Ecko Associate Arrested, Vallone Thrilled
If there's one thing that Queens City Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr., has made a priority during his time in office it has been fighting graffiti, especially when such vandalism is glorified as more than an expensive nuisance. The crusade has caused Vallone some grief from the graffito community, but middle class voters love this stuff, and they outnumber taggers in Vallone's Astoria district (and across the City).

One of Vallone's biggest battles has been with fashion designer/graffiti enthusiast Marc Ecko, who last year released a video game which challenged players to spray graffiti across a city, to which Vallone took offense as the glorification of criminal activity.

Yesterday in Brooklyn, Ecko associate Alain Mariduena, who goes by the tag "KET," was arrested and charged with charging him with two counts of criminal mischief in the second degree and two counts of making graffiti. Vallone noted that Mariduena is closely tied to Ecko, having served as an advisor on his video game and graffiti-inspired apparel. Ecko’s own attorney, Daniel Perez, also represented Mariduena in court.

Vallone, often mentioned as a candidate for Queens borough president in 2009, was shocked, shocked!, that someone with close ties to Ecko would participate in something as illegal as graffiti.

“It's clear that neither Mark Ecko nor his associates care about the difference between real art and vandalism. We can see the writing on the wall, or should I say subway: all Mark Ecko cares about is promoting criminal behavior for commercial profit," Vallone said. "Now we know why Ecko's attorney spends so much effort trying to keep graffiti tools on the street: so he can make money defending kids when they are arrested for using them."

UPDATE: Bucky Turco, editor-in-chief of ANIMAL and a frequent Vallone critic, writes in to say that "associate" might not be the best word to describe the relationship between Ecko and Mariduena.