Infamous Staten Island artist and activist Scott LoBaido appeared in court docket Monday, accused of blocking velocity cameras with bouquets of pretend flowers in his newest vigilante stunt, prosecutors mentioned.
LoBaido, 59, was arraigned on fees of second-degree obstructing governmental administration and third-degree prison tampering – each misdemeanors – for allegedly impeding the units with floral preparations on two totally different dates this yr, in keeping with the Staten Island District Lawyer’s Workplace.
“The Beautification Squad is me,” LoBaido confessed to a detective, in keeping with a prison grievance. “I’m the Beautification Squad.”
LoBaido is accused of attaching the flowers to the highest of a pole at Richmond Avenue and Oakdale Avenue on Jan. 14, as nicely at Van Duzer Avenue and Maxie Courtroom on Feb. 4, in keeping with the court docket doc.
An worker of Verra Mobility, which maintains the cameras, advised police that the blossoming blockade prevented the cameras from recording the road – in impact stopping them from catching velocity violators.
In each circumstances, LoBaido was joined by one other individual, who he merely described to investigators as his pal who chauffeured and photographed him.
“He didn’t know what I used to be doing,” LoBaido mentioned, in keeping with the grievance.
Throughout his Monday arraignment, LoBaido was granted an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, prosecutors mentioned.
LoBaido, flanked by his lawyer Mark Fonte, held a press convention after the court docket listening to.
“I needed to admit that I used to be placing up these flowers as a beautification public arts assertion — what I’m well-known for — as a result of these ugly issues on these poles have been apparently cameras and I used to be placing these flowers as much as beautify the group,“ LoBaido advised reporters, in keeping with The Staten Island Advance.
Fonte hailed his shopper as “a nationwide treasure and an American hero,” the paper reported.
“Ninety 9 % of Staten Islanders know these velocity cameras are money-grab cameras,” the lawyer mentioned. “It’s all in regards to the metropolis of New York reaching their arms into the pockets of the hard-working folks of Staten Island and separating them from their cash,”
Whereas Staten Island District Lawyer Michael McMahon described protests as an “important side of democratic expression,” he mentioned LoBaido’s alleged actions crossed “the road from lawful advocacy to prison exercise.”
“Putting flowerpots in a fashion that blocks visitors cameras and prevents the enforcement of visitors security legal guidelines is definitely an act of protest, and never the crime of the century, however nonetheless, a criminal offense,” McMahon mentioned in a press release. “Like most Staten Islanders, I detest the omnipresence of velocity cameras, of which we appear to have far more than our fair proportion of in comparison with the opposite boroughs.
“And but, this doesn’t give me, Staten Island’s district lawyer, nor some other resident of our borough, the fitting to deliberately disrupt their operation and determine what features of our native authorities are allowed to exist and which don’t.”
LoBaido’s different alleged stunts embody hanging “Trump Crossing” indicators in Manhattan final fall, and releasing 100 pink, penis-shaped balloons outdoors the downtown courthouse the place the present president’s hush cash trial was happening.
The conservative provocateur was additionally cuffed again in March for allegedly tossing pizza over the gates of Metropolis Corridor in protest of a plan to ban coal and wood-fired pizza ovens in Huge Apple eating places.
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