Think that those urban graffiti are all left by poor, underprivipeged taggers or teenagers led astray by gangs? Think again: the Los Angeles County sheriff just arrested tagging crews who are surprisingly rich:
Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies today arrested at least eight alleged members of the notorious Metro Transit Assassins tagging crew, some of whom are believed to be responsible for a several-blocks-long “MTA” tag in the concrete Los Angeles River bed that authorities say will cost millions of dollars to remove.
The arrests occurred during a series of early-morning raids centered in the Hollywood area. Among those detained for a parole violations is a famous tagger whose work “SMEAR” has has won acclaim in the art community. [...]
Most those detained are in their 20s; one of them drives a $60,000 BMW, and another member possesses a diamond-and-ruby-encrusted Metro logo pendant with paperwork suggesting it's worth $29,000, Finkelstein said.
Link - Thanks Tiffany!
Photo: Al Seib/LA Times
Feeling the need to spend millions to remove a tag from that concrete scar is part of why California is in a budgetary crisis.
Does any really think those low income families can afford spray paint?
Just like the other urban myth of the dangling shoes on the power lines marking drug territories, myth not fact.
i mean if you were in NY and think that most graffiti tags you see mean your in gang turf, you would have no where to go then.
and dangling shoes on power lines usually means that the wearers of those shoes has passed away. well thats what it means in my part of the woods.
plus the reason taggers do what they do is because they get a rush out of it, and it doesn't mean they're homeless and poor and under privileged. its just a rush.
and there are ALOT of rich taggers(most retired but started out with tagging) out there. some of them are now internationally known, many of them own their own brands and earn honest money. search: Jose Parla, Krink, Kaws, Cope2. theres many more but these guys stand out the most.
Most of them are fine art students.
Most of their reasoning fits what matt says, aside from the shoes, which is purely done as an art instillation piece.
i went to jail
and i am always the guy on neatorama explaining this stuff
tags don't indicate drug turf, unless they're super ugly, in which case they might. prolly 95% of tags are done by writers who are 20-30 middle class white kids who are bored and irreverent.
not news to me
spray paint costs money, poor ppl are busy trying to live. drug dealers have better things to do. graffiti started in the urbs but now it comes from the burbs
werd yo
Or just leave it there and try to fix you're economy?
oh and yes the poor write too, if you really want to do something you'll find a way.
I've done my share of tagging, and all the taggers that have any sense at all don't tag on houses, people's fences, small businesses, people's cars, etc. That is messed up, and as you would say, "asshat."
However, when people tag on concrete walls behind buildings, or under freeways, or in canals, like in the picture, it is not on anyone's property. And that shit is ugly, anyway. I don't see why the government wants to pay millions to paint over a tag drawn on something uglier than the graffiti. Plus, does it really cost millions of dollars to go out there with a bunch of paint and go over it? And once they do go over it, it'll be even uglier than before!
What California (and everywhere else with a graffiti problem) really needs to do is find areas that are out of the view of society and designate them as legal tagging areas. That way, it will keep most of the graffiti away from areas where people may not like it. Where I live, most the graffiti that I see is drawn in only areas that other taggers will see. There is no point doing it on a main street; it will get covered up too fast.
I don't think the good graffiti out there is what chaffs people, it the other terrible graffiti that comes with it that's the problem.