Activist Kevin Cox made headlines by chalking a crosswalk at Charlottesville’s Elliot Avenue, protesting city inaction after a 2024 pedestrian fatality. Armed with spray chalk, not paint, Cox’s street art triggered misdemeanor vandalism charges and a potential $2,500 fine. “It’s not going to stop me,” he declared.

Cox’s defiant move followed months of ignored safety pleas and a fatal crash at the intersection. The city erased his chalk lines with black paint, but the legal fallout continues, with a July 14 trial date set. “There is a marked crosswalk now… It’s chalk, not paint,” Cox emailed city officials.

Charlottesville police couldn’t tell if Cox’s lines were chalk or paint—so the city painted over them in black.