The Tommy Smith and John Carlos Statue was found defaced last Monday.

Tag linked to MySpace page

UPD says Web site used to track statue's defacer

By: Lindsay Bryant

Posted: 10/9/07

A MySpace search may have led to the discovery of a person who may be to blame for defacing the Tommie Smith and John Carlos Statue last week.

Sgt. John Laws, a University Police Department public information officer, said Monday that UPD also conducted a search of MySpace, confirming information obtained in a search done by the Spartan Daily.

Laws said, "We found him the same way," referring to the Daily's search on MySpace for the words tagged on the Smith-Carlos Statue.

"I can't tell you any more information without compromising the investigation," Laws said Monday morning.

After publishing an article titled, "Carlos, Smith Statue defaced; no suspect named," on Oct. 4 and printing a photograph of the graffiti, a Spartan Daily editor entered the word "TRUANS" into the MySpace search engine Thursday afternoon.

"TRUANS" was one of three words tagged on the statue, according to the article.

The MySpace Web page - the first listed in the search results - was found by a Spartan Daily editor.

In the Oct. 4 article, the Daily reported that the letters "ESST" were tagged on the statue when in fact it was "ESSJ" - initials for "East Side San Jose."

On the Web page, the phrase "eastsidexsanjose" was posted along with 16 photographs of buildings tagged with "TRUANS," and a tree tagged with "BSP." Photographs of people with spray-paint cans in a tunnel and people standing next to graffiti on buildings were also found on this site.

Laws said UPD knew that "ESST" meant "ESSJ" after the article was published. The information published by the Daily was not from UPD but from the Daily reporter's own observation of the graffiti on the statue.

Also written next to "ESSJ" was "BEN-G." No link to that phrase was found on the MySpace page.

The MySpace page listed the profile owner as a 21-year-old Latino/Hispanic male, but UPD could not confirm this information because the case is still under investigation, Laws said.

The Daily sent a MySpace message to the profile owner on Friday in an effort to obtain his or her side of the story. Within 12 hours of sending the message, all photos on the Web page were no longer posted and the profile was no longer available for public view.

The Daily did not receive a response to the message.