Euro vandals in NYC subways

[MrBern]

http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2006/12/11/vandalay_graffi.php

Eurotrash venture to NYC to share their love of graffiti

Displayed 'tag' of VandalsInMotion. Members are from Copenhagen, Sweden, Holland area.

 

[Feraud]

They need a proper NYC beat down and to be shipped back to their country minus a digit or two.

 

[Harp]

Tattooing a NYC subway train is no mean feat; pity these
individuals do not use their time more constructively.

 

[GOK]

What I'd like to know is how do they accomplish this without being caught? Are they simply very adept and speedy? Also, that news report said that 95% of grafitti-ists (??) came from Europe but how do they know that? Are they actually saying that 95% of people caught are European? If that is the case, perhaps the non-Europeans are just better at getting away with it?

I think it is a shame that people find a need to deface property that is not their own in order to get a thrill, cred, fun, recognition and even more of a shame that they don't stop to consider that the money and man hours spent on rectifying their 'art' could be better spent elsewhere. To me this is a very selfish attitude but quite typical of the 'sod you Jack' stance that is so prevalent today. However, this type of grafitti is infinitely better than the usual fare of profanities and character defamation that we see everywhere.

James J. Kilroy has an awful lot to answer for!

 

[Feraud]

I think the statistic is b.s. but the fact remains young people are choosing to graffiti the trains. It is a sad waste of talent.
The NYC subway system in the 70s and 80s was disgusting! The cars were covered in graffiti and the public seemed to grow immune to it.
I am a believer in the broken window theory and think these public nuisances should be dealt with quickly and effectively.

 

[GOK]

I think the statistic is b.s. but the fact remains young people are choosing to graffiti the trains. It is a sad waste of talent.
The NYC subway system in the 70s and 80s was disgusting! The cars were covered in graffiti and the public seemed to grow immune to it.
I am a believer in the broken window theory and think these public nuisances should be dealt with quickly and effectively.

:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[Harp]

Kilroy

James J. Kilroy has an awful lot to answer for!

...Kilroy's appearance always followed cockney Tommy around;
whereasandtherefore GI Joe would never deem desecrate any structure
with that caricature; hmmm, seems as though European aesthetic is
certainly the real culprit here.

 

[Fletch]

Members are from Copenhagen, Sweden, Holland area.

Visit Copenhagen sometime. Notice the utter lack of graffiti on public transit.

Maybe these folks think NY is a rathole compared to their hometowns (and they have a point). Or maybe they feel repressed back there and think NY is for freedom and anarchy (and they have a point).

Anyway, this NY metro-er wishes they'd take it to Amsterdam, where they'll probably love it. Here, we've got some old issues with this stuff. And in any case, you're off your turf.

 

[Salv]

Visit Copenhagen sometime. Notice the utter lack of graffiti on public transit.

Maybe these folks think NY is a rathole compared to their hometowns (and they have a point). Or maybe they feel repressed back there and think NY is for freedom and anarchy (and they have a point).

Anyway, this NY metro-er wishes they'd take it to Amsterdam, where they'll probably love it. Here, we've got some old issues with this stuff. And in any case, you're off your turf.

They probably think that since NYC is where modern graffiti art was born tagging a NYC subway train is following in the footsteps of the originators. You should be proud that a New York artform has spread worldwide.

 

[Fletch]

If only I thought of it as an art form instead of a misdemeanor, I might be. Some tagging is great - on crumbly old railroad bridges and beat-up buildings. But putting it right back where almost everybody wanted it gone amounts to a finger in the eye of quality-of-life.

I'd almost rather these people send performance artists out to invade Grand Central Station and reenact 1970s conditions like hooking, mugging and littering.

 

[Tomasso]

I am a believer in the broken window theory

Me too.

 

[J. M. Stovall]

Also, that news report said that 95% of grafitti-ists (??) came from Europe but how do they know that? [/IMG]

This is because grafitti artists all have a very disinctive style and there are people who keep track of such things. And it would be very uncool for artists to ape someone elses style, and if they did it would be obvious to the "experts".

 

[GOK]

This is because grafitti artists all have a very disinctive style and there are people who keep track of such things. And it would be very uncool for artists to ape someone elses style, and if they did it would be obvious to the "experts".

