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Archive for the ‘Anti-Graffiti’ Category

It’s a sad day in New York City subway graffiti history—the “Moustache Man” has finally been caught, according to CBS New York.

via ‘Moustache’ Graffiti Artist Arrested – Local News – AllMediaNY.

Is anyone reading the latest news about graffiti vandalism? The news is not good. Every day, Google sends me the results of a search on one word – graffiti. Today as I reviewed the news items in that search I realized things were not good for victims or for vandals. It worries me that we as a country might be ignoring or developing a social insensitivity to this problem again.  It does tend, like most things in life, to go through cycles.

Today the search reveals:

1. Accused top graffiti vandal arrested in Phoenix

2. North VGancouver RCMP Tag Graffiti Vandals

3. Police Make Arrest in Church Graffiti Spree

4. Teen Arrested in Connection with Racial Graffiti in Wales

5. Graffiti Spree in Central Park

6. Graffiti Artist (sic) Killed by D-Train (There is no such thing as a graffiti artist.)

7. Anti-Graffiti Lawyer Gets Message Spray Painted on HIs Building

8. From Mastadons to Graffiti

9. Teen’s Graffiti Causes $11,000 Worth of Damage to Property

10. Photo Mural Showcasing Humanity Defaced by Graffiti

The truths of graffiti vandalism are always evident in the news.

There is no honor among vandals. Graffiti vandals deface art and vandalism and claim to call it art. The difference, however, between graffiti and art is and always will be – PERMISSION.

Young vandals are still being killed pursuing their criminal thrills.

Community structures, including churches, are victims of senseless vandalism.

Racial and hate graffiti is always going to be used by cowards to make their point in shameful anonimity.

Vandals are ultimately arrested, convicted, and sentenced for their crimes.

Graffiti is still tied to archaeology to help us feel better about it. Obfuscations of vandalism still abound.

Is there still an anti-graffiti sentiment in our communities? Do our communities still have citizens cleaning up after the vandals, teaching our children to respect the property of another, and insisting on vandalism enforcement? It might be time to look at our communities to make sure we have not been taking these things for granted.

The boy, whose name cannot be revealed because he is a minor, snuck up on Kachur, then 19, and smashed him on the head with a brick and then dumped his body into the St. Lawrence River.

via CTV Montreal – Juvenile graffiti murderer sentenced to six-and-a-half years – CTV News.

(Fifteen-year old graffiti vandal kills another graffiti vandal for writing over graffiti and then is tried as a juvenile. This is a VERY sad story.)

See this news feed from TV Station KMPH 26. Fresno Police startled at the upswing of violence between tagging crews. This time twelve people injured:

This arrest should be enough to prevent this vandal from ever traveling abroad again. The Australians should have kept him in jail where he belonged.  Graffiti vandals are not super stars, they are common criminals. He was not representing my America while he vandalized Australia. This person should be reviled in any American community. He is no super star.

***VANDAL VACATION*** from WWW.REVOK1.COM on Vimeo.

I get the occasional request from college students, Internet magazines, and once in a great while the new media to speak about graffiti vandalism. Most I refer to the Director of the NoGraf Corp., Randy Campbell who is in a much better place statistically to discuss current issues.

The other day I received an email request from a Yahoo email account. The student was in a two-day rush to complete a story on what sound like a pro-graffiti event recently held in the San Francisco Bay Area. The student used the Fox News line, to keep the story “fair and balanced.”

Most of the requests I get are intended as harassment. News outlets use real email accounts that identify who they are, provide telephone numbers, give themselves time to write a story, and schedule an interview. I tried to be polite:

I am a 1983 BCA gradudate of SFSU. Never once have I had an interview from a student of SFSU but at least one or more so-called “professors” have spoken very poorly of me on their public website without ever having actually met me. So I’m not enthusiastic about interviewing. The NoGraf Network and graffiti victims are usually labeled as racists, right wing whackos, idiots, and haters by those that promote vandalism in our communities anyway and my interviews have almost always been used to stir the pot against the anti-graffiti movement. (e.g. taken out of content)

I guess all I can say is that San Francisco is a victim community with a very serious graffiti problem. I suggest that you visit your Department of Public Works, the police, a graffiti victim or two. Much of what I believe is located at the Anti-Graffiti FAQ at http://www.dougweb.com/faq.html. My efforts are now focused on helping the NoGraf Corp at http://www.nograffiti.com in any way I can as a Director of that non-profit.

