Why Is Graffiti Illegal?

[Dr. Pepper Unlimited]

Because you're defacing stuff that doesn't belong to you.

Pretty much this. All the technical stuff and whether or not it looks good aside, you're defacing either private property that isn't yours, or public property that isn't yours. It may be public to use, but not to deface. Regardless, you don't own said property and it's illegal to damage it. It's really simple.

 

[Vault101]

This question has plagued me for a while. Here is some of my thoughts on it.

I can see why it is illegal, really. It is used to deface property and is considered vandalism. But is it really? Most graffiti is actually appealing to see while driving or walking. It is interesting to see and can add spice to an area. Of course in some places, it should never be there i.e, Schools, Hospitals, Police Stations, ect.
What are your thoughts on it?


Hope you can decifer my writing, doing this REM sleep thing.

*Edit*
I don't think people caught my drift. I was talking about artistic graffiti, graffiti that isn't Gang related or that stuff. I didn't even know anywhere where people graffiti HOUSES. I guess that falls into the ect I was talking about.

Bridges, walls stuff like that.

*Edit2*
I'm getting your responses for a paper I'm doing for school. I didn't trust my own opinion. Thanks guys.

sturgeons law

also where do you draw the line? it would cause all kinds of debate

 

[Aur0ra145]

EDIT: I tried the REM sleeping diet. It fucking sucks to get started, but once started it isn't so bad.

Interested, elaborate?

Also isn't graffiti with permission, not graffiti?

In regards to the sleep diet. I did it once. I hallucinated like a *****. It's hard to get down. But once you do (like I eventually did) it's awesome. I love being awake so much and getting so much taken care of.

Yeah but what exactly is this sleep diet mentioned?

Read "The Game" by Neil Strauss, it sorta explains what it is. Basically, whenever you seelp (which is like like 20 minutes every 4 hours) you immediately go into REM sleep. So, in like a 24 hour day, you only need 2 hours of sleep to function properly.

 

[Zac Smith]

Because 99.9% of it looks like this:

And I rather like my house things un-spray painted.

Pretty much this

 

[Sarynroth]

I quite like graffiti as in my opinion it can make what would be a plain wall more interesting, but I can also appreciate that businesses may not want it on their walls as they have an image to maintain. Personly I think that if it was made legal on certain walls in a city that the standards would increase as people would have more time to focus on painting rather than rushing pieces in order to not get caught.

Another method was described to me by a friend that in his grandmas town in germany had quite a large problem with graffiti, so the council then basically set up a graffiti aproval section where local arists could submit their work and the location where they would like to paint it and the coucil would then decide if it was good enough or a suitable location.

Obviously you would still get douchebags tagging stuff but at least it allowed for higher quality pieces to be made.

 

[Hellz_Barz]

well Jizzo from melbourne said that its only illegal cause you're advertising your name for free(not sure if anyone will get this reference).

But mostly cause it's just a bunch of wannabe gangsters scribbling their name. Just so you know I am a fan of the good stuff though and wouldn't really care if someone did a decent job in my area, but it never happens.

 

[xdom125x]

Because 99.9% of it looks like this:

Spoiler

And I rather like my house things un-spray painted.

Pretty much this. The O.P. and several others may be referring to that 0.01% of graffiti that isn't a guy's/girl's nickname or a guy's/girl's gang affiliation but legalizing graffiti would mostly benefit guys/girls marking gang territory or a guy/girl saying the equivalent of "I was here".

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if about a half of that supposedly "nice looking graffiti" that people are referring to was permitted by the owner of the building/structure it is on.

 

[Sethzard]

Artistic graffiti is fine, but that really is the exception rather than the rule, most graffiti is tacky bollocks put up there by people who want to show off or be unpleasant.

 

[tharglet]

I'm in the agreement with what seems to be the majority - if you're drawing on something that doesn't belong to you and you don't have permission to draw on, you shouldn't do it.

I think a couple of the towns I live near have had official places that they've got people to do decent graffiti-style art on. I have no issues with the art-style, but yer, tagging is not good.

Official graffiti walls give graffiti artists somewhere to do their thing so it won't upset people.

 

[Aurgelmir]

This question has plagued me for a while. Here is some of my thoughts on it.

I can see why it is illegal, really. It is used to deface property and is considered vandalism. But is it really? Most graffiti is actually appealing to see while driving or walking. It is interesting to see and can add spice to an area. Of course in some places, it should never be there i.e, Schools, Hospitals, Police Stations, ect.
What are your thoughts on it?


Hope you can decifer my writing, doing this REM sleep thing.

*Edit*
I don't think people caught my drift. I was talking about artistic graffiti, graffiti that isn't Gang related or that stuff. I didn't even know anywhere where people graffiti HOUSES. I guess that falls into the ect I was talking about.

Bridges, walls stuff like that.

*Edit2*
I'm getting your responses for a paper I'm doing for school. I didn't trust my own opinion. Thanks guys.

Thing is it is vandalism of private property if you didn't have any approval by the building owner to do it. It doesn't matter how beautiful it might be, it was still not approved.
Would you be happy if I came to your hose one day and painted your wall a different color and made your house prettier to look at? You probably would not.

but Graffiti as an art isn't illegal, and I know of a few places where people allow you to go crazy with it

 

[Slash Dementia]

I agree that graffiti is good sometimes--when it's by actual graffiti artists who do good works of art and are paid to do so. But there's that "tagging" graffiti, which is usually obscene or just unappealing to the eye. I don't have a problem with it if it's permitted by the city or wherever, just don't do it because gangs or the like.

