Metro Transit Assassins, also known by the

initialism An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

MTA or as Melting Toys Away and Must Take All, is a

graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

street artist A street artist is a person who makes art in public places. Street artists include portrait artists, caricaturists, graffiti artists, muralists and people making crafts. Street artists can also refer to street performers such as musicians, acrob ...

collective based in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

, most famous for its half-mile graffiti "MTA" tag along the concrete walls of the

Los Angeles River , name_etymology = , image = File:Los Angeles River from Fletcher Drive Bridge 2019.jpg , image_caption = L.A. River from Fletcher Drive Bridge , image_size = 300 , map = LARmap.jpg , map_size ...

History

MTA was founded in the late 80s by Skate (1969-1993), who was already a founding member of another crew called California Bomb Squad (CBS). Other MTA original members were Skate's girlfriend Blosm, AZ, and Anger. Over the years, many writers have joined the crew, including Swan, Demon, Gasoline (aka Gas aka Gaso), Sufer, Smear, K9er, Apear, Toro, Nomas, Ohjae, Ralos, Suem, Resek, Rakl, Rums, Wyde, Rose, Hapho, Blisk, Abek, Fetish (aka Fem).

Legal Actions

In June 2010, the L.A. city attorney filed a civil lawsuit against 11 alleged members or alleged former members of the MTA crew."Taggers, city settle over giant graffiti"
by Richard Winton, "Los Angeles Times", June 21, 2012 The suit had asked for $5,000,000 in restitution from the 11 defendants and was seeking a first-of-its-kind injunction against a graffiti crew, an injunction modeled on those made for violent street gangs. On June 20, 2012, the civil case against 11 alleged members of the MTA crew named in the suit was settled with the 11 defendants no longer required to pay the city of Los Angeles millions of dollars for graffiti cleanup. The city agreed not to enforce the injunction against 8 of the defendants ( Smear being one of those 8 defendants) as long as they refrain from any "graffiti vandalism" and complete certain requirements. Furthermore, the cases would be totally dismissed when the defendants pay outstanding fines, perform 100 hours of graffiti removal and five years pass without a graffiti conviction. Since Smear had paid all outstanding fines and 5 years since 2007 had passed without a graffiti conviction and he had finished the 100 hours of community service, the case against Smear was dismissed June 20, 2012.

MTA Tag

The world famous MTA tag holds the record for the largest graffiti tag in history measuring 57 feet high and 1,700 feet long, that took Saber 35 days to paint with 300 gallons of white paint and 100 gallons of black paint in 2008. The Army Corp of Engineers were brought in to buff it in late 2009, spending $3.7 million to buff the tag. MTA los angeles river

References

{{Reflist Street art Culture of Los Angeles