London Police lead many raids on.... Graffiti artists. To sanitise the city for the Olympics

www.thelondonvandal.com...

So here it comes.

Where other countries and capitals embrace the art and youth movement of colourful displays of graffiti art, stencils and tags, in the UK our government has decided to stamp it out completely in a bid to appear clean.

But, some of these people arrested haven't done anything since the 80's and 90's. Suddenly targetted and slapped with bail.

It’s no secret that graffiti and street art are being targeted in the run up the London 2012 games. Each day stories emerge of artworks treasured by locals being removed by excited councils, or of graffiti that had remained untouched for years suddenly being washed brown by the over-zealous buff. Even so, we didn’t expect that unsolicited artwork would be considered such a threat to the image of the country that the authorities would manipulate the legal system to send a message out the graffiti artists – picking up anyone they could with a past in graffiti and slapping them with harsh bail conditions. Whether the BTP ‘s arrests served any genuine purpose, or if they were simply a tool used to issue people with draconian bail conditions, only they can say.

and

These men have told us that they are not currently involved in painting illegal graffiti. These men are living law-abiding lives, but can no longer travel on public transport or enter large areas of London due to harsh bail conditions. In addition, laptops, mobile phones and other devices were taken into evidence by police. How these men are supposed to work and look after their families under these conditions, they are not sure.

What a message to make eh?

We certainly don't want people's imagination clogging up the shiny Coca cola sponsors and Mcdonalds logos.

Wow!!!! Simply wow.

How is this even legal? The guys are retired, not caught in the act, and have all kinds of punishment imposed on them for doing nothing.

This is the world we live in.

All good, no bad.

All light, no dark.

All right, no wrong.

Ask Vancouver, BC how their city is 2 years later.

www.guardian.co.uk...

When Adidas wanted to create a mural to illustrate the launch of its new football boot last year, it turned to "professional graffiti artist" Darren Cullen for help. Cullen, 38, runs a firm providing spraycan artwork and branding to major international companies, and says he has never painted illegally on a wall or train.

But despite having worked with one of the Games's major sponsors, on Tuesday Cullen was arrested by British Transport Police (BTP) and barred from coming within a mile of any Olympic venue, as part of a pre-emptive sweep against a number of alleged graffiti artists before the Olympics.

www.independent.co.uk...

www.newstatesman.com...

Update number 1 from that site, and the link to the New Statesman story, shows me that almost all of the outrage here is misguided.

Seems to be actually that FOUR individuals were caught painting graffitti...

... in connection with a live and ongoing criminal investigation into linked incidents of criminal damage committed between January 2007 and July 2012.

A couple of years ago i was tagging buildings using the name "wasp", I posted a drawing i did on facebook with my tag name "wasp".. A few months later i received a 200$ fine in the mail..

True story.

Melbourne certainly doesn't embrace the graffiti culture at all even though it is the most renown city in Australia for it..

Disgusted? Yes.

Surprised? No.

This is the same country that arrested and detained people for possibly thinking about protesting at the royal wedding.

I don't even call it my country anymore. It's not.

So it is fine for kids with spray paint to go around defacing public property? I am confused. Now we support this graffiti on this site? Truly if the world were run by the people on this site there would be complete lawlessness.