Right - shows how much I know. Although, Banksy has his imitators.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

he he, my tattoo artist learned his art craft as one of the more celebrated graffiti artists in Copenhagen ...

bk

 

[Paisley]

"The 'broken window' theory suggests that neighborhood order strategies such as those listed below help to deter and reduce crime.

Quick replacement of broken windows
Prompt removal of abandoned vehicles
Fast clean up of illegally dumped items, litter and spilled garbage
Quick paint out of graffiti
Finding (or building) better places for teens to gather than street corners
Fresh paint on buildings
Clean sidewalks and street gutters"

I live in a modest neighborhood--some of the residents are probably below poverty level--but in 11 years, I've never had a bit of trouble with crime. City ordinances deal with most of the above issues (e.g., grafitti must be cleaned up within 24 hours, no junk cars on the street, there is a fee on your water bill for the city to replace bad sidewalks, all residents must have trash pickup service, there are many parks in the area, the State of Colorado has a $1000 littering fine).

I would add one thing to the list: citizen vigilence. My neighborhood isn't pristine, but again, there doesn't seem to be much property crime. There are many retired and disabled people there sitting on their porches and looking out the window. The higher-end neighborhood where I grew up (the Columbine H.S. area) had constant vandalism and shootings besides the horrific one. It was higher-end, but there are few front porches and you almost never see a neighbor there.

 

[Feraud]

There are many retired and disabled people there sitting on their porches and looking out the window.

The problem in my neighborhood is everyone watches everyone else's business but no one does anything!
My neighbors know what retail stores I shop at but no one sees a thing when vandalism occurs...

 

[Paisley]

Ah yes, neighborhood watch!

 

[Story]

220, 221, whatever it takes...

 

[MrBern]

NYC status on grafitti

from wikipedia:
New York City
Advocates of the "broken window theory" believe that this sense of decay encourages further vandalism and promotes an environment leading to offenses that are more serious. Former New York City mayor Ed Koch's vigorous subscription to the broken window theory promoted an aggressive anti-graffiti campaign in New York in the early eighties, resulting in "the buff"; a chemical wash for trains that dissolved the paint off. New York City has adopted a strenuous zero tolerance policy ever since. However, throughout the world, authorities often, though not always, treat graffiti as a minor nuisance crime, though with widely varying penalties.

In 1995 Mayor Rudolph Giuliani of New York set up the Anti-Graffiti Task Force, a multi-agency initiative to combat the perceived problem of graffiti vandals in New York City. This began a crackdown on "quality of life crimes" throughout the city, and one of the largest anti-graffiti campaigns in U.S. history. That same year Title 10-117 of the New York Administrative Code banned the sale of aerosol spray-paint cans to children under 18. The law also requires that merchants who sell spray-paint must lock it in a case or display cans behind a counter, out of reach of potential shoplifters. Violations of the city's anti-graffiti law carry fines of $350 per count.[19] Famous NYC graffiti artist Zephyr wrote an opposing viewpoint to this law.[20]
On January 1, 2006, in New York City, legislation created by Councilmember Peter Vallone, Jr. attempted to make it illegal for a person under the age of 21 to possess spray-paint or permanent markers. The law prompted outrage by fashion and media mogul Marc Ecko who sued Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Councilmember Vallone on behalf of art students and legitimate graffiti artists. On May 1, 2006, Judge George B. Daniels granted the plaintiffs' request for a preliminary injunction against the recent amendments to the anti-graffiti legislation, effectively prohibiting (on May 4) the New York City Police Department from enforcing the restrictions.[21] A similar measure was proposed in New Castle County, Delaware in April 2006[22] and was passed into law as a county ordinance in May 2006.[23]

 

[MrBern]

anti-grafitti

this group won the idiots award for erasing ancient grafitti

Meyrieres Cave, is a cave in Bruniquel, Tarn-et-Garonne, France, which contained ancient cave paintings at one time. In 1991, a Protestant youth group, Eclaireurs de France (one of the French Boy Scout associations, whose name means "Scouts of France", rather than "those who show the way", a common mistranslation), as part of their campaign to remove garbage and stamp out graffiti in the area's caves, erased two 15,000-year-old paintings depicting bisons from the walls of the Meyrieres Cave, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in Archaeology.
The Ig Nobel Prizes are a parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given each year in early October — around the time the recipients of the genuine Nobel Prizes are announced — for ten achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think." Organized by the scientific humor journal Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), they are presented by a group that includes genuine Nobel Laureates at a ceremony at Harvard University's Sanders Theater.