| Product: |
Vandalism |
| Date: |
26/09/01 (1404 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Some graffiti is actually quite good!
Disadvantages: Loss and damage to personal property, extreme inconveniance
With more and more reports of vandalism taking place in the UK than ever before, Britain is facing a crisis. True its nothing compared to the scale of the USA situation right now but we need to remember that not everything is international terrorism and we still need to sort out the problems that plague society today.
We've all seen it done, a local park swing broken, a shop window smashed through, a car windscreen smashed or a wall covered in spray paint with the logo 'I waz ere'. It is a part of our everyday lives, some more than others and we cant escape it.
In some areas of London the problem of vandalism has become so bad that crack police teams previously used for murder case enquiries have been tracking down those responsible and making them clean up the mess. The most often caught are Graffiti artists whose log's are unique so once they are caught once, all their other 'tags' will be pinned on them. Not good news for a prolific 'artist'.
Sticking to graffiti for a moment there is actually another way to view this issue. While its undoubted that the cities main businesses dont want the paint sprayed over their expensive walls, some people consider it art and its without doubt that to spray paint some of the designs we see on walls today requires quite some talent.
So if the graffiti artist has some talent, why do they continue to spray our walls and areas they aren't supposed to instead of putting it to some use and getting paid for it?
The answer is not as simple as you might think. Not all graffiti artists are from an oppressed background and not all want to 'up the state'. Many are simply misunderstood and want a chance to put their artwork. Others want the rush of adrenalin they get from risking being caught and also the pride of having all their friends see what they have accomplished. These are the people who will go to all lengths to put their tags in ei
ther the most dangerous or the most visible places.
How we can stop graffiti is an even harder question as it depends on the individual perpetrator. Employing a psychologist may help us to find out what actually does trigger them to graffiti in certain areas and why they do it. Other options being trialled in Fulham include providing a wall for artists to graffiti on legally in exchange for them not doing it on other peoples property. This wall is cleaned every few months and racist material is banned.
Both are good ideas but they are not definitive answers as there will always be those who want the adrenalin rush and cant resist a risk. And what can you do when someone causes £100 of damage with a spray can? Invest thousands of pounds of police time and manpower to find him and fine him £100 so he can go out and do it again next week? It simply isnt the answer.
Then we have the violent vandals as I call them. These people are definitely not artists and have no excuse for their behavious. They will smash and ruin anything they can in order to cause distress to other members of the public. Bus shelters will be smashed to pieces leaving those waiting in the rain to endure the downpour without any cover, parks and swings will be smashed and broken making it unsafe for children to play and sometimes entire buildings may even be broken into and smashed to pieces just for the fun of it.
These are the criminals I cant understand. They seem to have a pent up aggression that needs to get out and they let it rip on anything they can. Maybe they have a problem with society and want to gain retribution or maybe they simply want to cause us all trouble as they feel their life has been made a misery? Whatever the reason they cause us all problems and are a real plague on society.
How we deal with them is a matter that is up for discussion at the moment and one that I feel strongly about. I believe that vandalism by any a
dult is simply unforgivable. They should be forced to pay a larger fine than the simple cost of the damage and maybe even forced to go to jail for a short time should they repeatedly offend, tough law. If its a child it becomes more complicated but should still be dealt with harshly in the hope that one offense will be all they ever commit.
Again we have the problem that it will likely cost more to pay for the police time that we will save in catching the offenders but there is simply no reason they should be allowed to get away with it and hopefully once you get the main culprits you will force out the majority of the incidents as it is estimated that 59% of vandalism is caused by gangs or individuals who have already commited a similar act in another location. If this is the case then catching the few who do the most damage would save everyone a lot of time and distress.
Perhaps we also need to change our views in society as we currently seem to be more and more apathetic towards vandalism. We almost seem to expect a swing to be broken when we go to the park and so we dont think anything of it, nobody speaks up. Society needs to temporarily shun those who commit vandalist acts and hopefully it will no longer be glorified. Apathy is the worst enemy of any democratic society and we need to take a stand if anything is going to be done. Maybe when Mr. Blair finishes his highly important work with regards the States he'll come back and consider this one, I doubt it though.
**I gave it 2 stars as despite the bad nature of vandalism I feel that the great graffiti abilities of some artists is a good thing so its not 100% bad. They just need to do it in the right places!**
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