An American in Prague reacted to the slogan "Czechia for the Czechs" with a sign, added the word "not only" to the wall, and the Czech police fined him 225 USD

3. 3. 2023 / David Franklin

čas čtení 5 minut
Every day when I got on the tram at the Barrandov tram stop in Prague, I was always struck by the insanely xenophobic sign on the marble wall that read "Czechia for the Czechs".

It was there for many months, and the administration of the Prague Public Transport Enterprises did not seem to want to wash this sign off their rotten conscience.

And since I am an American with permanent official residency, living in the Czech Republic for many years, working properly and paying taxes, the sign began to properly annoy me.


But then I thought that maybe it was a marble, art-loving wall on which anyone can write their opinion, and therefore directly encouraged me to add my feeling as an equal resident of a the Czech Republic to the disgusting nationalistic inscription.

The next day I brought my art supplies and boldly dipped my paintbrush into the paint and slowly painted my opinion on the wall next to the expression of the Czech xenophobia.

In the meantime, hundreds of people came and went at  the tramp stop and finally a young person came up to me and said, "I think you're making a mistake."

I looked at my sign, "Not only for the Czechs, but for anyone who learns the Czech language and lives decently according to the norms of democracy" and, fearing I had made a mistake, replied, "Did I make a grammatical error?" Of course, such a mistake would play into the hands of the xenophobic camp.

 "Grammatical, I think not," said the young man, and he started discussing my whole performance with me, agreeing with me at the core, because he was a Slovak living in Prague.

However, after a while, a local seven-man police unit arrived with two cars, intending to arrest me, and immediately asked me angrily for my papers.

But when I started to explain why I was painting my comment on the wall, and that I thought the wall was some kind of public forum, since the sign had been there for many months and the Transport Company had never washed it off, one of them remarked: "Amazing, he's speaking Czech!"  Another joined in and said, "No way, what is he doing, does he know it's vandalism?"

But I guess they realized I wasn't some young guy scribbling nonsense on the wall and suggested that I wash off my sign immediately. Well, I agreed on the condition that I would wash the "Czechia for the Czechs" sign as well.

So one of the cops drove me to my house, which is about a three-minute walk from the tram stop, while refusing to take the elevator up to my floor, which I found absolutely absurd after the six-second car ride.

At home, I found white spirit  and rags, and soon I was erasing the sign at the tram  stop.

But the cops started yelling at me that I only had fifteen minutes to do it. I replied that I wanted the marble not to be damaged and it was impossible to erase it in such a short time.

Another cop called somewhere and then announced to his seven colleagues that they could bill it as overtime.
 
Next a guy lit a cigarette on the platform. [According to a weird Czech law, people are not allowed to smoke while standing at tram stops.] The cops yelled at him, "What is this? You can't do that here. Don't you speak Czech, dude?!" but the police didn't even ask him for his ID.

Slowly, in the presence of crowds of people, I washed all the signs and got into the police car, which took me to the police headquarters, where I was fined five thousand crowns (USD 225). (The police did not inform me that according to the law I was allowed to refuse to pay the fine and if I pay it and sign a piece of paper, I am not allowed to question the imposition of the fine later.)

The gentleman who was smoking a cigarette on the platform did not have to pay anything.

Long live justice for the just, I thought.

The next day I returned to the tram stop. I continued to clean the graffiti voluntarily.

 I urgently seek a pro bono lawyer. I will ask the judge to overturn the fine.
 

 A little more about me:
 
B.A. David Franklin A.B. et M.A. (b. 1964) is an award-winning artist from New York, working in video, printmaking and performance, and also works as a translator of texts from English to English. He has over twenty years of experience in the media, including live national television broadcasts, filmmaking, instructional videos, documentaries and music videos for internationally renowned artists. From supervising television and film crews, to leading martial arts workshops on a remote island, David has a proven track record in the creative field. He is the co-founder of an experimental art center, a wellness services company as well as a non-profit cultural organization. He has worked as a chef at an Italian restaurant, and as a manager at a non-profit medical clinic for HIV-affected patients. He has also been a media consultant and producer for a human rights advocacy organization. He has also been a college teacher, and as a 4th degree black belt in Shintaido (Japanese exercise for health), he has traveled the world leading workshops in the art of movement. A cult film he starred in, made by former Czech underground leader cinematographer Jiří Dvorský, drew him to the Pilsen Finale Film Festival in 2004. David is a native speaker of American English, also speaks Mandarin Chinese, and is fluent in Czech. He completed his Master's degree in Digital Culture and Communication in 2015.


 D. Franklin

 movement-based performance || shintaido
 www.dfranklin.org
 dance@dfranklin.org

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