Graffiti:  Art or Crime

By: Myasia Moore

Why is Graffiti such a crime in New York city? What makes it so different from Public Art Murals? How can you make public art murals so inspiring and beautiful and you can call graffiti vandalism and against the rules. We need to make a change.

You have probably heard of the word Graffiti. You have seen it on the side of the buildings and trains. Graffiti is legal if you are not given permission, If you do not have permission to draw or write then it is considered a crime. Graffiti becomes public art if it has been exhibited in museums and art galleries across the world. Graffiti is not really illegal, based on the article it says “ The debate about whether graffiti is a crime or art is pointless because ideally,”. Graffiti was invented by 2 men in the mid 70s and it was a form of an wildstyle art. There are types of graffiti Bombing and Burning. Bombing is when you tag as many places as possible. Burning is an artistic enterprise.

Graffiti has positive and negative effects. One negative is Business owner loses customers from the negative images from graffiti. One eyewitness/source has said “Business owners incur a loss of customers from the negative image that graffiti generates.” For example when people write or paint gang related things it makes customers think that the store itself is bad and that is why owners loses customers. Graffiti would harm the environment  because the actual paint inside the cans is not healthy for our environment and it can cause “Asthma Inducing Smog”. Graffitiinthenaturalworld.com has said “Though the actual paint in the cans is not healthy for our environment, mostly the cleaning substances used to clean the paint off the walls are extremely harmful. As graffitiremoval.org states, “The potential for damaging environmental impacts is high when using and disposing of chemicals.” One positive effect is it can let people express themselves in many ways. One eyewitness/source has said “ It can let people express their feelings and emotions  into awesome pictures.” For example, if someone feels like showing how they think of someone or something and they like art they can make it into a big picture. This would benefit the community because it would make the world even more creative and more expression.

The current status of Graffiti is it’s under attack and it is a constant battle. The head of police is trying to keep it illegal and he is focusing on it. Bill Bratton has said “It’s one of the issues i’m going to be focusing on. I’ve already spoken to the mayor about my sense that graffiti is growing in the city now again.” According to the article it said “ 5Points was a place where graffiti writers of all ages could spray in the New York City without being subject to arrest” 5Points was later closed in September 2013. “ In the article it states that an organizer of 5Points said “Since September of 2013, there has just been this zero tolerance.” The Graffiti situation can be solved if we all work together and make more place like 5Points and let all kids express themselves in drawings. If we do not solve this problem then people who truly desire art won't be able to show the community what they can do.