Graffiti wars

Where around the web are there websites that you can use to figure out the ornamental letters you see around town in graffiti?... it would be nifty to be able to understand the words

What about POSITIVE graffiti crews that do Holiday charity/gift exchange programs for the kids such as: SMART CREW CARES ©?

stop real crime.. you have kids at the age of 14 doin cocaine where im from. graffiti isnt killing anyone.open your fuc.king eyes.

The thing is that poeple see graffiti as a "gateway" crime.  Kids that do graffiti know that they are breaking the "law"... It eventually leads to shoplifting (paint especially, since they can't buy it).. When they realize how easy it is to steal, they start shoplifting other things and the hunger grows from there...  Drinking, drugs, etc. is all part of the culture.  You can't deny that. 90% of young writers start out to get fame, not to be artists.  Is graffiti a crime?  By definition, YES it is a crime to society.  You look at areas where there is a lot of graffiti and you assume that it is okay to do more graffiti. It's the broken windows theory.  However, the point is that getting rid of graffiti does NOT make neighborhoods safer or any better...  Look at the real estate in neighborhoods like Williamsburg, Brooklyn where it is booming and there is graffiti everywhere.  Then look at North Philly and parts of Baltimore where streets are mostly buffed and look at the crime rate there...

Since YOU guys wanted to deny the paper the information they wanted, I will give it to the people, you guys want to put writers names on public web sites, so here's your payback. Nancy O, aka Little boy look-a-like, WAS demoted for continuously harassing writers by visiting them at home, making threatening phone calls, and even filing false police reports. How about this.... In the above mentioned article, they mention " THE BEVERLY WALL " - In one incident, Nancy stood across the tracks, at a wall where people are supposed to be ALLOWED to paint, and called for the writers painting the wall to come across the tracks to take pictures, etc. When the writers entered the tracks, she arrested them for Trespassing. Isn't that called entrapment, Nancy? Don't think officer Kelley, aka Freckles is any better. I know of a certain writer who wasn't even writing on anything, and Mr. Kelley decided to pull his gun on him, and said, and i quote, " IF YOU MOVE A FUCKING INCH, I WILL SHOOT YOU " I wonder what Kelley did to get demoted from investigating Homeland Security... It's almost as the Vandal Squad is the B.P.D grave yard. You two are the saddest excuse for police officers. You are supposed to serve and protect - Why not chase real criminals instead of trying to ruin someone's life by putting them in PRISON, for writing graffiti. You call us egomaniac's, look in the fucking mirror.

Since YOU guys wanted to deny the paper the information they wanted, I will give it to the people, you guys want to put writers names on public web sites, so here's your payback. Nancy O, aka Little boy look-a-like, WAS demoted for continuously harassing writers by visiting them at home, making threatening phone calls, and even filing false police reports. How about this.... In the above mentioned article, they mention " THE BEVERLY WALL " - In one incident, Nancy stood across the tracks, at a wall where people are supposed to be ALLOWED to paint, and called for the writers painting the wall to come across the tracks to take pictures, etc. When the writers entered the tracks, she arrested them for Trespassing. Isn't that called entrapment, Nancy? Don't think officer Kelley, aka Freckles is any better. I know of a certain writer who wasn't even writing on anything, and Mr. Kelley decided to pull his gun on him, and said, and i quote, " IF YOU MOVE A FUCKING INCH, I WILL SHOOT YOU " I wonder what Kelley did to get demoted from investigating Homeland Security... It's almost as the Vandal Squad is the B.P.D grave yard. You two are the saddest excuse for police officers. You are supposed to serve and protect - Why not chase real criminals instead of trying to ruin someone's life by putting them in PRISON, for writing graffiti. You call us egomaniac's, look in the fucking mirror.

I apologize for the double post.

huh

this is dumb.

First, I am a factory worker, not a Police Officer.  I've been ticketed for speeding a few times but harbor no ill-will toward the Police, however I would like some time alone in a steel cage with whoever keeps raising my car insurance.  I understand that if I drive the magic number of miles per hour over the speed limit, my insurance will be the least of my worries.  So I drive responsibly now. Many people have broken minor laws and ordinances knowingly or not, and most agree that the law has a purpose and a penalty is the only way to ensure that the law is followed.  For most people, their would-be career as a vandal, speeder, shoplifter et cetera ends the first time they get caught or come close to getting caught, and for most, only a stern warning would suffice.  But if they continue to do it, or have done it to a degree where damages exceed certain thresholds, then stiffer penalties are needed to hopefully snap them back to normal behavior or to deter others from joining them. I've read of one vandal who has $38K in damages/fines stacked against him.  I don't believe that he has the resources to repay that kind of money fast enough to satisfy all or any of the parties involved, but even if he did, what guarantees that he will not do it again?  Unfortunately for everyone involved, a good chunk of that money might be commuted to prison time.  No one wants the kid to go to prison, prison adds to the overall price tag of his crime, but the damage is done and some actions must happen to clean up the mess, restore lost revenue, apologize to the victims, ensure that he does not continue, and warn others who would vandalize to stop or not to start.  There is also the matter of the time and money invested in finding one person out of several million based on four letters on a wall.  I'm afraid that prison, then probation, then restitution, then fines are the only way he and our justice system can make it right. I don't understand the indignation people show when you call them on their actions.  This is the real world, with consequences you take to the grave.  I know it is hard for a twentysomething to understand.  You do not know yet that the world remembers everything you do and is seldom impressed.  (By the world, I mean the people, places and things that you see and that see you.) If you somehow manage to not get called for your actions, you may feel very smug for a time,  but the world will eventually out you in one way shape or form.  If you build your self-worth off of getting away with being a petty criminal, then your attitude will sound as obnoxious as forced laughter to someone's own joke, told over and over again. 

 Re: Graffiti wars
I apologize for the double post.
By Officer Kelley on 12/06/2008 at 4:21:31I think you need to apologize for more than that, mistah. Do you have a shred of proof for any of what you posted, or did you hear it from somebody who knows somebody who knows "da peepuls dat wuz dere"? Check out Brian McGrory's Boston Globe column from 08/27/04 for a different view of Lt. O'Loughlin's demotion. Or do police only "serve and protect" as long as you get to do whatever you want to do? Ain't it just tuff$4¡†ski that those goobers in Beverly who were "entrapped" (if the story's even half true) didn't know enough to say "No, we can't cross the tracks here. That's dangerous and illegal."
BTW, "say no to crack" means more than just "pull up your jeans."Hey, "stoprealkrimes": Your spelling and grammar suggest you should stop sniffing all that spray paint, before your brain turns completely to tapioca. And here's a flash for you: when some trespassing "writer" gets hit by a train, or a guy falls off some highway sign he's tagging, then it is killing someone. Some people might say something about how "that guy really made 'heavens' with that one. Too bad he can't receive his Darwin Award in person." "Tagging" is basically just the two-legged version of a dog peeing on something to mark its territory. Some "dawgs" have been beaten, stabbed, or shot, sometimes fatally, for "peeing" on a rival's markings.
kurisuuira: Eloquent; well written. That last sentence says it all.
And finally: If the people who tag someone else's property without permission are "artists," is the guy who snaps the antenna off your car a "sculptor"?