shoes wrapped around wires

[bayman]

can someone explain to me the significants or the meaning of throwing tied up shoes up to hang off the wires in the streets ? it seems to me theat its becoming more & more prelevant over the last couple of years


thanks in advance

[dinglinga]

i heard if it is a pair of footy boots around wires then its a calling place for ben cousins to get drugs

[Dirko]

I heard that it's a way of finding your way home. It's more prevalent in areas where there are higher refugees. Apparently the throw the shoes over wire so they can find their way home
Probably a urban myth but good enough for me...

[Mr66]

Happening a lot in Melbourne too.

[JAS]

According to this article about social problems in Tijuana in Mexico it signals the location of a drug dealing spot.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,5068 ... 81,00.html

Regards
JAS

[CENTURION]

thrown in front of or over something in front of a drug dealer's dwelling. now you know where to go.

[bayman]

thrown in front of or over something in front of a drug dealer's dwelling. now you know where to go.

almost everywhere then

[silicone skyline]

I always assumed it was a practical joke to piss someone off.
the question i tried to investigate is who takes them down??
and where do they go when they are taken down?

[heater31]

I always assumed it was a practical joke to piss someone off.
the question i tried to investigate is who takes them down??
and where do they go when they are taken down?

I think SS is closer to the truth here they are usually old and buggered when they are thrown up there.


I think some ETSA clown has to get up there in his cherry picker to take them down when he could be elsewhere fixing the real problems with our antiquated electricity grid

[Dirko]

http://www.snopes.com/crime/gangs/sneakers.asp

Thoughts from a USA perspective...

[magpie in the 80's]

Shoes hung from overhead wires ("shoefiti")

Shoe flinging or "shoefiti" is the American and Canadian practice of throwing shoes whose shoelaces have been tied together so that they hang from overhead wires such as power lines or telephone cables. The shoes are tied together by their laces, and the assembly is apparently then thrown at the wires as a sort of bolas. This practice plays a widespread, though mysterious, role in adolescent folklore in the United States. Shoe flinging has also been reported in Australia, Sweden, France and Norway.

Shoe flinging occurs throughout the United States, in rural as well as in urban areas. Usually, the shoes flung at the wires are sneakers; elsewhere, especially in rural areas, many different varieties of shoes, including leather shoes and boots, also are thrown.

A number of sinister explanations have been proposed as to why this is done. Some say that shoes hanging from the wires advertise a local crack house where crack cocaine is used and sold (in which case the shoes are sometimes referred to as "Crack Tennies"). It can also relate to a place where Heroin is sold to symbolize the fact that once you take Heroin you can never 'leave': a reference to the addictive nature of the drug. Others claim that the shoes so thrown commemorate a gang-related murder, or the death of a gang member, or as a way of marking gang turf.[1] A newsletter from the mayor of Los Angeles, California cites fears of many Los Angeles residents that "these shoes indicate sites at which drugs are sold or worse yet, gang turf," and that city and utility employees had launched a program to remove the shoes.[2] These explanations have the ring of urban legend to them, especially since the practice also occurs along relatively remote stretches of rural highways that are unlikely scenes for gang murders or crack houses.

Other, less sinister explanations also have been ventured. Some claim that shoes are flung to commemorate the end of a school year, or a forthcoming marriage as part of a rite of passage. It has been suggested that the custom may have originated with members of the military, who are said to have thrown military boots, often painted orange or some other conspicuous color, at overhead wires as a part of a rite of passage upon completing basic training or on leaving the service. Others claim that the shoes are stolen from other people and tossed over the wires as a sort of bullying, or as a practical joke played on drunkards. Others simply say that shoe flinging is a way to get rid of shoes that are no longer wanted, are uncomfortable, or don't fit. It may also be another manifestation of the human instinct to leave their mark on, and decorate, their surroundings.

In the motion picture Wag the Dog, a spin doctor flings shoes into trees as a part of a campaign to call attention to a fictional war hero named Sergeant William Schumann, who was given the nickname "The Old Shoe." In another motion picture, Like Mike, a character is struck by lightning in an attempt to retrieve shoes from a power line, and improbably acquires superpowers as a result.

In fact, shoe flinging is unwise and may cause utility outages. Some people have been killed by electrocution while trying to remove shoes from power lines. Utilities have asked the public to call them instead of trying to remove the shoes themselves.

In some neighborhoods, shoes tied together and hanging from power lines or tree branches signify that someone has died. The shoes belong to the dead person. The reason they are hanging, legend has it, is that when the dead person's spirit returns, it will walk that high above the ground, that much closer to heaven