Meet Hugo, who works for Waverley Council, which maintains the beach and wonderful facilities (like the free stainless steel barbecues) in the extensive park behind the beach. He told me that every day he has to paint over fresh graffiti in the picnic shelters and toilets.
Yesterday, a young woman, aged 18, was convicted of writing her name (tag) on a cafe wall in Sydney with a black texta (felt tipped pen). The cafe says it was $200 worth of damage. For this forst offence, she was sentenced by the magistrate to 3 months jail!
Harsh or justified? That's the debate that's been raging today. Does sending a young woman to jail (at a cost of $30-40 000) serve any purpose? Does singling out one person ever have any deterrent effect on others? (It never did when I was a kid at school! And so far capital punishment or long jail terms haven't seem to have stopped murders occurring)
Meanwhile, a young male graffitist was placed on a good behaviour bond and wished well in his artistic future "as long as it is displayed in public galleries, not on walls." Read more here.
It should condemn the woman to clean the other tags
ReplyDeleteWell, it served to stimulate discussion on the subject. Ddidn't this kid have parents that were smart enough to tell their kids not to write on walls and other public property? Probably not. Might have traumatized the poor kid.
ReplyDeleteAre you suggesting, Anon, that the child be jailed for the sins of the parent?
ReplyDeleteI'm suggesting that the parents should be held accountable for the sins of their kid. If more kids had good parenting they wouldn't even consider such acts. The kids were probably allowed to write on the walls at home because otherwise it might stifle their self expression and scar them for life, poor little buggers. Grafitti and vandalism are wrong and somebody (if not the parents) has to point this out to these spoiled brats.
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