, 2010 at 4:31 PM ^
I saw a lot of "V is coming" fliers posted all around campus in my day, a reference to the Vagina Monologues. (I mostly just note this fact in order to allow myself the opportunity to type the word "vagina" here on my work computer. Oops, I did it again!)
October 12th, 2010 at 1:36 PM ^
Their inferiority complex and need to maintain an egocentric sense of importance, leads them to excessive attention grabbing gestures.
It is tempting to hate them for it, but that would be giving into my own ego, so I choose to feel sorry for them. They remind me of the Harley riders from Southpark.
October 12th, 2010 at 1:59 PM ^
the nail on the head.
October 12th, 2010 at 2:12 PM ^
Sparty statue anyone? Which is worst than the words go green on a sidewalk...
October 12th, 2010 at 2:18 PM ^
Sparty fans have made it an event to gaurd the statue. Since the circle was renovated and Sparty removed for a brief time I cannot recall one single incident of an assault on Sparty. Yet they act as if the stupid thing was in mortal danger. Christ, they even went as far as to take the team over to touch the damn thing and high five those defending it before heading to AA.
October 12th, 2010 at 2:33 PM ^
so a tradition of vandalizing a very important part of msu history isn't as bad as painting some beloved sidewalks of AA because MSU fans now guard the statue.. I get it now. From what I've seen.. I cannot recall a different time MSU fans came to AA and vandalized the sidewalks either.. get over it.
I don't get where having the team high five those fans means anything either... maybe the UM football team should go spin the cube.. maybe it'll give them motivation to tackle.
October 12th, 2010 at 3:03 PM ^
Sparty has been hit... twice in my entire memory on the issue? and one of those times was PSU students about 4-5 yrs ago. the other time was high schoolers.
now how many times has the RCMB proudly posted pictures of feces or paint on the diag? and even then, let's say Diag = Sparty. what excuse is there for painting cars, buildings, sidewalks and other city fixtures?
October 12th, 2010 at 4:13 PM ^
I cannot recall a different time MSU fans came to AA and vandalized the sidewalks either.. get over it.
If we "get over it" and look the other way, what's to stop them from doing it again? How about both campuses tell their students in advance to stop trying to vandalize each other's campus landmarks?
October 12th, 2010 at 2:24 PM ^
Pictures or it didn't happen.
/luring
EDIT: for pawlosk1
October 12th, 2010 at 2:27 PM ^
Just saying.
October 12th, 2010 at 2:30 PM ^
Randomly tagging sidewalks is worse because anybody can do it pretty much anytime they want. It's total cowardice. What's next...stealing lunch money from school children?
I'm not arguing that painting a Spartan statue in the middle of campus is appropriate (it's still vandalism after all) but it least it takes some ingenuity and balls to pull off the feat.
October 12th, 2010 at 2:33 PM ^
...you DON'T ever see Michigan fans do this. Michigan fans spray the Sparty Statue, as Sparty fans spray the Rock. Those are totally harmless and even out. The problem is that Sparty fans vandalize cars around Ann Arbor, and those of visiting fans in EL, while Michigan fans have far too much class to engage in either of those behaviors.
Then again, to bastardize and paraphrase H. L. Mencken; nobody ever went broke underestimating the class of a Spartan fan.
October 12th, 2010 at 5:21 PM ^
I like that nobody ever went broke underestimating the class of a Spartan fan H.L.Mencken, Too funny lol
October 12th, 2010 at 2:33 PM ^
I am pretty sure that paintballing the Sparty statute counts as a prank, whereas random acts of spray-painting sidewalks and private property (with characteristically telling Sparty misspellings) counts as vandalism. Not that the Sparty fanbase is especially keen on nuance...
October 12th, 2010 at 2:37 PM ^
Because it is.. let alone it's assault to fire paintball guns at people and firing them out of cars is another offense as well.
http://tech.mit.edu/V118/N45/vandalism.45n.html
SHOCKING. 14 arrested.
October 12th, 2010 at 2:44 PM ^
Not saying that what the MSU fans did isn't classless or illegal.. but some pranks are worse than others.. and I think we can classify the history of attacking sparty as a little bit worse. Spray painting cars is just wrong, and I can agree with that.. no one wants their shit fucked with.. but assaulting people is just below the belt.
October 12th, 2010 at 3:10 PM ^
I am totally at a loss to understand how paintballing a statue, i.e. a inanimate object (you know, like a rock, or the brain of an average MSU fan), constitutes assault. The Sparty statute is not a person. Nor is it a means of conveyance for people, like a car. Ergo, by paintballing Sparty you are not putting anyone in imminent apprehension of phyiscal harm.
I agree that there is a distinction between defacing private and quasi-private property (e.g., cars and sidewalks), and Sparty. But your conclusion, that paintballing Sparty is "worse," is a LOGICFAIL to me. Paintball paint is generally washable, and moreover paintballing the the Sparty statue, dastardly though it may be, will not require some poor guy (who may have no connection to, or even affinity towards, Michigan) to clean up his sidewalk or car.
(NB: sidewalks are quasi-private because while cities build them, they often charge private property owners with maintaining them.)
October 12th, 2010 at 3:14 PM ^
There were people that got shot at who were guarding the statue that we hit with numerous paintballs.. Assault. Read the article.
October 12th, 2010 at 3:23 PM ^
No mention of anyone being charged, let alone convicted, of assault in the article. And unless the people at the statue thought the paintball guns were real, actual guns (thereby creating the reasonable apprehension of immiment physical harm), there could be no assault.
October 12th, 2010 at 4:41 PM ^
I refer you to any 1L course in Tort and Criminal Law. The term "assault" is used in both criminal law and civil law.
