16 months for scribbling on a wall?

[dan1981]

(I could get a job writing headlines for the tabloids)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8105729....

Seriosuly though do we really want to be spending

a: a small fortune on the prosecution of these responsible.

b: a small fortune on their incarceration

I'm trying not to condone what they did but by the sounds of the report they were talented graffiti artists rather than scrotes scrawling their names on the walls.

Surely a ticking off and a hefty or similar would have been far more appropriate.

And just for the tabloid fans - i've seen rapists get less.

[erdnase]

dan1981 said:

(I could get a job writing headlines for the tabloids)

Hung, drawn and quartered!

What a bunch of aerosols!

Writing's on the wall for Antipodean Artists!

Judge paints harsh future for graffiti gang!

[Papa_Hotel]

erdnase said:

Hung, drawn and quartered!

What a bunch of aerosols!

Writing's on the wall for Antipodean Artists!

Judge paints harsh future for graffiti gang!

Hehehe. I'd do a smiley but I don't know how.

[erdnase]

Can you tell what it is yet?

(They're Australian, for anyone not reading the article)

I'm on a roll here.. lol


edited to add: It's a farce - complete kangaroo court!

Edited by erdnase on Thursday 18th June 01:49

[collateral]

It does sound like a waste of time and money.

If they were into design I'm sure the stuff they were throwing up was at least interesting

[gadzookz]

If they adorn dull walls with "graffiti" art ala Banksy, then this is a ridiculous sentence.

Even if they make utterly ste tube trains look better - and indeed help prevent them from rusting with all their coats of paint, then whats the problem?

But once those fkers spray paint all the windows of the trains then they deserve the fking death sentence. Stupid fking s. Burn in hell. I missed a station cos of you s. Die Die Die!

[Colonial]

Had a similar over the top gaol sentence for a 17 year old girl who scribbled her name on the wall of a cafe.

Owner wanted her cautioned and made to scrub it off (fair enough). The magistrate sent her for an 8 month custodial period.

This is someone with no prior record.

What's the point of over the top approaches like that?

[HOGEPH]

Whichever way you paint it. this is vandalism.

I'm sure if they had sprayed paint all over your house or car, you wouldn't see it as art, or an expression of cultural identity, or whatever bks phrase is in vogue this week.

Edited by HOGEPH on Thursday 18th June 06:41

[_Deano]

Colonial said:

Had a similar over the top gaol sentence for a 17 year old girl who scribbled her name on the wall of a cafe.

Owner wanted her cautioned and made to scrub it off (fair enough). The magistrate sent her for an 8 month custodial period.

This is someone with no prior record.

What's the point of over the top approaches like that?

Judges live in a different world to us. For some reason re-offenders get off lightly compared to people which only make on mistake and get heavily punished.

[Colonial]

HOGEPH said:

Whichever way you paint it. this is vandalism.

I'm sure if they had sprayed paint all over your house or car, you wouldn't see it as art, or an expression of cultural identity, or whatever bks phrase is in vogue this week.

Edited by HOGEPH on Thursday 18th June 06:41

Has happened before.

It's annoying, but it's not worth spending loads of my money on putting them in gaol for over a year. And you're right. It's vandalism. Not armed robbery.

[Westy Pre-Lit]

dan1981 said:

And just for the tabloid fans - i've seen rapists get less.

Yep we live in a mad world.

[cazzer]

Think it's perfectly valid myself.
Area's covered in graffiti look bloody awful.
But yer right...getting more than rapists is wrong.
The problem is the length of sentance given to the rapists not the one given to these guys.

They caused £70000 of damage.
Would you be complaining about the sentance if they had stolen the £70k?
Which is effectively what they did from the council tax payers.

[dan1981]

cazzer said:

Think it's perfectly valid myself.
Area's covered in graffiti look bloody awful.
But yer right...getting more than rapists is wrong.
The problem is the length of sentance given to the rapists not the one given to these guys.

They caused £70000 of damage.
Would you be complaining about the sentance if they had stolen the £70k?
Which is effectively what they did from the council tax payers.

I can think of a fair few people also based in London who collectivly have stolen much more than 70k from the tax payer, I don't see any of them currently doing 16 months, infact I don't see much being done about it at all.......

[cazzer]

dan1981 said:

cazzer said:

Think it's perfectly valid myself.
Area's covered in graffiti look bloody awful.
But yer right...getting more than rapists is wrong.
The problem is the length of sentance given to the rapists not the one given to these guys.

They caused £70000 of damage.
Would you be complaining about the sentance if they had stolen the £70k?
Which is effectively what they did from the council tax payers.

I can think of a fair few people also based in London who collectivly have stolen much more than 70k from the tax payer, I don't see any of them currently doing 16 months, infact I don't see much being done about it at all.......

Not disputing that, but it's irrelevent to this case.

[jesta1865]

dan1981 said:

I can think of a fair few people also based in London who collectivly have stolen much more than 70k from the tax payer, I don't see any of them currently doing 16 months, infact I don't see much being done about it at all.......

perhaps these guys should be given jobs in Westminster as well, they all seem to have a penchant for wasting our money.

[Neil_H]

dan1981 said:

(I could get a job writing headlines for the tabloids)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8105729....

Seriosuly though do we really want to be spending

a: a small fortune on the prosecution of these responsible.

b: a small fortune on their incarceration

I'm trying not to condone what they did but by the sounds of the report they were talented graffiti artists rather than scrotes scrawling their names on the walls.

Surely a ticking off and a hefty or similar would have been far more appropriate.

And just for the tabloid fans - i've seen rapists get less.

I don't have too many complaints, that's £70k of taxpayer money and the vast majority of graffiti is an eyesore. It's a deterrent sentence I guess.

However, I'd rather see them spend a year cleaning graffiti off walls.

[IanMorewood]

Deport them to the collonies.

[collateral]

What are the odds the 70k is an over inflated figure for 'clean up' used against these guys in court? Wouldn't have cost anything to leave the pieces up...

Shades of when there's a drug bust and the street price is quoted at some ridiculously high amount

[elster]

HOGEPH said:

Whichever way you paint it. this is vandalism.

I'm sure if they had sprayed paint all over your house or car, you wouldn't see it as art, or an expression of cultural identity, or whatever bks phrase is in vogue this week.

Edited by HOGEPH on Thursday 18th June 06:41

Therefore the sentence should be to repair it. Out of their own pocket. Or if they can't afford then the state will pay. The offender pays back with interest.

Seems fair to me.

It will save £47k.

[s3fella]

It doesnt matter what the "art" is, scribbling on someone else's property is still the mark of a scumbag, in my book and they deserve to be banged up.

If we went to Oz and vandalised their public's property, you reckon we'd fair any better?

At least when they come out, they will have somewhere more covert to hide their aerosols, clowns pocket and all that!