Some people view graffiti as a creative art form, while others consider it vandalism. The law is not a fan of graffiti, and will charge people with serious punishments if they are caught. Graffiti rose in popularity in the late 1960s, when political activists took up their cans of aerosol paint and took to the streets to verbalize their opinions. At the same time, gangs picked up the practice and began using the spray paint to mark their territory and make their presence known in cities. Graffiti gained a subgroup of offenders who completed a crime called tagging. This is when a gang writes their name, symbol, slogan, or other meaningful writing onto public buildings and defaces property. Often the tags were bold and vulgar.
Taggers started writing their names on trains, where the work would be shown all over the city when the locomotive travelled. As the art of graffiti changed, so did the fonts and styles that the artists used. While bubble writing has always been a popular graffiti style, offenders also tended to use an elaborate method called "wild style." Graffiti has an art all of its own, which has changed and evolved over the last 50 years. Gangs who practiced this art began developing their own fonts and drawing significant pictures.
One of the hubs of graffiti activity in the past was New York City, where gangs made their mark in places like the Bronx and Brooklyn. As the 1970s progressed, gangs began to compete. Whoever could add the most tags to cities and have their name in the most places became the better group. Graffiti artists would sneak into the subways and cover the cars in their spray paint. Finally, the Metro Transit Authority in New York City had enough. They began removing graffiti from the railway cars and fences and made getting rid of this spray paint art a priority. State legislation made the penalties for graffiti more severe, and made restrictions on selling spray paint to minors and suspicious individuals.
They made the aerosol paint harder to steal by putting it in locked racks. The MTA increased their anti-graffiti budget so that they could remove all of the writing. They also hired guards to bar gangs from entering the subways with their spray paint. In retaliation, many of these gangs moved their activities into the streets and worked on graffiti there. Currently, New York is removing all of their vandalized subway cars from the system and replacing them with shiny new, clean alternatives. The Clean Train Movement has led to a lot of controversy about whether or not graffiti can be considered a work of art at all.
Vandalism in the form of graffiti is a serious problem. Unless a state or city specifically states that a wall or street legal to graffiti, then it is entirely off limits. Often graffiti charges are relative. It depends on the amount of spray paint applied to the wall, what was written/drawn, how many times the artist has committed the offense, and the severity of the vandalism. Yet even a minor charge can have a serious impact on your life. States have their own punishments for graffiti, but every offense almost always comes with a mark on your criminal record.
To use an example, in Florida, being caught with less than $200 in graffiti damage results in a second degree misdemeanor. Even if it's your first offense, $200- $1,000 in damage will result in a first degree misdemeanor, and if you caused over $1,000 in damage you will be issued a third degree felony. When you are caught vandalizing a property with spray paint a second time, you will be given a third degree felony, no matter the amount of damage. For a misdemeanor, an offender may receive probation, a fine up to $1000, the obligation to pay for the graffiti damage, and community service to remove the graffiti. If you are charged with a third degree felony, you might face up to 5 years in prison, $5,000 in fines, an obligation to pay for the damages and community service.
