Las Vegas mayor suggests medieval stocks for graffiti vandals

Mayor Oscar Goodman is suggesting a strange, new punishment for graffiti vandals: bind them in a medieval-style stocks and give the public a chance to paint their faces. "This would be a great deterrent," Goodman said, adding the city attorney's office was researching whether the proposal was constitutional. "I want to see if it falls under cruel or unusual punishment. If not, great. Let's put it into effect." For months, Goodman has complained about so-called graffiti taggers and even proposed that removing their thumbs in public would serve as a deterrent. Until recently, he wouldn't back down from his proposal. "We were not going to cut thumbs off," he said. "That was to begin discussions on the issue." Michael Green, professor of history at Community College of Southern Nevada, wondered aloud if the mayor was serious. "I never expected Oscar to take a page from the pilgrims and Puritans," Green said. Stocks are pivoting boards placed around the wrists and head, which are then locked in. Sometimes also locking in place feet, they were popular in medieval and puritanical times as a humiliating form of punishment. Goodman explained that he would set out stocks in a public square and have a bucket of paint nearby. "It wouldn't be in the hot sun or anything," he said. "Let him sit out there for an hour, people can come by and put some paint on his head, and let him walk around like that for a week or two."

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