Your say / Bristol
‘Those responsible for illegal graffiti should be punished’
Vandals and Visionaries on BBC One on Friday, July 28 investigates the turbulent past of Bristol’s graffiti culture. Here is former British Transport Police superintendent Tony Thompson on why he thinks street art should continue to be illegal. Read artist Felix Braun’s opposing view here.
Spraying and painting tags and street art on someone’s home, property or equipment without their permission is illegal. It is a crime and always has been. Those who are caught in the UK are usually prosecuted for causing criminal damage, but may also be prosecuted under local byelaws.
In some places, even if a ‘street artist’ or ‘tagger’ has been granted permission by the legal owner of the property to paint or spray their work on a building wall, the local council may still demand that the work be removed because it is considered unsuitable for the environment.
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Painting, writing, spraying or marking property by any means is generally viewed by law enforcement officials as anti-social behaviour or vandalism, and on receiving a complaint will investigate to try and find those responsible. It is usually the police who will take the lead in an investigation and they will have powers to detain suspects and take possession of any materials that they suspect have been used to commit ‘graffiti offences’. These items are evidence to support a prosecution, which will be brought by the Crown Prosecution Service. Evidence of individuals committing acts may also be gathered from CCTV and other images, often gained from social media because the offenders usually take pictures and videos of the spraying, tagging and painting.
The police are required to enforce the law, and are not required to exercise discretion or decide whether tags, paintings and other sprayed-on street art are artistic, or not. The police catch the ‘offenders’ and the CPS decide whether to prosecute or not. There are options for the police to deal with some younger offenders by warning and cautions, but significant and repeat offenders are usually taken to court, and the court will decide on guilt or innocence. This may seem very heavy handed to those who think the authorities are clamping down on artistic freedom, and limiting the development of urban art, but a crime is a crime, and many people do not want their property defacing by what is often very poor ‘art’.
During my time in the police I had to deal with many cases of graffiti on trains, bridges, buses, walls and railway lineside equipment, such as signals. It looked awful and cost the railway operators thousands of pounds to remove. Today, you can still see graffiti daubed on buildings and lineside equipment as you approach our mainline railway stations in London. To many, this creates an unpleasant image, and often places the ‘artist’ in great danger from moving trains. I have dealt with several incidents where artists have been killed in this way.
I believe that graffiti should continue to be outlawed and those responsible should be punished accordingly.
Read more: Preview: Vandals and Visionaries
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