Why Is Graffiti Illegal?

[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.

 

[bdcjacko]

Don't paint on my wall, that is why it is illegal.

 

[CosmoK]

...because 91.9% of graffiti is tagging (tags) and 99.9% of those are sprayed on private or state owned property.

Got someone to "brighten up" one of the walls in the kindergarten I worked in before going back to uni. 'Twas really a work of art, and the kids loved it.

 

[HerbertTheHamster]

because most of it is just tags which look like fucking shit

if i came and poured brown paint all over your furniture you'd probably be pissed

 

[liquidsolid]

I personally love seeing graffiti, I live only an hour from New York City and NYC has some of the most artistic tags in the world.

It's reason for being illegal has most likely been stated already, but it basically comes down to the issue of private property.

 

[Valdus]

If it's artistic and done with permission I see no problem with it. It's illegal however because most of it is juevnille ("LOL u Sux 8===D") and done without permission.

 

[teisjm]

Obviously, people don't want random retards with little to no artistic skill sparying shit over their buildings.

But i would be wondering why not, if someone skilled went to city hall with a portfolio of his/her work and asked for permission, to paint some booring grey walls with something cool, that wouldn't be offensive, and was told no.

Then again, if some guy is allowed to do it, there'll be tons of retards who won't be able to understand why he can paint on the wall, but they can't smear their crappy tags all over the palce...

I actually thin more legal tag-walls would help reduce unwanted grafitti problems to some extend.