A criminal assault is only accomplished when a physical blow is delivered. When using a "deadly weapon" the charge for criminal assault is obviously going carry much more serious implications. I would submit that a paintball gun could be construed by a DA as a "deadly weapon" in which case the crime would bring felony charges.
In civil law, an assault does not require an actual physical touching. It is more the threat of a physical touching (a physical touching results in a "battery," the equivalent of a criminal assault). A victim of a civil assault can sue for any damages incurred due to physical injury caused by the assault, if any, and even the fear of being battered. The lawsuit would be brought by the victim itself and not carry criminal implications (unless a crime was committed). Here's an example: rabid fans shoot a statute of an opposing mascot and student trying to protect it ducks to avoid the projectiles and hits his head on the statute, knocking out several teeth and resulting in a trip to the hospital and dentist. Said victim could sue the shooter for damages including, but not limited to, medical bills, time away from work, and maybe even intentional infliction of emotional distress.
October 12th, 2010 at 5:24 PM ^
Correct recitation of the law, counselor, but your DA would have a difficult time proving criminal assault B.A.R.D. under the given facts, where you have conceded the assailants intended to hit the opposing team's mascot.
October 12th, 2010 at 6:23 PM ^
I was on a jury for assault & battery once. It was a hockey dad who punched the opposing team's coach between periods. The coach got a dislocated jaw.
The judge gave us criteria that the prosecutor would have to prove in order for it to be assault, but now I can't remember them exactly. Intent was like 90 percent of what the lawyers argued about, and jury delibertations were all about how it wasn't the guy's intent to cause as much harm as he did (and that the coach pushed him first).
We found him guilty, but it was an argument.
Considering a kid with a paintball gun, speaking as a juror, I find it hard to believe any criminal charges would stick in a court setting. I don't know about civil.
Either way, a paintball gun shot at a known rivalry target is just rivalry shit. I don't hear USC calling UCLA fans classless for the crap that's always done to their statue. It's not even that much of a historical relic -- the original was made in what, the 1950s? You haven't even been the "Spartans" all that long. And anyway, it's just a copy, because the school knows it's a target for rivalry crap so they moved the original inside. Pretending like this is a work of Rodin, or even Marshall Fredericks, is silly -- it's just a big statue of a half-starved Spartan. Actually making a school tradition out of protecting it because a pair of high school kids once painted the thing is just a sad, fake attempt at some kind of relevency.
October 12th, 2010 at 10:08 PM ^
October 12th, 2010 at 5:29 PM ^
The discussion was of Spartan fan and if Spartan fans teeth were knocked out it is simply resolved by reaching down, picking them up rinsing them off with urine and placing them back into said mouth. No pain and suffering there.
October 12th, 2010 at 3:36 PM ^
that also happened 12 years ago. when UM victories never happened according to most MSU fans. you're pulling out one example in a 20 year span and ignoring that the same article notes the Diag was painted green and white. well done!
October 12th, 2010 at 3:37 PM ^
So little brother, man.
Reminds me of when I was a kid and I filled my little brother's shampoo bottle with piss. Really dick move, I agree (newsflash: 10-year-olds can be total dicks). However, it was much better than his counter-prank, which was running out of the bathroom and pissing on my bedroom floor.
- One took subtlety, cunning, and planning (and was a dick thing to do).
- One took destructive rage (and was an equally dick thing to do).
If you don't see a difference, eh, neither did my parents, and neither would the law. But that's how siblings are -- big brother starts some shit by belittling little brother, little brother freaks out and takes the insult way too seriously, then cries to mommy and daddy.
This is why the metaphor was so apt when Hart gave it, and why that metaphor was around long, long, long before that utterance. Because Spartan fans are immature and unimaginitive and oversensitive little brats who hate cleverness because they are not at all clever; and Michigan fans are a bunch of belittling pricks who think being clever makes it okay to be a total dick.
Siblings eventually grow out of this. The Michgan-Michigan State rivalry hopefully never will.
October 12th, 2010 at 6:29 PM ^
You've got me giggling in my cube with that one.
October 12th, 2010 at 5:28 PM ^
they just really, really like comfortable sheets.
October 12th, 2010 at 2:42 PM ^
This Sparty Grafitti thing is getting out of hand. I was up at the Mackinac Bridge on Sunday and I couldn't believe my eyes. They painted it green and white. The whole bridge. The bastards.
October 12th, 2010 at 2:53 PM ^
Just curious- where is the graffiti? I have not seen anything (I live and go to school here).
October 12th, 2010 at 5:15 PM ^
It wasn't too far from the stadium because we were walking in that area but I saw it in a couple of other places. I just don't know AA well enough to point out where we were. It was on the North side of the stadium though and not too far from it. I should have taken pictures but I was just kind of disgusted by it.
October 12th, 2010 at 3:04 PM ^
the same Sparty who was blowing a green vuvuzela at me as I was leaving Ann Arbor. Dude looked like he was going to bust a lung, as if his enthusiasm alone was going to make me curl up on the sidewalk and start crying like a little girl. Points for dedication to the cause I suppose, misguided though it may have been.
October 12th, 2010 at 3:07 PM ^
vuvuzela > misplaced anger, yelling, profanity, fists, paint
October 12th, 2010 at 3:22 PM ^
he was blowing the damn thing with a very annoying attitude. I swear. Nevertheless, agreed.
October 12th, 2010 at 3:36 PM ^
"I know why he attacked my friend on the boat, but Jesus....he didn't have to be a jerk about it. Bite off his leg and move on!"
October 12th, 2010 at 5:34 PM ^
She blew her green vulva at me also until she saw I had my billfold out to pay for a Nard Dog shirt