Image by Gravity Glue
A Boulder artist contends that local law enforcement have threatened to arrest, or at least, fine him for producing sculptures made by stacking river rock.
In a May Facebook post, Michael Grab- also known as Gravity Glue– informed followers that local law enforcement told him he must stop creating his stacked river rock sculptures that they had been enjoying for years, or face incarceration and fines.
Grab goes on to explain how he was confronted by a Boulder police officer who referenced two unclear city codes [5-4-8 and 5-4-2] concerning ‘destruction of property’ and vaguely described how his rock stacking qualified as such destruction.
He encouraged locals, and the population at large, to notify the Boulder city council and express their desire to allow this long-standing local tradition continue. Grab added that he would be compelled to leave Boulder if he were not permitted to express himself creatively through rock stacking.
The plea turned up enough support to initiate a personal phone call from the city attorney, assuring Grab that rock stacking was not illegal in Boulder.
Rooster Magazine, Colorado’s largest entertainment and lifestyle publication, questioned Boulder law enforcement’s decision to pursue a seemingly harmless artist instead of the growing number of rapists and thieves, calling their harassment of Grab a “witch hunt.”
Further Reading: Are Fees From Minor Infractions Bleeding Lower Income Citizens Dry?
The magazine went on to mention the city’s 2010 attempt to clothe Catharine Pierce, Boulder’s nude gardener. Complaints from neighbors and passersby had prompted the Boulder city council and Boulder Housing Partners to have toplessness criminalized.
After she and her husband fought for her right to remain topless, Pierce was left to peacefully- and legally- tend to her garden while wearing only a yellow thong and pink gloves. The city did, however, create a new anti-nudity law giving police the right to arrest anyone older than 10, who shows their genitals in public.
The Boulder branch of the American Civil Liberties Union calls the ordinance a war on fun at such time-honored events as the Naked Pumpkin Run and the World Naked Bike Ride.
Editors at Rooster Magazine also noted that if every flamboyant personality in Boulder was stifled, the city would quickly become “nothing more than a college town with a Target” and residents should fight to “keep Boulder weird.”
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