New York cracks down on Hip-Hop element

Rukas

Capo Dei Capi
Staff member
#1
The city of New York is continuing its fight against graffiti with arrests almost doubling in the past year.

As of last Sunday (November 6), police records show that there have been 2,230 graffiti arrests in New York City, up from 1,154 during the same period last year, a 93.2% increase.

"The doubling indicates how serious we take it," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told New York's Daily News. "The handwriting's on the wall. Vandals will be identified and arrested."

Back in October 2004, the NYPD gave 150 digital cameras to police coordinators in every precinct to survey vandalism and figure out patterns. Similar to Compstat, which records major crimes, Graffistat now breaks down arrests and complaints by precinct.

Thus far, approximately 700 arrested graff artists and samples of their tags have been stored in a database. Therefore, when their signatures are discovered, they can be arrested.

"They graffiti everything - storefronts, fences, mailboxes, ambulances, fire-alarm boxes," said Citizens Against Graffiti Everywhere (CAGE) founder Fred Kress. "If you stood still on a corner long enough, you would be graffitied."

Kress' group launched a month ago and already counts 300 members. Meanwhile, City Councilman Peter Vallone recently launched his own anti-graffiti campaign and has a short fuse regarding the "so-called art." "These thugs destroy property for the notoriety," Vallone told the Daily News.

Prior to the Graffistat campaign, cops only took mug shots of vandals if they committed a felony. The department has now changed its policy and photographs every suspect for a database that can be accessed by any precinct. Furthermore, a "worst of the worst" list of NY's 100 most wanted graff artists was recently sent to all New York precincts.

Authorities are stressing to take graffiti seriously. The NYPD recently formed the Citywide Vandals Task Force, an 80-member plainclothes unit comprised of two NYPD vandalism squads. The task force patrols streets and subway stations for graffiti and the artists. The unit go as far as to follow the artists in hope to catch them red-handed.

According to police, surveillance cameras have also resulted in multiple arrests. Authorities also think the bulk of tags are being done by young men who simply want to see their name in big letters rather then gangs. This year's statistics show that 1,228 of the offenders were 17 and younger while 1,002 were 18 or older. Cops are also working with youth officers who teach students about the repercussions of tagging and school agents who give information about teens tagging school property.
 
#2
'Authorities also think the bulk of tags are being done by young men who simply want to see their name in big letters rather then gangs.'

- Let em join gangs and shoot each other then, that'll lower the rate... I sometimes wonder about american policing. It wouldn't bother me as much but graffiti doesn't always look bad, and its not as if they are defacing the statue of liberty, this usually occurs in run-down areas/subways.
Hmmm, subway, I'm hungry.
 
#3
Word up Four Bars! Although I don't agree w/ the whole gang thing. Anyways grafitti is an art form. And ur rite, not all of it is bad. Just the ones that are sloppy and quickly done. Quite harassin' graff artists! It's paint...it's not like they sprayin the walls with the blood of the holy virgin or somin' wack or defacin' the SoL (like FB said)...chill robocops...
 
#4
On one end, it shows how fucking stupid humans are. "This is my property, blah, blah, blah." Fuckin animals take shits and ruin other animals' "territory" and it's no big deal. But people have this concept of "property." The world's your playground, so can't art be put up and appreciated anywhere?

On the other end, why can't a graffiti artist just perform his art legitly? Disrespecting authority just out of disrespect will just cause you problems. Unless you want to be some kind of martyr. And it's usually a rush to be some kind of martyr.

(By the way, I've done graf -- buildings, trains, tunnels.)
 

Big Flipp

Active Member
#6
I lived in the south bronx for two months and I saw all sorts of graffitti. It is nice and it is art but the "artist" deface private and public property with it. I am sorry but I do not feel bad that people are getting arressted for defacing someone elses private property and the cities. Walk down grand concourse and look at all the grafitti. Some of it is really good but most of it is just gang shit tagged all over the place. It is hard to make people feel good about where they live when all you see around you is gang markings.
 

Rukas

Capo Dei Capi
Staff member
#7
This will just get rid of the toys, the real writers will still get up, they live for the thrill and this will add to it, luckily, the real writers are the ones who drop good pieces.
 

jbrolax

Active Member
#10
the only graffiti i appreciate is the shit thats a whole subway train car long. Yeh its defacing property and stuff but what those guys have to go through to actually do that is rediculous...
 

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