Because of the various threats I have received over the years I also have to ignore emails from the free and anonymous email services like yahoo or gmail. If you had had time to send a request on school letterhead I may have considered a response. Since I have absolutely no way of determining who you really are I must respectfully decline. It appears you may have left the other side of the story to the last minute anyway so how could you do it justice?

Regards,
Doug Smith

——————

Had this person done his homework he would have found many in the San Francisco community to be against vandalism of all kinds. The police, homes associations, churches and so on. I had the great privilege once to be invited as a guest to a news conference where then Mayor Willie Brown spoke eloquently against graffiti vandalism. He and I were on opposite sides of some political issues but I always found him to be rooted in common sense when it came to the image of his city adn the safety of neighborhoods. The San Francisco Department of Public Works has always been and remains to this day one of the most forward thinking city departments when it comes to graffiti abatement and the quality of the neighborhoods. The trouble has been that the number and persistence of the vandals in that part of California has always been a challenge for any anti-graffiti movement. The vandalism is encouraged by bizarre opinions of far-left students and some educators and groups that have been taken in by the promises of vandals to use only regulated walls.

Other great anti-graffiti cities exist in the SF Bay area. San Jose comes to mind. MY associations in the past with city employees and volunteers in San Jose from the abatement crews to gang interventionists have always been positive. San Jose city government always did its best to battle vandalism.

I had been away away from California for seven years when I went back for a visit in 2008. What I did see there was that vandals are more prolific and abatement on State property…Well I have to be careful here. I saw a lot of vandalism on State freeways, signs, and over passes. I can’t speak to the effectiveness of the abatement programs.It was extremely sad to see.

What I do know is that the City of Santa Rosa, California took the lead in 2008 and sponsored an Anti-Graffiti Conference with the NoGraf Corp (of which I am a Director.) Now I am particularly proud of that department because of their long-time anti-graffiti efforts and because my best friend was an officer there for many years. SPD is a superb police department. SPD rocks!

No, it wouldn’t have taken much for this probably pro-graffiti student to discover there is much more to interviewing one person to be fair and balanced when writing about an event that may have glorified vandalism. So to all of you young aspiring journalism students, take it from a former BCA grad. Do your homework, use more than the Internet to get your story and start writing weeks before your deadline.

Hats off to graffiti fighters everywhere especially the abatement volunteers. America’s unsung community heroes. Through your persistence cities and towns learn to remain vigilant.

Randy Campbell, NoGraf Network, Inc. President is interviewed in this RainGuard presentation on graffiti vandalism.

Wow! One more reason to cancel your New York Times subscription. Today the New York Times arts section tweeted http://www.twitter.com/nytimesarts “Special Report: Contemporary Art: Graffiti Gains New Respect http://bit.ly/nmobo

Uh no don’t think so. But, I suppose if you are the New York Times if you say it enough times it must be true. Reasonable men and women understand that graffiti, by definition, is a crime. The difference between graffiti and art is permission. Paint placed on a wall not your own is vandalism. The concept is so simple. It makes no difference whether the picture is pretty or not.

The Times doesn’t yet understand that the act of graffiti has as one of its basic thrills/elements the placement of paint on property not your own. The illegality of graffiti is an essential part of that aberrant subculture. The feel-gooders out there that only see a pretty picture only begin to understand the gravity of their way of thinking when they or their communities become inundated with vandalism. Some even think they should be able to pick and choose what kind of vandalism appears in their communities by sponsoring free walls.

Today’s article, entitled “Graffiti Gains New Respect” by Claudia Barbieri suggests that an upcoming graffiti-style art exhibit in France and a proposed similar exhibit at the Guggenheim gives graffiti vandalism a good name – or makes it mainstream. Not!

