I am writing in response to the letter to the editor How hard is it to identify graffiti tools, by Bill Gernannt, which is about the spray paint and graffiti problem in the Denver area. He wrote this letter in response to “Graffiti bill too broad,” Jan. 18 news story and talks about how Rep. Terrance Carroll is concerned about “profiling” teenagers with doing all the spray painting in the Denver area, which is very reasonable because not all teenagers are graffiti artists. However, Mr. Gernannt pretty much says that the Representative is full of BS and that it is all teenagers doing the vandalism, or art, depending on who is looking at it. Gernannt sees it as vandalism and that all teenagers should be punished to the fullest extent of the law, and their parents should be charged a fine and required to clean up the vandalism at their own cost.
This is his scare tactic as appeal to pathos. But it just ticks me off because there are so many more people than just teenagers that are doing the graffitiing, what about the 20-some year old gang members, and what about the teenagers that don’t have parents, it is unjust and unfair, stereotypical and he needs to be told that what he just said is all of that and needs to be smacked for being a smart alec.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I think that Gernannt's efforts are being wasted with trying to controll graffiti. The city or state can go ahead and spend more money washing it off, but unless they can keep watch over every person above the age of 12, they are never going to catch graffiti writers in the act. There is a so-called "graffiti problem" in every major city in the world (or at least the US), and Denver isn't going to be the acception to the rule.
I can see Gernannt's response to this problem has got your attention. And I think you're right to question his assumptions, and what you're doing is probing his warrant and getting us to see that his claim might rest on some unfair or incorrect ideas.
But also, Jamie, to factor in your response. I agree that in some ways, it's inevitable, living in major city. Graffiti will be present. But do we just give up? Or what could we do to decrease this problem?
As a homeowner whose garage door gets tagged repeatedly, I have to say that I get really frustated, too, but I also would care more about getting to the root of the problem, rather than scape-goat teenagers, who may or may not be responsible.
Post a Comment