Fair und Balanced - Part I

As I was flipping through the headlines on the P-G's headlines last
night, I came across this little article:

In 2005, Tony Montano denied he was the person who had spray-painted the graffiti tag "MFOME" throughout Lawrenceville, Schenley Farms, East Liberty, Bloomfield and Shadyside.

Last year, he admitted to being the tagger after his arrest by Pittsburgh police and got five days of jail time and a fine of $1,001.

Late Saturday, Mr. Montano, 21, was arrested again, this time in Oakland, after a witness called 911 to report a vandal was spray-painting several buildings...

Fine. Nogooder apprehended by our vigilant law enforcement, blahblahblahblah.

But something caught my attention and seemed, let's say a bit "askew" to me:

According to City Councilman William Peduto, new graffiti with Mr. Montano's tag -- "MFOME" -- began appearing in recent days on Melwood and Centre avenues.

"We're asking the district attorney now to go for full prosecution," said the councilman, who used funds for his council district to purchase digital cameras used by the police bureau to document graffiti.

"The district attorney has sought to get stronger penalties but has not been successful in the county courthouse. Right now, we need to set an example."

In the original online positing, these two pieces were pretty much the whole article, which seems unusual as it implies the question: why is Peduto being interviewed about the arrest of a graffiti artist?

Does Otis have some keen insight into the criminal psyche, gained from years of experience in the rough and tumble streets of Pointe Breeze?

Is he particularly attune to the basest desires of the artistic underworld as a result of his time served as chair of City Council's Committee on the Art & Technology?

Or perhaps he, Doug Sheilds, and Jeff Koch team up to fight crime onalternating Saturdays as "THE COUNCILMEN," pitting their superskills against such supervillains as "The Jay Walker", "The Right Turn on Redder", and the "Left-Your-Trash-Out-Five-Days-Before-Pick-up-er."*

Or maybe, just maybe, Billy-boy is running for mayor and wants to stand in front of a camera. It's a long shot, I know.

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*And if so, is Jim "The Gas Theif" Motznick allied with the heroes orthe villains?

Tag(s): Bill Peduto, Pittsburgh Politics