Some background from  http://www.rudekid.org.uk/

Klutz aka Jack Jones has just spend Christmas in prison. He is a seventeen year old with no record of other criminal activity. He says his work is an art form, which is important to him. Other people share this view. He is denied the opportunity to communicate his message because he is powerless. There is no profit in street art. It is created for the young and the appreciative. It exploits no-one. Yet this young man has been given a sentence, which is tougher than those given to people who have killed through drunk driving.

Our streets are littered with a different kind of vandalism. Advertising is insensitive and indiscriminate vandalism, but the vandals wear ties. Billboards competing to get our attention, are constantly renewed using ever more shocking psychology. It is becoming more intrusive sprawling over our urban environment and colonising every possible space, squeezing itself onto the back of bus tickets or engulfing whole buildings, junk mail enters our homes uninvited when we are only half awake. People have no control over this invasion of their space. The advertisers are allowed to spray their misleading messages over our communities in the pursuit of profit.

Street art is important from an artistic perspective. It is art purely for the sake of artistic expression with no financial incentive. This art can’t be sold. The dedication of these artists cannot be denied if looking alone at the time it takes to create some of these pieces, and their impermanence.

This leisure activity is creative and expressive, respected by many, young and old. It is the voice of disenfranchised urban youth. It is not new. From cave times people have drawn and painted on walls.

Graffiti artists paint over offensive racist and sexual slogans that drab concrete subways and bus stops invite. Where there was a swastika now exists a colourful canvas.

Graffiti artists of the seventies, such as Futura 2000, have become established artists whose work commands a price. Young people see an opportunity to do something creative that they enjoy as a living. Inner City Artists are a well-known crew whose work has been commissioned for a Tommy Hilfiger window display on King Street! What hypocrisy that when it suits the establishment graffiti becomes acceptable. Calvin Klein actually employs graffiti artists to spray their logo!

Why do local councils not provide space and materials for young people instead of criminalizing them? Arrest of young people is jamming a wedge between the establishment and the young,

The council can find the money to instigate a ‘name that tag’ campaign. Why can’t they find the money to spend on decriminalising our youth by providing a legitimate space in which to practise their creative skill. When authorities need to put bounties on people’s heads there must be something wrong. If the public is so outraged they won’t need bribery to inform the authorities. Are these the Robin Hoods of our time? If £500 is the offer to dob in one artist alone, then they will need deep pockets.



Also interesting is this article:

 http://www.rudekid.org.uk/readtothedepths.html

The origin of the modern form of graffiti-"writing" (the American style), is in the 1960, rooted in poor urban areas (slum,ghetto), was as a means of establishing a NON-VIOLENT method to measure and develop ability, competence and creativity (instead of killing each other). The people who developed this art form were cut off from education, training, jobs and thus a recognised "future." For thousands of years we read about man`s hopes and hates on walls, during times of heavy conflicts the "walls speak" and a study of the graffiti-contents show a "history-writing from below."