The Controversial Issue Of Graffiti In Our Society Today

I’m sure there has been a time in your life where you’ve driven on the I-95 and saw that “Joe loves Lucy” or other professions of love this and hate that. Things like this are written on bridges, trains, and road signs to advertise the artist’s message to the general public, while drivers are left to think why should they care who loves who and who hates what. Graffiti is one of the most controversial issues existing in our society today. Some people may agree that graffiti is art while others may disagree and saying it’s vandalism. This leads to the question of what is vandalism? Oxford English dictionary defines vandalism as an “action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property”. This definition of

Some argue that graffiti is an expression of free speech, but The Supreme Court has stated that the 1st amendment protects freedom of speech and expression so long as it does not infringe on the civil liberties of other people (). Private property owners have complete autonomy in how their property is decorated. For a person to unlawfully display their work on someone else’s premises directly infringes the rights of the owner. New York, and many other large, urban metropolises, prosecute individuals who are caught graffiting on their structures. No one could claim being discriminated against because their chosen form of art, but because they were not granted permission to create it. Graffitiing on private property without one's consent or expressed permission is not a form of art but a criminal

Graffiti clean-up costs are paid by the city's taxpayers. The Anti-Graffiti Network in Philadelphia, launched in 1984 by former Mayor Wilson Goode, removes more than 100,000 graffiti pieces every year, clearing unwanted paint from corner mailboxes to expansive freeway walls. The effort costs the city of Philadelphia $1.3 million in personnel, supplies and equipment(). Theses funds could be used for schools, roads, parks and the community instead of graffiti clean-up. In 2015 more than 9,100 graffiti removal requests were made to Philly311, the group that records vandalism in the city. This is a decline from 11,563 reported incidents in 2014. To meet those requests, the city employs 11 graffiti removal crews and an abundance of tools(). Philadelphia is not the only city spending huge amounts on graffiti clean-ups; the city of San Francisco spends about two million dollars each year trying to get rid of graffiti. These funds are used to pay its crews to repaint 1.3 million square feet of walls, garage doors, lamp and utility posts, mail and wire boxes on public and private property