[Adam Shapiro]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Here's the problem. All it takes is one word on one new wall, and pretty soon, the whole city is covered in it, the whole city looks trashy, gangs claim their territtory, shootings happen, the residents get mad, the property values fall, the city must spend millions more on cleanup and cops, and it just turns into a really bad situation which takes decades to recover from.

This type of "art" should never be allowed or supported in a school environment.

Take a drive over by the Southern California regional location one day. You won't be calling it "art" anymore.

Graffiti can be a very nice form of artistic expression when it is permitted. This does not make it right for people to go around "tagging" buildings and such as they please. I think it is quite wrong to deface that which you do not own, or do not have permission to modify, but that does not mean that all graffiti is wrong. Yes, it is true that graffiti is often related to gangs but this does mean that all graffiti artists are in gangs, nor do they promote such activity. I happen to know a handful of people with interests in graffiti art and their work is very attractive and well done; they are in no way related to any gangs.

I will do my best to get some images from them to show you a bit of their work. I believe that you would like it and may change your mind about graffiti itself.