Graffiti advocacy is nothing new.  I hate to surprise Ms. Barbieri with that fact. This subculture has always used deceit think to take advantage of gullible fanciers to minimize, down play, and marginalize the anti-graffiti folks so graffiti might someday be mainstream. Well those of us in the anti-graffiti movement find that sort of thinking pinheaded and preposterous.  This article employs an old tactic I am reminded of wherein the advocate tries to blur the difference between vandalism and art, “Today the borders are blurred between street and graffiti artists,” said Leanne Sacramone, curator at the foundation.” No there has never been a blurr, only graffiti advocates working for museums and newspapers that find the pictures pretty and have no heart for the victims of the crime have foggy vision.

The American public does not consider vandalism a mainstream art movement. The New York Times does and so do a few silly art museums and graffiti fan websites. These folks are of course terrific examples of how unclear thinking causes poor judgment. Their wacky opinions do not support or reflect a groundswell of public support for criminal activity. A newspaper suffering from diminishing respect and a few and very out-numbered bunch of  graffiti advocates feel this way.

New York you really should work to take back your newspaper. I sure hope the Times doesn’t succeed in advocating graffiti vandalism back into your museums and back into your communities. As for everyone else, if you have a New York Times subscription and you find this graffiti advocacy piece as offensive as I did maybe you could decide not to renew?

Vandalism is not mainstream. There may be more misguided and uneducated advocates than there were ten years ago but the crime is as serious today as it was then. It wreaks havoc on our homes, highways, railroads, and monuments and embattles communities as they resist a spiral into a decay. Those who appreciate graffiti have some serious soul searching to do. Before anyone does consider advocating vandalism they should think about the victims because graffiti is not a victimless crime.

The New York Times is way off the deep end on this one.

(Doug Smith serves on the Board of Directors of the NoGraf Network, http://www.nograffiti.com Global Unity Against Vandalism and tweets as @NoGraf http://www.twitter.com/nograf)

VPT signed up to support the NoGraf Network for another year! As a member of NoGraf I’d like to thank Visual Pollution technologies for lending long-time sponsor of the NoGraf network. Please visit their website http://www.visualpollution.com for more information about their graffiti prevention products.

Need information about fighting the scourge of graffiti? Vandalism on your mind? Visit NoGraffiti.com.

Today I learned that that the man who called me coach died at age 70 of lung cancer.  James Powers, we all knew him as Jim died peacefully on March 23 in Rockford, Il. (His obituary is here.)

I met Jim on line in 1995. One day those many years ago he came across my Anti-Graffiti Web site and subscribed to the mailing list. We have corresponded off and on for some fourteen years sharing our interest

My coach, Jim Powers.

in the anti-graffiti cause. Jim was a long-time community activist in Rockford, giving far more than he ever took in return. He was that kind of guy.

When he found the Anti-Graffiti Web Page in 1995 Jim hung around extending his support and encouragement to graffiti victims, police officers, city and county abatement folks from around the world.  Jim is known internationally as an activist and a hero to the efforts directed at ending the tragedy of graffiti vandalism.

There were times, when as the Anti-Graffiti cause began to grow  I would get discouraged over things.  Jim wouldn’t have any of it.  He would always refer to me as “the coach” because so many people like us had gathered around the Anti-Graffiti Web Page and the NoGraf mailing list to battle vandalism in our communities. I would tell him I don’t deserve that title given his background but he insisted. For the fourteen years I knew him Jim called me coach.

In reality Jim was my coach. He also coached for the twenty-five years he was in the military, he coached as a father and a husband, he coached as a director and member  in the North End Square Neighborhood Association, he coached on the Rockford Fire and Police Commission, and he coached as a director of the Nograf Corporation.  Jim was indeed a community coach and Rockford named a nine-block stretch of Huffman Blvd. between Auburn St and Fulton Ave in his honor because of it.

