The Graffiti Wars: Taggers Grow Increasingly Violent

[dgridley]

Taggers are growing increasingly violent:

Last August, Maria Hicks, 58, was shot in the head and died after flashing her headlights and honking at a teenager spray-painting a wall near her home in Pico Rivera, a blue-collar suburb east of Los Angeles. Four people have been charged with murder.

Ten days after Hicks died, Seutatia Tausili, 65, was fatally shot and her grandson wounded when he told taggers to stop vandalizing a trash can outside their home in Hesperia in San Bernardino County. Three men were charged with murder.

Robert Whitehead was shot to death in 2006 in the Los Angeles County area of Valinda when he tried to keep taggers from marking a neighbor's garage. Investigators arrested one man with alleged ties to the Mexican Mafia, a prison gang.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D929LGMO4&show_article=1

This is just crazy!

We had our first incidence of graffiti here in the complex recently. Someone spraypainted slogans on the side of my building. Actually the first graffiti I've seen in town since I moved here.

 

[Hurley4540]

Wow people getting shot over flashing their headlights.........crazy!!!

 

[eFingerz]

its only due to the legal action taken on the artist if the get caught that influence them to do crazy violent things like this to stay out of jail!
Some areas the punishment is wost for graffiti than robbing a bank!
its just sad
they say California spends over 30 million dollars per year to clean up ART
just think the positive things they could provide for the artist in the state of California with that kinda money per year!?!
its sad!

 

[dgridley]

There's still no excuse for killing someone over a tag.. none. Lots of people have hard knocks in life and they don't resort to violence. Penalties are stiff BECAUSE of this sort of violence and the rampant tagging going on. It's not just in California.. it's everywhere. It's vandalism plain and simple.

its only due to the legal action taken on the artist if the get caught that influence them to do crazy violent things like this to stay out of jail!
Some areas the punishment is wost for graffiti than robbing a bank!
its just sad
they say California spends over 30 million dollars per year to clean up ART
just think the positive things they could provide for the artist in the state of California with that kinda money per year!?!
its sad!

 

[eFingerz]

in no way am i trying to justify that the violence is ok in any way!

and also there is a huge difference in Gang vandalism and Graffiti Art

 

[dgridley]

Nope.. if you're tagging without permission, it's still vandalism IMO.

Don't get me wrong.. some graffiti art is quite nice and the artist may be talented but it doesn't give you the right to deface someone else's property.

there is a huge difference in Gang vandalism and Graffiti Art

 

[liquidcherry]

Let's start the hunting season for graffiti taggers, maybe instead of spending 30 mil. on cleanup, the city could use that money for a bounty....

Cheers

Frank

 

[dgridley]

The Graffiti Taser Wars! Or better yet.. hit them with paint balloons.

Let's start the hunting season for graffiti taggers, maybe instead of spending 30 mil. on cleanup, the city could use that money for a bounty....

Cheers

Frank

 

[Barrucadu]

Or, better yet, designate areas where they can legally grafitti! That would cut down on things like this - theoretically.

 

[eFingerz]

yes
but if they are a true graffiti artist
they will follow the writers code and not write on personal property schools and churches! its made for trains!
tho most writers in this day and age are just gutter punks death metal heads oR wanna bees!
with no morals no roots and no soul!

 

[DebX420]

Recently, Ive been tagging, just small stuff - lunch room tables, stalls at stores and restaurants, just little things. I know of a friend of mine who tagged a statue of the Virgin Mary or something at a rival high school, and some arch bishop or something had to come and destroy the statue, as it was a catholic school and apparently its a sin. I only do small tagging though, just for the fun of it. I've never once used racial/sexist discrepancy in my work - my school even allowed me to tag 'NPT' (SHORT FOR NEWPORT) in our library, but I will never do it to personal properties or places of respect such as courts and churches. I will, however, do it to my own house, as my whole room is filled with my work

 

[James]

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=DA9VX0p8FEQ
- We've got a heap of graffiti in our city but this is in alley ways and is highly respected and actually allowed.

It's sad to see this happen, I think graffiti is disgusting but I respect the artists and the laws, I hope these guys are made an example of.

 

[rocka]

Imho this is a case of gang members marking their territory.. not graff artists.
I've never heard of writers that killed someone who disturbed them. A writer would simply run away to not get caught and penalized for vandalism.
But there are cases where graff writers died cause they were shot in the back while running away...

 

[DebX420]

Or, better yet, designate areas where they can legally grafitti! That would cut down on things like this - theoretically.

I both agree and disagree with this. Why should we reward the people that shoot/kill others with an area to do this? I know in my city, there's spots where the police haven't neccesarily flat out said "You can tag here!" but there's a spot (AN UNDERPASS) where if you do it, and a policeman sees you, he goes about his way. The only art they take down are the bad kind - gang signs/slogans, racist imagery, etc.

I put a tag up that says Joker (SEE THE IMAGE BELOW FOR A ROUGH DRAFT) and some times a clown, nothing bad though.

Joker text:
http://i37.tinypic.com/bje24h.jpg

Joker Clown:
http://i38.tinypic.com/29na2jd.jpg

Both were made in Paint, they have more rounded corners and such, I just cant do good rounded corners in paint :P