Maryland Citizens Against Vandalism

Cleaning Spray-Paint Vandalism: A brick wall is cleaned in Chicago

The following video shows a brick wall with large-scale graffiti vandalism. The vandalism was removed using an unspecified biodegradable, environmentally friendly graffiti vandalism application and a high-temperature power wash without damaging the original brick surface.

Disclaimer: Maryland Citizens Against Vandalism (MCAV) is a non-profit organization with no commercial interests in any particular commercial graffiti removal product. However, MCAV does advocate for particular graffiti-vandalism cleaning methods that prove to be successful in removing vandalism without damaging the original surface.

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Cleaning Spray-Paint Vandalism: A utility building in Malvern, PA is cleaned

The following video shows a brick wall of a utility building that was vandalized. The graffiti vandalism was removed using a product called Watch Dog Wipe Put Porous Surface Graffiti Remover from an organization called Dumond. The product is applied to the graffiti vandalism, allowed to sit for 15-30 minutes to dissolve the spray paint, and then power washed.

Removing Graffiti from a Utility Building with an Applied Product and a Power Wash

Disclaimer: Maryland Citizens Against Vandalism (MCAV) is a non-profit organization with no commercial interests in any particular commercial graffiti removal product. However, MCAV does advocate for particular graffiti-vandalism cleaning methods that prove to be successful in removing graffiti without damaging the original surface.

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Exposing the Real Intention Behind Spray-Paint Vandalism: Dominance

Spray-paint vandalism is often excused as an outlet for artists who want to engage in public art. This is a dishonest argument. If graffiti vandals really cared about public art, they would not deface the actual public art of others. The following brief news story exposes the true nature of graffiti vandalism. It reports on a large commissioned public artwork in Atlanta that was eventually completely defaced by spray-paint vandals over the next five years. Spray-paint vandalism is not about art. It’s about dominance.

https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/atlanta/vandals-spray-paint-graffiti-over-1-000-feet-of-boulevard-tunnel-mural/993613373/

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Cleaning Spray-Paint Vandalism: A team cleans an industrial building in Los Angeles

The following video is an impressive example of a professional pressure-washing business removing spray-paint vandalism from the walls of an industrial building in downtown Los Angeles. The team is using a spray-paint removal product call World’s Best Graffiti Removers. The team first brushes on an application of the World’s Best Graffiti Removers product across all of the affected surfaces. After a short amount of time to allow the removal product to settle in, the team uses pressure-washing to successfully clean the spray-paint vandalism from the walls. The walls have been successfully cleaned without damaging the underlying surfaces, which include brick and metal.

Removing Graffiti from an Industrial Building with an Applied Product and a Power Wash

Disclaimer: Maryland Citizens Against Vandalism (MCAV) is a non-profit organization with no commercial interests in any particular commercial graffiti removal product. However, MCAV does advocate for particular graffiti-vandalism cleaning methods that prove to be successful in removing graffiti without damaging the original surface.

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Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) Opposes Spray-Paint Vandalism

One of Maryland’s epicenters for cutting-edge creativity is opposed to spray-paint vandalism. The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA)—no stranger to creativity outside the box— “considers defacement of public or private property to be vandalism, not artwork” according to their website. Their website also states that MICA “is strongly opposed to graffiti and other forms of vandalism.” However, MICA does support public art, as does the Maryland Citizens Against Vandalism (MCAV). Here is what MICA says on their website about the promotion of public art:

As a community of artists, we advocate for a broad range of opportunities for expression of our students’ creative vision through exhibitions, performances, and programs that provide opportunities for community-based art such as murals and public performances. 

For the full policy statement from MICA, visit https://www.mica.edu/mica-dna/policies-and-institutional-learning/policies/institutional-policies/graffiti-vandalism/.

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Why This Organization Exists

In short, this organization exists because spray-paint vandalism is visual garbage, it’s ruining our communities, and it’s not being cleaned or punished properly. And we want to change that.

Maryland Citizens Against Vandalism (MCAV) comprises taxpayers and voters who want to reverse this growing trend of vandalism that is plaguing our communities at every level. For a variety of reasons, the rise in spray-paint vandalism has been steadily increasing throughout the United States, and the State of Maryland has not been spared. The amount of spray-paint vandalism along major and minor roadways in Maryland has increased dramatically. Our neighborhoods, our cities, our counties, and our state as a whole are becoming blighted with so-called “tags,” “throw-ups,” and just general “bombing” to use a few terms from the vandals themselves. Spray-paint vandalism is having immediate negative effects on our communities and on our state as a whole—people perceive an area plagued with vandalism as an area mired in lawlessness and in decline. This perception easily turns into reality as individuals and businesses often do not want to invest their personal or professional lives in an area that they perceive as decaying—perception becomes reality. To reverse this, MCAV wants spray-paint vandalism cleaned properly, strong legislation that deters it, police who are encouraged to investigate it, prosecutors who are empowered to prosecute it, and judges who are encouraged to punish it. We especially want government at all levels in Maryland to clean spray-paint vandalism not by simply painting over it, which just creates an additional form of blight. We want government to clean the vandalism with the sophisticated yet relatively inexpensive methods that already exist—methods that eliminate any traces of the vandalism having been there. We want spray-paint vandalism to be dramatically reduced or, better yet, eliminated.

But isn’t “graffiti” art?

Efforts are continually made by particular segments of society and culture to frame the issue of spray-paint vandalism as valid artistic expression, and it’s even sometimes conflated with the concept of public art. That notion is pretentious nonsense intentionally designed to muddy the true nature of spray-paint vandalism: aggression, dominance, and destruction. Spray-paint vandalism is certainly not public art. In a broad common sense, public art is some kind of creative expression on one’s own property or some kind of creative expression that has been legally commissioned for someone else’s property—public or private. As an organization, we believe in and encourage public art. However, we do not believe in vandalism—the altering of private and public property without the owner’s permission. The moral context is what primarily differentiates spray-paint vandalism from public art: vandalism is done to someone’s property without permission, and public art is done to someone’s property with permission.

The creative context also differentiates public art from vandalism. Public art is often done to beautify a space, to challenge a viewer’s perception, or even, in some cases, to deliver a subversive perspective, but whatever the case, public art almost always possesses some sort of significant meaning. Spray-paint vandalism, on the other hand, is usually insignificant in meaning. Even when done with some kind of sophisticated illustrative technique, the overwhelming majority of spray-paint vandalism is an expression of selfish anti-social aggression and dominance and is used as a weapon in intentional social destruction. Just because a person expresses something, that expression isn’t automatically art—expressions of hatred, for example, are commonly not thought of as art. And just because someone uses a tool normally used by actual artists (that is, a spray-paint can) does not automatically make that person an artist or what they do with that tool art. There are, of course, rare examples of spray-paint vandalism that do have expressive significance (such as Banksy), but those instances are so rare that it is not worth normalizing the onslaught of visual garbage and visual chaos that is enveloping our communities. To allow all spray-paint vandalism to be tolerated to account for the .01% of vandalism that has some kind of expressive significance is disproportionately absurd.

But as you can see, the creative context of this issue can quickly become murky and can be grossly manipulated by those who want a set of excuses to vandalize. Those who discuss the creative context of spray-paint vandalism often intentionally eliminate the moral context from the discussion. Therefore, as an organization, we ultimately believe that the central issue of spray-paint vandalism when addressing it in the court of public opinion is not about whether or not it is art but about whether it’s moral. It’s about whether someone has the right to alter—indeed, deface—someone else’s property. The central issue of spray-paint vandalism is a simple, moral one: if you don’t own the property, you can’t alter it.

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