Office of Borough President James P. Molinaro
Staten Island, New York
B.P. Molinaro: “Call Graffiti Vandals What They Are - Criminals, Not Artists!”
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Borough President James P. Molinaro today urged the public, the media, and government and civic leaders to stop using the term “artist” to describe graffiti vandals who commit criminal acts.
“I routinely use the term ‘graffiti vandal’ to describe these criminals who destroy private property, and it is dismaying to hear others refer to them as ‘artists’,” said Molinaro. “It is time for law-abiding citizens to make a distinction between the two terms. Graffiti vandals are criminals, not artists.
“Nothing makes me angrier than the thought of a Staten Island business owner or elderly homeowner spending their hard-earned money to remove graffiti scrawls from their property,” Molinaro added.
“People must realize that in addition to being a serious quality of life crime, graffiti is also an expensive crime that takes money from the wallets of our law-abiding residents,” Molinaro continued. “The only artist who would do that is a con artist.”
Molinaro has made graffiti and litter removal a top priority of his administration, and recently joined City Councilman James Oddo and other political, business and community leaders for an ongoing series of “Graffiti Summits” to find creative solutions to graffiti vandalism on Staten Island. The brainstorming sessions are centered around a “three-prong approach” consisting of prevention, clean-up and prosecution.
“Together we are making it clear that graffiti is a crime, and we will not tolerate the actions of graffiti vandals anywhere in our communities,” Molinaro concluded.
November 30, 2004