Who Are the Real Vandals? ~ Los Angeles
Which of these things is not like the other?
Putting up massive illegal signs that bring in millions of ill-gotten dollars.
Chopping down precious trees to help make a billboard more visible.
Erecting 4,000 illegal signs that clutter the city with mostly ugly and useless advertisements.
Using ones own money to decorate the city’s largest concrete eyesore.
Of the four above examples of illegal public vandalism, three make the city uglier. Three cost the city millions of dollars in lower quality of life, property values, and lost tax revenues. Three generate massive profits for private corporations. Three are done purely to make money and with no thought towards art and the city as a canvas. And yet only one has resulted in charges and potential jail time for the artists involved.
Members of the MTA crew are currently locked up on felony vandalism charges and face years in prison for their act of illegal public art. While it’s true that those engaging in graffiti know and understand that their art is illegal, and do so knowing there are consequences including jail time, it’s obscene that corporate vandals are allowed to act without fear of punishment. Not only that, they get to make millions of dollars from their criminal actions.
The LAPD and the City Attorney’s office specifically allow some vandalism, and uses incredible resources including pre-dawn raids and electronic monitoring to bust graffiti artists and taggers. The double standard makes the arrests of Smear, MTA, and others a farce. As long as corporate vandals go free, every graffiti artist busted by the local authorities is a shining example of a broken and unfair policy that targets artists and ignores corporate criminals.
1969 supergraphic photo by atwater village newbie
You should also click on:- Ex-Vandals ~ Hollywood
- Vandals Ink ~ Athens
- Revok Arrested ~ Los Angeles
- The Real Rick Ross ~ LA History
- Crushing It ~ Los Angeles
- Freeway Cleanup: Graffiti Costs 1/3 of Litter ~ Los Angeles
- TERMINATED ~ Los Angeles
(8 tacos)
E73 wrote:
SMEAR is INNOCENT.
E73 says: D.A.M.N. = (DESTROY ALL MEDIA NOW)
Posted on 25-Feb-09 at 2:46 pm | Permalink
Atwater Village Newb wrote:
Here’s a link to my 1969 building photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/atwatervillage/3192560614/
Posted on 25-Feb-09 at 2:51 pm | Permalink
GraffHead wrote:
When there is large sums of money involved the law seems to be “ineffective”.
Graffiti artists are easy targets. It is difficult to go after crooked companies with deep pockets!
Posted on 25-Feb-09 at 3:30 pm | Permalink
er5er wrote:
The gutter used to be beautiful place until MTA got there. If LA wanted to preserve the river so bad they’d use the clean up/buff money to make a nice nature preserve. Something!. We get it the american flag or Will Smith’s face would have been a better choice for this dump.
Posted on 25-Feb-09 at 5:21 pm | Permalink
Hadley wrote:
What? None of you make any sense.
Oh wait, no, two of you do.
Posted on 25-Feb-09 at 8:31 pm | Permalink
LoveGalo wrote:
It is ridiculous how large corporations can plaster their ads all over the city and yet call our graffiti art an urban blight. A lot of these SUPER GRAPHICS are often placed illegally. There’s a so-called loop-hole in city and sign ordinances that these companies are able to get away with doing this crap.
I ask myself – if these signs or ads, that are the true urban/city blight, are being placed illegally – why aren’t the installers or corps being incriminated, having their license revoked, pay restitution fees, etc –
cuzz its pure capitalist BS!
Posted on 26-Feb-09 at 11:32 am | Permalink
OxDx wrote:
anyone have links to this case? no bail was set for some of these guys? im curious since it seemed like such a “victory” for the city to raid on these guys like they were dangerous murderous criminals.
Posted on 26-Feb-09 at 4:45 pm | Permalink
SMEAR wrote:
The system is a joke…it needs an overhaul.
Posted on 06-Apr-09 at 5:46 pm | Permalink