I was clearly blessed to have Jim Powers as a friend and an ally all of these years. Even when I was finally forced by circumstances to minimize my involvement as Jim and Randy Campbell started NoGraffiti.com and the Nograf Corp, Jim stayed in touch. To him I was still the coach. Friends like Jim Powers are treasured and rare and Jim will always be my coach.

God bless you Jim and God bless your family and Rockford, Illinois at this time.

(Editorial Opinion-  032809) xxxxxxBounty.com claims to be a site that permits graffiti victims to upload a bounty for taggers or graffiti vandals. A bounty is supposed to encourage people that know who the tagger is to act and turn in the tagger to xxxxxxBounty. This is odd, very unusual, and in my view not a very good idea. These were the things that crossed my mind when I looked over this website.

The likelihood that someone knows a tagger listed on this site then leaves their name to turn the tagger in for pennies is very remote. There’s no more incentive than one or two twenty dollar bills. I’m inclined to call it wishful thinking at best. In the meantime of course xxxxxxBounty is earning interest on the bounty funds.  Victims that are angry and fed up with vandalism might be tempted out of frustration to fund a bounty but they may never yield a result.

There is no process information anywhere on the site that offers any details or gives anyone what the probability might be that a vandal will ever be identified and prosecuted. There is no promise of anonymity either. Who in their right mind is going to act on a twenty-dollar bounty to identify a gang member’s graffiti?

Where is the profit in this business model? I have serious concerns about sending this company money. There is no company mailing address and there are no real names of corporate officers provided. All you can see are carefully crafted email contact addresses. I don’t get a warm and fuzzy feeling about sending money into an Internet black hole.

Most communities with a graffiti problem have well established methods for citizens to report vandalism. The most common place to start is with the local police! What good is it going to do to send an anonymous company a $20 bounty?

I’m not at all impressed with their FAQ’s. Question number two asks, “Are you against graffiti artists?” There is no such thing. By definition graffiti is a crime. This site also considers art (produced in collaboration with a property owner) graffiti. Talk about confused.

The site says the two most important things you can do if you see vandalism in progress is to call the police and then contribute to a bounty. Wrong.  First you call the police and next find out how and when the vandalism is going to be abated. The community may have an abatement volunteer group that a citizen can join. Cleaning the vandalism or working to insist that local officials and businesses abate the vandalism is far more important than enriching a private company inserting itself into the law enforcement process.

These people and their so-called bounty could significantly hamper or interfere with law enforcement efforts. Witnesses to crimes should be working with their local police and not through a third party. When police are not cooperative graffiti victims should be going to their city or county elected officials with complaints.  In most places, police will work to capture vandals. This is  especially true in the State of California where some of the site’s current pictures originate.  My experience in abatement issues has been with some of the more superior agencies like San Jose and Santa Rosa Police in California. There are many more enlightened agencies out there with dedicated graffiti cops. Police have informants, sophisticated computer systems and even the assistance of other police agencies on difficult cases. Police will find the bad guys in time as long as citizens trust them to. Citizens might even be able to put a bounty of their own at a local bank and establish a local committee to work with the police when deciding to award the bounty – if such a tactic is even necessary.

Most bounty’s are rewards for information GIVEN TO LAW ENFORCEMENT that result in the arrest and conviction of a criminal. There is a formal process for evaluating information and establishing whether or not it was significant. I don’t see any mention of how this website’s owners establish bounty eligibility or make payments. Do a little what-if analysis of your own and I’ll bet you decide not to send them a dime.

This company is apparently in favor of legal graffiti areas. Legal graffiti zones have never worked, and will never work. This company has no understanding of the vandalism subculture and is encouraging actions that will only serve their interests. They might succeed in perpetuating an income if people do send them money by encouraging free walls because free walls have always contributed to additional vandalism and tagging in the vicinity of the free walls regardless of the rules. After reading the site it is clear to me these folks are probably opportunists not fully aware of the anti-graffiti strategies that have worked for years.

