Graffiti

It’s a harsh and twisted world if people truly think a young graffiti artist deserved to die. Ryan Smith was 17. He was stupid. He died trying to scale a bridge to spraypaint his tag on it. But he didn’t ‘deserve’ to die.

Palestinian youths check out Banksy's work in the West Bank. Photo: AP

Radio talkback this morning moved swiftly from tokenistic sympathy for Smith to serious discussions of the ‘war on graffiti’. War? With kids as collateral?

Online, people said his death was ‘natural justice’, that he was an ‘idiot’ who ‘paid the consequences’, that he’s a contender for the Darwin Awards.

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  • oneruleforhumanityanotherrulefortheothermammals says:

    07:53am | 06/09/11

    It’s one way of keeping stupid genes out of the pool.  As intelligence is inherited, perhaps we should only let the children who are too smart to do these things grow up and have their own children.  The world is a mess because of people who do stupid things, so… Read more »

  • mac says:

    09:15pm | 04/09/11

    At least these artists are just scribbling a name or painting a beautiful mural, and not sitting in alleys smoking meth or raping children. The media makes it out that graffiti artists are the worst people in the world and that is complete and utter shit. Who hasn’t done something… Read more »

 

Hey you! Yes, you. Arsehole.

The horror, the horror. Scott's keyed VW

Thanks a whole heap for walking down our entire street in Erskineville, at 2am on New Year’s Day and keying every single car including my brand-new VW Polo.

You liked my Polo, didn’t you? You must have liked it a lot because you singled it out and instead of just going sideways along the car you took the time to dig your key all the way through the paint into the metal up and down, up and down, up and down.

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  • dmmaseoseoseo says:

    05:49pm | 14/12/11

    I can see you happen to be an expert at your field! I am launching a internet site soon, and your details will probably be very fascinating for me.. Thanks for all your support and wishing you all the success. Read more »

  • LC says:

    11:25am | 12/05/11

    I somehow don’t think that was his point, Warren… Read more »

 

TO a graffiti vandal, it’s the equivalent of a madman running through the Louvre with a knife at night slashing the Mona Lisa and other canvases. A secret squirt squad is systematically defacing illegal “artworks” daubed along Melbourne’s train lines by painting the letters “CTCV” over the top.

Victorian Graffiti: Who ever is behind CTCV has gone to war with Melbourne's street artists. Picture: Flickr

The anonymous vigilantes are bombarding hundreds of sites across the rail network with their simple tag, prompting cries of foul play from graffiti crews.

Outraged vandals have accused employees of train operator Connex, and also the transit police, of somehow orchestrating the blitz as some sort of bizarre “tit for tat” campaign to wipe out street art.

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  • mark says:

    11:08am | 14/08/12

    Capital punishment for putting a colour on a wall? You are somehow trying to justify that theft is somewhat less of a crime because there is a financial gain. You sir, are an idiot.  Nothings is physically broken in the act of graffiti. It is a colour on a medium. Read more »

  • soid says:

    07:37pm | 06/03/12

    all off you can judge so easily but when you work on something nights on end just so you can get recognition and see ctcv over it thats just poor and distasteful id like to see any of you people against graffiti do what we can there is no way… Read more »

 

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