Graffiti artist sues city after arrest on private property

06:25 PM CST on Monday, January 29, 2007

By Doug Miller / 11 News

A guy who paints graffiti style murals has filed a lawsuit arguing that a couple of Houston police officers violated his First Amendment rights.


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That guy is Phillip Perez.

He says he was on private property, at a street festival, painting on panels and demonstrating what he calls graffiti art when something happened. “They got real rough, real quick. They, I guess they felt I wasn’t cooperating. They went ahead and tried to grab me by the arm, which they did.” An officer approached Perez and asked for a vendors permit and for identification.

Perez, video showed, got upset and was arrested.

His attorney says the charges were later dropped.

Now he’s suing Houston’s city government.

“This case is about freedom of speech. People are able to say what they want in public. This was on private property,” said Randall Kallien with the American Civil Liberties Union.

A police spokesman says the department’s lawyers hadn’t seen the suit, so they didn’t want to comment.