Notorious Staten Island artist and activist Scott LoBaido appeared in court Monday, accused of blocking speed cameras with bouquets of fake flowers in his latest vigilante stunt, prosecutors said.
LoBaido, 59, was arraigned on charges of second-degree obstructing governmental administration and third-degree criminal tampering – both misdemeanors – for allegedly impeding the devices with floral arrangements on two different dates this year, according to the Staten Island District Attorney’s Office.
“The Beautification Squad is me,” LoBaido confessed to a detective, according to a criminal complaint. “I’m the Beautification Squad.”
LoBaido is accused of attaching the flowers to the top of a pole at Richmond Avenue and Oakdale Street on Jan. 14, as well at Van Duzer Street and Maxie Court on Feb. 4, according to the court doc.
An employee of Verra Mobility, which maintains the cameras, told police that the blossoming blockade prevented the cameras from recording the street – in effect preventing them from catching speed violators.
In both cases, LoBaido was joined by another person, who he simply described to investigators as his pal who chauffeured and photographed him.
“He didn’t know what I was doing,” LoBaido said, according to the complaint.
During his Monday arraignment, LoBaido was granted an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, prosecutors said.
LoBaido, flanked by his attorney Mark Fonte, held a press conference after the court hearing.
“I had to admit that I was putting up these flowers as a beautification public arts statement — what I am famous for — because these ugly things on these poles were apparently cameras and I was putting these flowers up to beautify the community,“ LoBaido told reporters, according to The Staten Island Advance.
Fonte hailed his client as “a national treasure and an American hero,” the paper reported.
“Ninety nine percent of Staten Islanders know those speed cameras are money-grab cameras,” the lawyer said. “It’s all about the city of New York reaching their hands into the pockets of the hard-working people of Staten Island and separating them from their money,”
While Staten Island District Attorney Michael McMahon described protests as an “essential aspect of democratic expression,” he said LoBaido’s alleged actions crossed “the line from lawful advocacy to criminal activity.”
“Placing flowerpots in a manner that blocks traffic cameras and prevents the enforcement of traffic safety laws is certainly an act of protest, and not the crime of the century, but nonetheless, a crime,” McMahon said in a statement. “Like most Staten Islanders, I loathe the omnipresence of speed cameras, of which we seem to have way more than our fair share of compared to the other boroughs.
“And yet, this does not give me, Staten Island’s district attorney, nor any other resident of our borough, the right to intentionally disrupt their operation and decide what functions of our local government are allowed to exist and which do not.”
LoBaido’s other alleged stunts include hanging “Trump Crossing” signs in Manhattan last fall, and releasing 100 pink, penis-shaped balloons outside the downtown courthouse where the current president’s hush money trial was taking place.
The conservative provocateur was also cuffed back in March for allegedly tossing pizza over the gates of City Hall in protest of a plan to ban coal and wood-fired pizza ovens in Big Apple restaurants.
