Thefts and Vandalism

No ken, definitely on another railway, didn't know about that, interesting though

 

This is sickening! http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/...ised-in-severn-valley-railway-wrecking-spree/

 

Yesterday at the Midland Railway .....

06.04.15 Hammersmith on MRB at Ripley .. As I post this it's still burning, this is NOT the box for Hammersmith but another one that stands out of use at end of line and is used for storage .. Sad to say that's another MR box gone

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202698621546696&set=gm.808582565863142&type=1&theater

 

Arson attack on Rushden Railway. https://www.facebook.com/Rushdenrailwaystation

 

Just spotted this
Robbery at the Launceston Steam Railway in Cornwall.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-34105971

 

I believe that a lot of work on canal restoration in the 70s was done by prisoners. Young Offenders also used to work on the Tallylyn until the Home Secretary (Howard?) decided that offenders wernt to do anything useful.

The Tallylyn were clearly impressed as they were all invited back on release

 

Hello,
Swanage Railway latest vandalism :
http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/14392682.Graffiti_vandals_target_historic_railway_carriages/


Lots of graffiti.

Very sad.

Nick

 

The problem is catching them and when they are inevitably the courts are soft on them. The penalty in some continental countries is to dress them in high vis overalls and make them clear up the mess at their own expense which seems justice to me.

 

Writing your name in big bubbly writing is hardly 'banksy' is it. I think most people can tell the difference between graffiti that adds value to its surroundings and graffiti that subtracts it.



Putting those responsible in charge of removing it (and more), as per johnb's suggestion seems eminently sensible (see also 'litterers should clean up litter', 'polluters should pay for pollution' etc.), unless there is a desire from those affected to keep the graffiti in place, as often happens with banksy's paintings.

Simon

 

the difference between vandalism and art in this instance is surely whether or not you have the Owner's permission to paint on their property

 

I'm beginning to wonder about the availability of spray paint - I work in the centre of Bristol and despite the council offering a free removal service, its reached epidemic proportions - there's barely a wall that isn't "tagged" - which is not art in anyone's language - its just the human equivalent of a dog marking a lamp post. Unfortunately its not helped when stories like this make the pages of the local press as it gives publicity to the morons doing it who get to see their "work" in print.

Offering street art spaces doesn't seem to help either - there are specific buildings that have had sprayed art work added and some of it is impressive but that doesn't seem to have any impact on the "tagging". There was an incident recently on the Severn Beach line where a load of these idiots hijacked a train in service, threw all the passengers off and covered the carriages of the unit in spray paint.

Would never happen but I'd give the next one caught in any particular council area the job of cleaning off anything that occurs until the next one gets caught! That might encourage them to grass on their fellow "artists".

 

Many parts of cities on the "continent" have much worse problems with graffiti than we seem to have.

 

That's not an excuse just a cop out, the Swiss don't have a problem at all. Even the graffiti capital of Europe the criminals respect the historic monuments as was pointed out to me in Rome.

 

not a cop out. I think you should have looked harder in Italy.

 

A few years ago the cops in San Francisco set up a 'sting' to catch the graffiti vandals. They pretended to be a TV company making a film and advertised for local 'graffiti artists' to attend an 'audition' at which each tagger was asked to spray his usual tag whilst being filmed. The police then compared the tags with instances of spray painted vandalism in the city and prosecuted the perps. accordingly. Busted!
Ray.