In the name of "urban renewal", the Kingston (New York) local government was implementing a 'revitalization' of the Stockade District under what they called "The Pike Plan" canopy renovation (costing US$ 1.6 million).   A substantial portion of this renovation was the placing of several large blocky white planter boxes and "park-bench" type seating along the city's downtown sidewalks.   Immediately after the project was completed, and just prior to the dedication of the project, someone in the dark-of-night came to town and stenciled several red goats on 11 of the planters.

- Excerpted New York Times - 'fair use' allowances and restrictions apply.

In that Kingston's Pike Plan renovation project was seen as 'heavy-handed', and a total maintenance nightmare, as well as an imprudent waste of taxpayer monies by a great number of the locals, the immediate reaction was twofold:   Half of the people said the stenciling of the red goats on public property was a disgraceful act of vandalism.   The other half were rather taken with the idea, many even assigning a "meaning" to the goats - giving them 'symbolism'.   Some even said the goats were an act of defiance against this less-than-popular renovation project.

- Excerpted Facebook - 'fair use' allowances and restrictions apply.

The police immediately began investigating - determined to catch the red goat culprits.   In their gestapo-like zeal they were even interrogating private citizens who said nothing more than they didn't have any real objection to the red goats.   Kingston's Alderman Thomas Hoffay, who can say with relative surety that his I.Q. is at least 2 digits, said also that the goats were as big a threat to the community as gang graffiti.   In his own immortal words, “Bloods, Crips, goats — it’s all the same.”   He also said, “This is mocking the community.   It is mocking the people of the city of Kingston.   I would invite the people who were against the Pike Plan to come out and say, 'graffiti is wrong' ".   Well, Alderman Hoffay, that didn't happen, did it?

- Excerpted Wikipedia - 'fair use' allowances and restrictions apply.

Shortly afterward, after viewing CCTV tapes, the police detained the two culprits, who were to expect a maximum sentence of 4 years in prison for their various crimes, including "third-degree criminal mischief" which is a felony in New York.   Excuse me, but whatever happened to having the punishment fit the crime?   Whatever happened to, say, a 1000 hours of community service?    It is a wondrous thing to watch from afar as American jurisprudence decays into medieval English law where a child could be imprisoned indefinitely for stealing a loaf of bread.   Their arrest and the threat of Draconian retaliation by the legal system, however, was a huge mistake - their story went viral.    Twitter blasted the story around the globe.   A Facebook page sprouted up with photos and all - and an opportunity to send away for your very own goat stencil.   The red goat story is now all over YouTube, and has it's own Wikipedia pages.   Newspapers nationwide picked up the story.  A local tattoo artist began offering red goat tats for US$37 a pop.   The red goats themselves started to spread all over Kingston, and were soon found in nearby townships - as other graffiti artists picked up the gauntlet and ran with it (if we can mix a metaphor, or two.)   And then, they were everywhere - almost overnight red goats appeared in Brooklyn, Michigan, Missouri, an art show in Miami Beach, Florida and even in Canada.

- Excerpted Facebook - 'fair use' allowances and restrictions apply.

As the red goats began to spread, so did their significance, their symbolism.   Kingston's own local rag, the The Kingston Times, went so far as to write an editorial calling for the citizenry to "embrace its inner goat".   It went on to say, “The red goat is a great symbol - simple, striking, edgy, easy to remember and easier to associate with a sense of stubborn defiance.”   And last, but not least, in the endless, un-resolvable "art vs vandalism" debate, many are referring to this graffiti, nay, insisting that this graffiti is "art" (although we find it difficult to envision a goat stencil, which was originally a public-domain free-download image, as "art").

The fate of the two graffiti artists has not been resolved at this juncture.