Graffiti can be seen all over neighborhoods, especially in lower income neighborhoods where poverty is present. But even in more prosperous neighborhoods can graffiti be seen. Graffiti in itself is an act of vandalism which is a punishable crime, but if tastefully done have been accepted in many neighborhoods rich
Month: November 2012
There an ongoing debate around graffiti: is it a way to express yourself; is it art? Or, is it merely a criminal activity, an outward expression of social disorganisation and vandalism in an area? Is it the meaningless activity of “criminal people” that causes councils and government millions in cleanup
Skateboarding is an art form, not a crime. In this video clip, you see a couple of guys performing tricks. These tricks are thought of and carefully executed. As they film, these tricks they find spots to match the trick. After filming they put footage together and make a film
Crime is something entirely created by society, and sometimes it doesn’t necessarily reflect that societies norms. In this oxymoronic picture, someone has ‘broken the law’ writing a message that might otherwise be considered helpful to a certain areas residents. For example, if this neighborhood experienced a lot of littering (which
“Dance with the Devil” by Immortal Technique is about a boy named Billy Jacobs and his struggles of living in the ghetto. Coming from a dysfunctional family and living in the projects in New York, Billy wanted to make a name for himself. He participated in many criminal acts in
The San Quentin Murals, painted by Alfredo Santos, depict the history of California through the eyes of an inmate. The murals were created over 50 years ago by then inmate, Alfredo, who was serving a 4 year sentence for the possession of heroin. Alfredo submitted a sketch in a competition
The statue of Joe Paterno was removed the morning of July 22 because of what it represented. What was once a shrine dedicated to a man who worked for the university for over 60 years quickly turned into a symbol of selfishness, neglect, and abuse when Paterno did the bare
The film, “The Godfather”, is a great example of art and crime. In this film, the Mafia and its crime oriented behaviors are glorified into a film. This scene shows an epic point in the film where Michael Corleone, son of ‘Godfather’, kills a crooked police man and another mafia
Mara Salvatrucha also known as MS, Mara, and MS-13 is one of the world’s most ruthless gangs. They are estimated to become even more of a threat than the mafia as the country’s most organized criminal network. Most of the members have tattoos in order to identify themselves with the
In South London a group of artist were jailed because they graffiti a wall. As you can see the picture includes a brown wall with a police officer taking a picture next to a dog and words being painted which is “One Nation Under CCTV”, by a teen in a