Here We Go Again - Snooze Media

In early summer, City TV ran a story about a school where the students proudly painted over "gang signs" and "tags" while the reporter outlined the City's policy on eradicating graf in Toronto.

LET US SAY THIS -
We sympathize with the city trying to get rid of tags on buses, schools, and other public spaces. Tagging is a sore spot even within the graf community, as more mature artists look to get over on bigger walls and avoid being called vandals or criminals. It is even hard to tell sometimes what is a tag by a young graf writer, and what is simply profanity and spray paint vandalism. But if you take the time to really look, it is easy to differentiate.
We wish to point out that most tags are NOT created by "gang members," as is often the party line espoused by mainstream news outlets. The straight truth is most tags are highly stylish signatures that graf artists work very hard on. These often swirly and expressive tags outnumber profanity and the like, by a huge margin. Take a second look...

THE BIGGEST COMPLAINT -
From the top cops, to the news media, the mature writers who mostly do legal walls, and art shows, are rarely ever interviewed or mentioned. To tell the whole story, the artists have got to have equal time before the cameras...

Send comments and photographs to:

legalwalls@strongandfree.ca