Anyone seriously involved in graffiti enforcement and abatement will tell you that publishing the picture of a tag on the Internet is not a good idea. Vandals love to see their work up where people can see it and that includes the Internet. This site features tags. It’s probably the first [place a tagger would go to determine his/her own popularity. A bounty for their tag would actually contribute to more vandalism.

This approach is wrong on many levels and it does not appear that the owners, whomever they are, really understand the problem. It seems to me they see a money-making opportunity at the obvious expense of the angry graffiti victim. I believe the best course of action is to remain well away from xxxxxxBounty.com. I regret not providing the complete URL. It is my way of warning you away from a site that appears to a poor abatement option while also not providing the site with any additional advertising than they already receive in various banner ads. When you run across the site just remember – caveat emptor.

Jay Evenson of the Deseret News in the Salt Lake City area wrote an opinion against tagging he had recently seen on freeway signs and asked what others are doing about tagging: Jay Evensen’s perspectives on the news. He asked, “Anyone out there have a better idea for countering taggers?” I offered this advice:

Absolutely. Join the anti-graffiti movement. There are a few places you can go for more information. The best is NoGraffiti.com. NoGraf membership includes victims of graffiti, police, city, county, and corporations from around the world. Global unity against vandalism. Like you I was furious when in my own community I found gang graffiti everywhere. That was in 1995. My own website dougweb.com started the NoGraf mailing list which later grew into the Nograf Corporation under California Highway Patrol Officer (ret) Randy Campbell.

The best thing a community can do is to increase public awareness, be the eyes and ears of the police and report what is seen. The various jurisdictions need to abate the damage quickly and the media should NEVER publish pictures of the vandalism. That in itself is seen as a victory for the tagger.

Read the Anti-Graffiti FAQ at http://www.dougweb.com/faq.html

Oh, and do keep writing about vandalism. As odd as it may seem some communities are defining deviancy down by calling graffiti a “lifestyle crime.” Not much in the way of enforcement gets done because of the other priorities. Send someone from your community to TAG2009 in Victoria BC, Canada. You will learn a lot there.

“Art as civil disobedience is a long way from gang tagging territory as a way to threaten civil order and safety.”

“If graffiti was true civil disobedience the artists would chain themselves to their work until arrested, not run away.”

Linda Beth, two excellent views. Baby sisters rock!

(via Drudge) Let me see. We celebrate graffiti but we find flash mob feather pillow fights objectionable. Hmmm.

ABC TV channel 7 in San Francisco did this video on urban art. This is a graffiti puff piece only describing graffiti as controversial. Legal art is blended with graffiti vandalism in order to show its beauty. This irresponsible waste of air time never went into the billions of dollars graffiti vandalism costs the nation annually. They didn’t visit other parts of the Bay Area where vandalism is a serious blight on communities. The anti-graffiti movement was in part born in 1995 in Pleasant Hill, CA just thirty-five miles East of San Francisco values. The anchors and even a well respected reporter drooled over the art and their interviewees. Disgusting.

When a news agency helps define vandalism down like this the entire community should be outraged. The story celebrated a picture book of vandalism photographs. The anchors acknowledged one of their interviewees did legitimate art and vandalism but to protect him would not show any of his crimes.

When you have a graffiti problem in your community you do not tolerate presentations like this on local media. I am very surprised this took place in San Francisco. When Willy Brown was mayor he took vandalism seriously. Early support for the anti-graffiti movement came directly from San Francisco Public Works and the police department. I hope things have not changed. My props go out to all of the San Francisco Bay Area anti-graffiti public groups trying to save communities from this blight and in particular the Pleasant Hill, CA Anti-Graffiti Program if it is still active.

See the video here. and then see how this pro-graffiti website uses the ABC7 video to glorify vandalism.

Graffiti by definition is illegal. The difference between graffiti and art is permission. ABC7 this was a colorful but irresponsible report. A complete waste of air time and I hope the community holds you accountable by writing the Federal Communications Commission and filing letters of complaint in your public access file.

A short article regarding two arrests of young adults in graffiti vandalism case. The article is weak in content. The names of the adult vandals was omitted as was any mention of the type of graffiti gang, hip hop etc.

