City Sticker With Supposed Gang Symbolism Scrapped

By Chuck Sudo in News on Feb 8, 2012 11:25PM

The City is in full-on damage control mode following the brouhaha over the city sticker that may or may not pay tribute to the Maniac Latin Disciples. City Clerk Susana Mendoza announced today that Herbert Pulgar's design would be pulled in favor of the first runner-up in the city sticker contest by Caitlin Henehan of Resurrection High School. Henehan's design depicts a female police officer, fireman and EMT as superheroes.

Mendoza said Pulgar's winning design was pulled because the position of the hands "could be misinterpreted" as gang signs. Asked if Pulgar would instead be given a chance to re-work the hands so that they didn't look like they were throwing pitchforks (or a frisbie — see how we also misinterpreted the position of the hand?), Mendoza said that wouldn't have been fair "because other entrants would not have gotten the same chance."

The other entrants' designs also didn't fall under the withering eye of police blogger and erstwhile art critic "Detective Shaved Longcock." (Unless he has a problem with the hose the fireman's holding.) Pulgar's art teacher at Lawrence Hall Youth Services, Janice Gould, told NBC Chicago the position of the hands were not reminiscent of the Maniac Latin Disciples and showed the model photo he used as his guide for the hands.

He drew a near-exact replica of a "reaching for the stars" photo included in the teacher's "hands" booklet she gives to kids.

Gould said she wanted to teach Pulgar to believe in himself. "This has undone that," she said.

Chicago Magazine's Whet Moser, with his usual combination of grace and depth, looked into the hoopla surrounding Pulgar's design.

Last night I gave it to the most neutral subject who happened to be sitting on the couch with me, my wife, and asked her what she thought. She said it's clearly not a gang sign, because you can see all five fingers raised on a couple of the hands. The MLD sign has two fingers down, because the hand represents a pitchfork, another of the gang's symbols.

Jody Weis and the cops who brought this to the media's attention spend their lives dealing with gangs, so I can see that a gang sign is the first thing that would come to mind—as well as the fact that the heart topped by the hands, well, looks kinda like a heart with horns. But I'm a weenie liberal arts major, so I thought it looked like an annunciation.

It's unknown if Mendoza's office will ask for the savings bond Pulgar won for the sticker back, or if Longcock is investigating whether Pulgar cashed it in for weed and bandanas.