What happened to any report by New York Police Commissioner, Bill Braddock, who cleaned up New York, of vandals, vagrants and litterers, and was subsequently hired by Bahrain?
Reading recent GDN reporting rampant vandalism around Bahrain, presumably nothing.
Remembered words from Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Mikado.”
“To sit in solemn silence, in a dull dark dock, in a pestilential prison, with a life long lock, awaiting, the sensation of short sharp shock, from a cheap and chippy chippy chopper, on a big black block.”
Drastic, but understandable, seeing wanton, unexplainable destruction of public facilities, restful benches, clean toilets, graffiti-less buildings.
Yet, a vandal, apprehended by the police, probably facing time in jail or a Court Order for community work, cleaning up his mess, but his mother pleading for “leniency!”
Jail would be “very harsh” for young vandal, poor darling, and if made to clean up the mess, he would face ostracism by the public, who might see him!
What punitive message, does that send to other vandal ilk?
Any person wantonly destroying public property should be aptly punished, not merely slapped on the wrist!
Remember the Braddock message, a crime or malfeasance, no matter how small, apply the law, take scum off the street.
Governorates simply don’t have the budgets to “keep repairing continually repairing facilities.”
Graffiti remains a scourge, to authorities, all over the world.
Cleaning it up is at tremendous cost to councils, administrators, and ultimately through taxation, the public.
There will always be socio-political slogans like, “Ban the Bomb.” “Save the World from polluters,” or society-awakening street art as in Belfast, during “The Troubles.”
Some social consciousness issues are “works of art” by the UK street artist, Banksy, for instance, a scruffy, homeless man, holding a sign, “I Want Change,” and a small bucket in front of him.
Ostensibly begging, but a wider political message too.
People demanded the Banksy social commentary be treated as a national treasure.
Wherever you travel, globally, there is an abundance of graffiti, usually meaningless jibber, drivel, scrawls on walls.
It means nothing to you and me, but it’s often the staking out the borders of gang areas, warning rival gangs, who “own” various patches, land, property, urban areas, in that Mafiosi way!
To the rest of us it is like dogs peeing on walls or trees, spots in suburbia, to say to other dogs, “I was here!”
Fortunately, now paints development, can more easily, hose off graffiti, but nevertheless, it is a time-consuming and expensive process.
And regrettably, it often soon reappears.
Canberra, the Australian capital, is in the process of revealing its light rail to bring people from the outer suburbs into the city.
Last week, the first “test train,” in a supposedly guarded area, was covered in graffiti, even before it was given a test run!
It cost a few thousand dollars, having it removed!
Alas, authorities can only try and hope civic pride prevails over vandalism.