Read the story here.

Read the rest of the story at etruth.com

Vandalism is now mainstream in Brooklyn. So much so that a store has opened specifically to sell spray paints and supplies to the criminals involved in the subculture. A local councilman is outraged. “If a community allows low level crimes (criminals know this) then the high level crimes follow.” The store owner of this graffiti supply shop should be denied membership in the local business association. This is a BIG error in personal judgment. An error that has devastating deleterious effects on the community.

See the MSNBC video here.

Great article in The Argus about the Adidas target audience in the UK. A revealing piece about 15-16 year old vandals and their lifestyle, motivations, and crimes. The Argus also left out the photographs which is the way to write about graffiti vandalism.

Read the whole story here.

Worlds First Mobile Art Guide for the iPhone Whoopee!

I stumbled across urbanartguide.com this evening. It looks like another example of corporate glorification of graffiti vandalism designed to sell shoes and promote the iPhone. Using iPhone software available March 20th you can express your originality by venturing out into derelict neighborhoods wearing your cool shoes and take pictures of your favorite vandalism. Even cooler you can mark it on a map.

Hey, perhaps this could all backfire on Adidas and be a new graffiti fighter’s tool for use with the new graffiti database products in use by police departments? One can hope.

Companies like this that glorify vandalism and the graffiti subculture are tragically enablers of global proportion. Enablers of global graffiti vandalism. Thanks to these copy-cat marketing tactics with no originality whatsoever American kids and European kids are encouraged to “celebrate originality” by visiting dangerous locations to take cell phone pictures of vandalism. Sickening.

The NoGraf board should take this one up at its next meeting. While we do so, members and others opposed to corporate glorification of vandalism might want to consider the purchase of a competing shoe.

Celebrate originality if you must. Looks like the big launch is in Berlin, Germany. I’ll miss the party.

(The Desert Sun 020809) A 26-year-old Cathedral City man was arrested on Friday on suspicion of felony vandalism in connection with numerous graffiti incidents in the area.

Congratulations to Cathedral City Police!

Read the whole story here.

(BBC News Sunday, March 8, 2009) – Children at a Bristol school have helped to cut vandalism and graffiti at their neighbourhood laundrette, by painting a mural at the premises.

A loud and long NoGraf Bravo to the kids at Bristol School!

Read the whole story at the BBC.

I do not recommend this. It does amplify the community outrage people are developing for gang related graffiti in Salinas, California. The Viestas would do better to monitor graffiti prone areas and provide intelligence to police. Police in California tend to be very pro-active against graffiti vandalism of all kinds. That was evident to me when I attended the NoGraf Conference in Santa Rosa, CA last year. I encourage the Viestas to cease this dangerous activity and work with Salinas Police.

Read the whole story at KSBW.com.

Blog entry at Ashvegas.squarespace.com regarding observations of vandalism and the environmental aftermath.

Read the whole story.

(Hackney Gazette – 030809) Some in this UK town think that a graffiti vandal that apparently earned some popularity in the UK has returned to vandalize public property. A reason for the graffiti may be because prior acts of Bansky vandalism were ordered removed by Hackney city leaders. Sad but true, the Hackney Gazette immortalized the vandal’s latest threat upon the community by publishing a photo of the vandalism with pro-graffiti activists (read that pro-vandalism activists) admiring the pretty picture. Remember the difference between graffiti and art is PERMISSION.

Read the article here.

A Twitter user that alerted me to the article doing a search on graffiti thinks that the Hackney council should be shot. “johnb78: “Hackey Council, along with every other curmudgeonly anti-graffiti-ist, should be shot: http://tinyurl.com/amr7sk”

The Annapolis Capital Punishment blog has an excellent article on graffiti vandalism this Sunday, March 8, 2009. They report on recent graffiti arrests by Annapolis Police Department. Visit the ACP blog to read the entire story.

Good job Annapolis Police!

Are you a victim of graffiti or a police agency that needs information to train your graffiti cops? Visit NoGraffiti.com.