will of society yet they are breaking these laws in the interest of a nobler pursuit than entertainment. They create graffiti in the interest of art for the enjoyment of society and to publish their work. The graffiti muralist’s work ranges from artistically pleasing pictures to thought provoking scenes in the turmoil surrounding them. They are people who see the problems in their world and work to change them for the better.However interesting or well done a piece of graffiti may be, there is still a price that one must pay. Often this price is in dollars (up to four billion per year) which individuals and citizens as a whole must pay to have graffiti erased. Yet sometimes this price is paid in blood of the vandals themselves such as in the shooting of two Hispanic men by William Masters after he found them writing graffiti on an overpass. This incident illustrates the changing attitudes of people towards graffiti as they now see it as a greater problem that has become the average citizen’s responsibility. William Masters remarks, “We are coming back to the point where people are responsible for protecting each other and themselves.” “We spent most of the last 40 years letting the police handle it. We were told to be a good victim and the police would come along. We’ve got to change that attitude.”(A-10). Graffiti is now under the reputation as an attack on the average citizen for they are the one is paying for it whether it is directly through them or through tax increases. In a society forever growing more obsessed with money a price tag of approximately four billion dollars plus per year makes it difficult for an average citizen to care about artistic integrity or the loneliness of today’s youth. This tired attitude towards graffiti has opened up a new market for the prevention and removal of vandalism.Because of the bad reputation of graffiti brought on by the petty works ...
