Punishment to fit the crime
February 3, 2008
Likely in response to the 15-year-old graffiti artist who was stabbed to death by a neighborhood resident last weekend in Manurewa, New Zealand, the government announced the start of a program designed to crackdown on graffiti. The program called Stop (Stop Tagging Our Place) will include legislation to fund anti-graffiti programs, limit sales of spray paint and increase law enforcement efforts.
One part of the crackdown is an increased use of ‘restorative justice.’ Apparently taggers who are caught would be forced to clean up some of their own work.
“I think some of the most effective punishment is when taggers have to clean up their tags in the full glare of the public,” said Auckland’s Police Minister Annette King.
I’m not sure if it will work, but it is an interesting idea. Maybe taggers would be less inclined to paint on illegal walls if they themselves would have to paint over what I can only assume they consider to be great art work.
February 3, 2008 at 5:43 am
Hey Kayla! I just looked at the last 10 posts on your blog, and here is my critique.
I really like the Interactive Graffiti post as well as the Glow-in-the- Dark post. I think you found some really cool info. I don’t even know where I would find out stuff like that. Kudos on the sleuthing.
As for posts that could use some work, I think in some posts–like the museum art crime post– you could use some more examples. I know there was a big thing a few months ago about some skulls at the Museum of Science and Industry that were stolen. It’s a big deal right now, and I think some links to other articles wouldn’t hurt. You could also talk about forgeries. That’s been big in the news lately as well. Also, art thieves are awesome (See the Vicky Bliss series by Elizabeth Peters).
I think you’re pretty consistent with theme and mission. But, is the blog supposed to be mostly about graffiti? If so, you may want to focus more on that than other crimes.
The text is pretty scannable since the posts are pretty short. I’m also a fan of the pretty graffiti pictures (and the word “pretty,” apparently).
The links are used well. As I was reading the glow-in-the-dark graffiti article I was wondering what it looked it, and then you had a link. Nice job anticipating the reader’s mind.
The writing style is relatively consistent, but sometimes you come in with a really nice voice. I’d like more of that. Like in the murder article when you said, “Yeah. So is murder.” I think this snarky voice lends itself well to a blog about graffiti.
February 26, 2008 at 12:14 pm
“I think some of the most effective punishment is when taggers have to clean up their tags in the full glare of the public,” said Auckland’s Police Minister Annette King.
I don’t see this is a way to combat graffiti at all. I’ve seen this is a few cities I’ve lived in and it just leads to further problems down the road. Another thing is done is give the artists a clean surface, and I’ve heard stories of writers joining the team and at night go to spots they just buffed. We had a legal wall in my city, and the police and city council shut it down even though it was in an area of town where no one went and it was along a stretch of railroad tracks. And you know what that did, pissed the writers off and their new mission was to crush downtown and make it seem like a stupid plan by the people in charge. I feel we will never stop this “problem” if we don’t give the people an outlet to express themselves. Sure, half of graffiti is seeing your name where it shouldn’t be, but having a space to be creative cuts that down immensly.