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Virtual Graffiti vs. Real Graffiti
The graffiti here on BlackDog is virtual graffiti. It's here to give you an outlet for your creative talents. Real life graffiti is NOT cool!
Although graffiti vandals believe their actions harm no one, that's not true. Graffiti hurts everyone: homeowners, communities, businesses, schools, and you. Those who practice it risk personal injury, violence, and arrest. How?So what happens when a neighborhood looks run-down and dangerous? People want it cleaned up.
- Neighborhoods where the buildings are covered with graffiti are perceived to be dangerous. Why? If graffiti is tolerated, then other more serious crimes, such as theft and assault, may also go unchallenged. People think: "If they can't keep these walls clean, the kids in this neighborhood must be out of control. If the kids are out of control, this must be a dangerous neighborhood. It looks like gangs run rampant here!" Whether the neighborhood has gangs or not, it still looks like it.
- Nobody wants to go into an area that looks dangerous, so businesses in graffiti-covered neighborhoods make less money that those in clean neighborhoods. People think: "I might get mugged in that neighborhood so I'm not going to risk going there to spend my hard-earned money!"
- Graffiti lowers real estate values. The presence of graffiti is often perceived by residents and passers-by as a sign that a neighborhood is in a downward spiral, even though it might not be. Who wants to spend their hard-earned money to buy a home and live in a run-down, dangerous-looking neighborhood?
- Criminal laws get passed to try and stop graffiti writers. Writers get caught and arrested, chased, injured. Writers go to jail, have to pay fines -- lives are ruined.
- There's more: Clean-up is expensive. Graffiti vandalism costs the United States over $8 billion dollars each year for clean-up. That's a lot of money your community could be spending on other things, like youth programs, parks, computers for schools, helping the homeless, day care centers, scholarships, education, ... you name it. And who pays for this clean-up? The taxpayers do -- that's you and your family.
So. Scrawl on BlackDog's Graffiti Wall all you want. Download the Graffiti-It program and have some fun creating your own printable graffiti. Go further -- take an art class, learn to play an instrument, join a club, learn a skill, do something for your community instead of something to hurt it. Contact a local Keep America Beautiful affiliate and learn how to help keep your community clean.
Advertisement Direct all your cool paints and passions onto paper instead of onto somebody else's walls.
Check out BlackDog's On-line Graffiti Writer