April 22, 2008
Graffiti on the Rise Citywide
Photo by Jake Dobkin.
New stats from the NYPD show an 81.5% rise in graffiti-related complaints from 2006 to 2007 (pre-Splasher!), a year that graffiti arrests also went up 28%.
Queens council member Peter Vallone, Jr. notes that, "we did an excellent job turning the tide against graffiti in the '90s and the beginning part of this century. Unfortunately, because of the lack of police officers, the fact that they have to do double duty and combat serious threats like terrorism, minor crime, including graffiti, are on the rise." As such, Vallone has turned the graffiti problem into his own personal battle, along with his attempt at trying to pass a law against daredevils climbing buildings (something that happens once in a blue moon).
Vallone blames evil pop culture for the insurgence, however the NYPD notes that the numbers could just be a result of "better reporting and police work"; in 2007 police began logging 311 and 911 graffiti complaints and documenting the identities of taggers. More stats after the jump...
Graffiti complaints in the 28th Precinct, which includes Ferguson's eatery, shot up from 10 to 44 - an astounding 440 percent - between 2006 and 2007.Manhattan South had a more modest increase of 52 percent more complaints - from 426 to 647 - and 8 percent more arrests, for a total of 383 last year.
Brooklyn North saw complaints more than double, from 489 to 1,084 - 122 percent - while arrests were up 69 percent to 488.
Brooklyn South had an 81 percent increase to 1,421 complaints, and arrests climbed 16 percent, to 680.
Queens North had an 84 percent spike, from 904 complaints to 1,662, and arrests went up 11 percent, from 615 to 680.
In Queens South, complaints climbed 80 percent, to 864, and arrests were up 17 percent, to 259.
Bronx graffiti complaints increased 59 percent, to 1,416, and arrests rose 61 percent, to 780.
Staten Island saw a staggering 95 percent surge in complaints, from 468 to 914, and arrests were up 37 percent, to 198.
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Dobkin must be ecstatic at the news.
We need stronger penalties for all graf writers. Real jail time would be a start. Followed by cleaning off several defiled walls using toothbrushes, no matter how long it takes.
Like real graf or all that 'Street Art' stuff you art school fag transplants go on about?
this report is about real graffiti-- tags and other eyesores.
I have to laugh at the NYPD spin that "the numbers could just be a result of 'better reporting and police work.'"
Sounds like they are admitting their earlier stats are a bunch of B.S. -- reminds me of The Wire.
This is one of those problems that arises from there not being enough outlets for this type of behavior.
We need more places like Five Pointz and community-sponsored murals so that people with the desire to throw paint have a place to do it freely.
Granted it appears that most graffiti is territorial and self-serving, but I suggest these urges rise from creative desire. If we let the artists be artists, the subversive acts associated with graffiti become less rewarding.
Graffiti is vandalism when a black kid does it. If a white kid does graffiti, it's art (see Ecko).
>>>This is one of those problems that arises from there not being enough outlets for this type of behavior.
We need more places like Five Pointz and community-sponsored murals so that people with the desire to throw paint have a place to do it freely.
But to many 'taggers' the thrill comes in its illegality.
www.forgotten-ny.com
the splasher!!!
I really wanted to believe that all of the new graffiti that I recently saw in my neighborhood was an aberration. Unfortunately it doesn't seem so.
The bastards tagged apartment buildings and a church and a synagogue. A CHURCH AND A SYNAGOGUE!
Hey jchez, maybe the taggers are Nation of Islam?
>>>This is one of those problems that arises from there not being enough outlets for this type of behavior.
We need more places like Five Pointz and community-sponsored murals so that people with the desire to throw paint have a place to do it freely.
I/m sure there are many nice walls in Riker's that they can try to 'tag'.
peter vallone can eat the fat one.
"they have to...combat serious threats like...minor crime"
recontextualization. that's the lesson, here. destroy to create. redesign the setting so as to reflect--even marginally--your stake in the great pain in the ass that is humanity.
there's more beauty, excitement, etc.
in the vandals'collage featured above than in any ad for mcdonald's newest reconfigration of mechanically separated cow.