GRAFFITI

Essay

Police don`t see it hapens. Citizens don`t call the police when they see it hapens. Graffiti became the bigest mystery crime. All involved were trying to ignore it but graffiti affected the quality of life and had a drastic effect on the property values for everyone in the community.
Graffiti is word or picture drawn on walls in public places, on public transport, our community's highways, residences, alleys, etc. It is usually regarded as a criminal damage and police prosecutions are usually taken under the Criminal Damage Act 1971. It is said that a person who without lawful excuse, destroys or damages any property belonging to another intending to destroy or damage any such property or being reckless as to whether any such property would be destroyed or damaged shall be guilty of an offence.
Stringent penalties in the Crimes Act 1900 and in the Summary Offences Act 1988 have also been introduced to deal with graffiti crimes. For damage less than £5,000 the maximum fine is £2,500 and/or maximum of 3 months imprisonment. For damage of more than £5,000 there is a maximum fine of £5,000 and/or maximum of 6 months imprisonment.
Evidence show that if graffiti is removed rapidly and persistently it is less likely to come back.
Many street cleaning teams now provide a rapid response service in removing it. Anti-graffiti paint can also be useful but needs to be backed up with enforcement. Graffiti should be removed swiftly and offenders prevented from doing it again.
How is the graffiti removed?
•Previously painted surfaces will be painted with color matched paint;
•Unpainted porous surfaces may be cleaned via pressure washer, steam cleaning or bicarbonate soda blasting;
•Unpainted non-porous surfaces may be pressure washed with approved chemical/solvent treatments or cleaned via bicarbonate soda blasting.
The most common types of graffiti are: Gang, Tagger or Hip Hop, Hate, Generic, Snipe. Gang graffiti is dangerous. This type may spell out a gang name, their geographic area or a numeric identifier. Tagger graffiti vandals like to be called "Graffiti writer". They gain recognision and status from their peers by placing distinctive "tags or graffiti monikers" in as many places as possible, in the most high-risk places, and by how artistic the graffiti is. Hate type expresses mesages of hate against some members or groups within a community. Generic graffiti is usually innocent in nature. Often expressions of love, school name etc. Snipe type is the illegal attachment of flyers and often paper notices to utility or light poles, trees and vacant buildings.
Today graffiti is more evident than ever within our communities. It is not just a "city" problem anymore. This interactive workshop will expose the cultures of those who are committing these property damaging crimes.