I know a graffiti artist's house, and the person lives a few blocks away. He has this amazing mural of an Aztec and an Aztec calendar painted on his garage door. He has something on the side of his house, but I don't remember it so much.

 

[GothmogII]

This question has plagued me for a while. Here is some of my thoughts on it.

I can see why it is illegal, really. It is used to deface property and is considered vandalism. But is it really? Most graffiti is actually appealing to see while driving or walking. It is interesting to see and can add spice to an area. Of course in some places, it should never be there i.e, Schools, Hospitals, Police Stations, ect.
What are your thoughts on it?


Hope you can decifer my writing, doing this REM sleep thing.

*Edit*
I don't think people caught my drift. I was talking about artistic graffiti, graffiti that isn't Gang related or that stuff. I didn't even know anywhere where people graffiti HOUSES. I guess that falls into the ect I was talking about.

Bridges, walls stuff like that.

*Edit2*
I'm getting your responses for a paper I'm doing for school. I didn't trust my own opinion. Thanks guys.

Thing is it is vandalism of private property if you didn't have any approval by the building owner to do it. It doesn't matter how beautiful it might be, it was still not approved.
Would you be happy if I came to your hose one day and painted your wall a different color and made your house prettier to look at? You probably would not.

but Graffiti as an art isn't illegal, and I know of a few places where people allow you to go crazy with it

I'd be perfectly happy if you did that to my house, actually.

 

[Hop-along Nussbaum]

Because painting someone ELSE'S property without their consent is vandalism. Just like borrowing someone elses car without asking is called STEALING.

If you paid for the property, paint it any color you want. If you didn't, bugger off. Simple.

 

[Aurgelmir]

This question has plagued me for a while. Here is some of my thoughts on it.

I can see why it is illegal, really. It is used to deface property and is considered vandalism. But is it really? Most graffiti is actually appealing to see while driving or walking. It is interesting to see and can add spice to an area. Of course in some places, it should never be there i.e, Schools, Hospitals, Police Stations, ect.
What are your thoughts on it?


Hope you can decifer my writing, doing this REM sleep thing.

*Edit*
I don't think people caught my drift. I was talking about artistic graffiti, graffiti that isn't Gang related or that stuff. I didn't even know anywhere where people graffiti HOUSES. I guess that falls into the ect I was talking about.

Bridges, walls stuff like that.

*Edit2*
I'm getting your responses for a paper I'm doing for school. I didn't trust my own opinion. Thanks guys.

Thing is it is vandalism of private property if you didn't have any approval by the building owner to do it. It doesn't matter how beautiful it might be, it was still not approved.
Would you be happy if I came to your hose one day and painted your wall a different color and made your house prettier to look at? You probably would not.

but Graffiti as an art isn't illegal, and I know of a few places where people allow you to go crazy with it

I'd be perfectly happy if you did that to my house, actually.

Even if I painted it shock green with pink trimming?

Point is not everyone likes the same things, and it is the house owners right to refuse anyone from painting their building.

 

[teqrevisited]

Well most all of the graffiti around where I live consists of unintelligible bloated scrawls that just make that neighborhood look like a scum-infested drug den.

If it was actually witty or funny I wouldn't mind. As much. They'd still have the owner to deal with.

 

[Jonluw]

Because if a bridge looks plain and boring, and you would like to make it look pretty, you should ask the bloody owner before spraying paint all over it.

Why shouldn't it be illegal? You're modifying shit that isn't yours without permission.
Not to mention all the ugly graffiti out there (It is by far the most prevalent kind). And who decides who gets to paint where if we were to legalize only the pretty kind?

 

[88chaz88]

No matter how good it looks, it's defacing someone's property.

 

[Baneat]

EDIT: I tried the REM sleeping diet. It fucking sucks to get started, but once started it isn't so bad.

Interested, elaborate?

Also isn't graffiti with permission, not graffiti?

In regards to the sleep diet. I did it once. I hallucinated like a *****. It's hard to get down. But once you do (like I eventually did) it's awesome. I love being awake so much and getting so much taken care of.

Yeah but what exactly is this sleep diet mentioned?

Read "The Game" by Neil Strauss, it sorta explains what it is. Basically, whenever you seelp (which is like like 20 minutes every 4 hours) you immediately go into REM sleep. So, in like a 24 hour day, you only need 2 hours of sleep to function properly.

Oh, Uberman, I thought you meant food

 

[kasperbbs]

It`s illegal in my country and every single graffiti i have ever seen in my hometown looks like some gangsta wannabe drew it, it just looks like jibberish, most of the time you can`t understand what is written, even if you do its just some curse words or some 12 year olds nickname. I say keep them illegal, if you would legalize it all hell would break loose.

 

[Hamster at Dawn]

Well if someone sprayed a nice bit of original artwork on the side of my house then I have to say I'd probably like it. But not everyone is so open minded and still the artist may not have the same artistic tastes as me. It's the fact that graffiti is unauthorised that is the reason it's illegal. It makes sense really, no matter how nice it looks, you're still radically altering the appearance of someone else's property.