Graffiti everywhere in Berlin

Wow. You people (Keydeck, BadDoggie, Jilleta) are hardcore. I can't help but wonder if you've really done any research into graffiti and its history, before making such incredibly volatile statements, like the following:


Keydeck, perhaps, you should move to eastern India, they chop hands off there for stealing. Maybe this type of "justice" system would be more to your liking...


BadDoggie, you're at least more to the point, rather than waste precious time breaking wrists and such, like Keydeck, you'd just "kill" them. And frankly, most of the writers out there have more than likely already tagged and painted all over their property, so I guess your arguement would fall upon deaf ears. Besides that I suspect you'd never have the balls to actually write graffiti on anyone's property. I suspect your "bark" is bigger than your bite.


Jilleta, those are some pretty big accusations you're making about people on unemployment. But I'm sure they're based on lots of research, interviews and other data that would support them. Otherwise, I'm sure you wouldn't make such blanket judgements. But if so, perhaps you could volunteer your time to help direct these "folks who are sitting on their asses" to better themselves.

If any of you are interested in educating yourselves about the subject at hand, I've provided some links below. Of course, any basic search on Google will turn up many more.

http://www.at149st.com/history.html
http://www.jam2dis.com/j2dgraffitihist1.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffiti

Your interests matrix is more revealing than any Google search:

This has really become a huge problem all over Germany, but especially in Berlin. Windows scratched, seats knifed, phone booths smashed, freshly painted private property spray painted.

I have even ran off a few in my neighborhood: "not here, uh uh...not on my watch".

There is a theory that like of pride in one's nation/culture pushes people to these anarchist extemes...the public's and police's soft stance on this doesnt make it any better. Its tough to get some overweight, sloppy policeman who is picking his nose with one hand and his thumb stuck up his ass with the otehr to get excited about doing anything.

does anyone know what the fine is for this type of vandalism...I know BVG and Bahn have their own set regulations regarding this, but in general?

Paris has very strict fines regarding any type of vandalism, then again the French view their capital differently than Berliners do.

at least as far as graffiti on the side of builidngs etc. goes, the law is AFAIK that if it doesn't cause what's classed as "material damage", i.e. to the substance of the building, it's not an offence. As graffiti is usually a superficial matter which can be solved with a lick of paint, the (criminal) law is fairly useless. There were moves to change it, but I don't recall whether they got anywhere.

Berlin is also suffering from "graffiti tourism", it's not just home grown.

(Personally I think there should be a give-and-take set-up: Mr. Graffiti Vandal is welcome to come and make a mess of my living environment, if in return I or any interested parties can go and impose our aesthetic ideas on his).

or how about beat the punk senseless?

If only Paris were similarly strict about lettling your dog take a shit on the sidewalk...

Just out of curiosity, when was the last time you went to Paris? I was there last week and found it to be much, much cleaner than during my previous visit three years ago. I didn't inspect the entire city, granted, but I visited quite a few neighbourhoods, and the Marais district was the only one where I saw the kind of "evidence" you refer to.

I was in Paris in December 1998, so it's quite possible they've cleared up the dog shit problem since then.

as stated, for those who cant read ENGLISH..."paris has strict fines..."

jeeesh, peeps...take a breath and take it in.

Yeah, you were talking about vandalism when mentioning the fines. Why are you now questioning our ability to read english when the thread had moved on to dog shit?

I think that anyone caught spraying graffiti should have the same thing they have sprayed tattooed on their forehead. It would certainly give the people in the neighbourhood a clear idea of who did it and they would look pretty damn stupid as well.. Also for repeat offenders they should just get the image tattooed over the first one. They'll look pretty stupid then when it's illegible nonsense plastered all over their heads.

You'd need to catch them first Wibble!!

True but it would certainly make tagging a lot more risky and might put a few of them off doing it. If you do get caught you are stuck with some stupid logo on your chevy chase for the rest of your life.

They should give them a big wall out in the SBahn "fields". There they can paint to their heart's desires. However, if one of them gets hit by train, oh well, so be it.

the city of portland is my home. my mother was a mural artist, and the city somewhat recently enacted a fee on murals, because of a lawsuit by clearchannel.
this is really sad, because one of her murals was removed by the building owner because he didn't want to pay the fee.
so, now there is more of a tendency to leave the walls blank, which only encourages taggers to make it their own personal canvas!

Plus in my opinion, there's no point in removing the graffiti anyway - it'll just become a blank canvas again.

I don't like the grafitti everywhere either.. Its annoying and bothersome