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Thefts and Vandalism

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by rough-shunter, Dec 26, 2006.

  1. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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

    oddsocks Well-Known Member

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  3. Sheff

    Sheff Resident of Nat Pres

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  4. GWR Man.

    GWR Man. Well-Known Member

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  5. Ploughman

    Ploughman Part of the furniture

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  6. johnofwessex

    johnofwessex Resident of Nat Pres

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    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
     
  7. nick813

    nick813 Well-Known Member Loco Owner

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  8. Martin Perry

    Martin Perry Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Moderator Friend

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  9. Johnb

    Johnb Nat Pres stalwart

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    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.
     
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  10. RalphW

    RalphW Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Administrator Friend

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    Oooh can't do that, the 'uman rights' brigade would get very cross about you making the offenders look like criminals, they can't help it, it's all the fault of the governments 'savage cuts'..... :rolleyes:
     
  11. Martin Perry

    Martin Perry Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Moderator Friend

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    That would be the best way to go. Trouble is that there are too many apologists claiming that it is 'art' and excusing the whole issue.
     
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  12. goldfish

    goldfish Nat Pres stalwart

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    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.

    [​IMG]

    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
     
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  13. Reading General

    Reading General Part of the furniture

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    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
     
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  14. 6024KEI

    6024KEI Member

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    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".
     
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  15. simon

    simon Resident of Nat Pres

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

    Martin Perry Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Moderator Friend

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    The journey on the train from CdG Airport into Paris is one almost continuous corridor of graffiti.
     
  17. Johnb

    Johnb Nat Pres stalwart

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    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.
     
  18. simon

    simon Resident of Nat Pres

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    not a cop out. I think you should have looked harder in Italy.
     
  19. marshall5

    marshall5 Well-Known Member

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    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.
     
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  20. RalphW

    RalphW Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Administrator Friend

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    I'm sure the defence here would have a field day citing entrapment.
     

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