MCC Daily Tribune Archive

Graffiti can best be described as an urban art form. Made popular in the 1970’s Hip-Hop scene inter-city youths used cans of spray paint and permanent ink markers as an outlet for their creativity. Murals adorned the sides of buildings, rail cars, billboards and bridges throughout the urban landscape.
     
The flip side of graffiti culture is the damage done by the graffiti artist. Once seen as a viable art form, graffiti has become a significant nuisance to property owners especially when one factors in the cost of graffiti removal. One recent incident where an MCC student tagged 8 separate locations on the Brighton Campus led to damages incurred by MCC in excess of $1000.00. In addition, the graffiti artist was apprehended by MCC Public Safety and was charged with the crime of Making Graffiti which is B level Misdemeanor. This charge brings the possible sanction of up to one year in jail…all for tagging MCC property with a black in color permanent ink marker.  As disturbing as the above incident was, especially from the perspective of the damage that was committed to our campus, equally disturbing was the fact that the graffiti artist was observed by members of our student body damaging property and no one took the initiative to contact Public Safety and report the incidents.

Graffiti in and of itself is a form of expression unless graffiti is used as a tool of destruction. Graffiti on our campus, whether it’s committed in a public restroom, stairwell, public meeting area, or hallway/classroom wall not only increases the workload on our Building Services and Facilities staff who are tasked with graffiti removal but it creates an atmosphere of disruption and decay of our campus infrastructure. Criminal Justice professionals call this the Broken Windows Theory. Simply put, if a location is allowed to fall into disrepair such as an increase in vandalism and graffiti crime, public confidence in the safety and security of that location is negatively affected. In the final analysis, the location in question is forever lost as viable space for public use.
         
Defeating graffiti crime can only be accomplished if all of our Faculty, Staff, and Student Body work together as a team. MCC Public Safety and the Civility Committee seek your assistance in keeping our campus free from graffiti. Together we can make a difference and keep our campus safe and secure.