48 Hours

The following was taken from today's Edmonton Journal: "Would be graffiti vandals could find it difficult to purchase the tools of the trade if a sales ban proposed by the city's chief bylaw officer comes into effect. Bill Bruce is exploring the idea of preventing minors from purchasing spray-paint, broad-tip markers and glass cutting and etching tools - a bylaw recently put in place in London, Ontario." "'It would make (the products) more difficult to get, reduce the availability.' Bruce said if he could get buy-in from businesses that sell the products used to deface buildings and bridges, a bylaw wouldn't be necessary.

THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS! This kind of policy has already been put in place in NYC for years, and what good has it done that city? None!
Fact is that the majority of Graffiti writers are over 18 anyways, so banning the stuff wouldn't do much good as it is. Also, minors would simply go out of town or have the older guys buy the stuff for us. I have more than enough homies who would pick up paint for me, it wouldn't be a serious problem...but still. Last time I checked, there weren't any cancer-inducing substances in a can of paint, nor was there any alcohol...so why should it be prohibitted? And what of markers? You gonna ban Sharpie chisel tips? How about regular felt markers? They're all used for graffiti! Go ahead, ban them. I'll just keep using shoe-polish bottles. They're completely opaque, nearly impossible to buff, and if you mix them with brake-fluid, it leaves a ghost-tag. Oops! I shouldn't say that, the government will find out and they'll ban that too! Imagine that headline. "City Adds Shoe-Polish And Brake-Fluid To The List Of Controlled Substances!" Wouldn't that go over well...

Another thing. Notice how in the passage that I transcribed, we writers are referred to as nothing but "Vandals" who do nothing more than "Deface buildings and bridges"? Believe me, I may be a vandal...but I am first and foremost an Artist. Also, we paint a hell of a lot more than just buildings and bridges. Overpasses, Billboards, Freight-trains, public transportation, rooftops, electrical boxes and Police cruisers are all fair game. Please don't narrow down our options more than we already do. We spare your houses, we spare your private vehicles and we spare your places of worship...don't provoke us. Not to mention the backs of the buildings and the bridges that we bomb are ugly as it is, they're all rusted heaps of metal or sheer walls of cement or white paint...they could certainly use some colours. In any case, this article is pathetically biased. It's nothing more than propaganda designed to make the citizens of the city root for the new bylaw and force the owners and managers of local stores into coercion.

Another example of this propaganda is the city's pledge to erase graffiti of any kind, be it legal or illegal, within 48 hours. When I heard that this promise was going to be put into effect, I wrote the local police press officer a letter telling him that it was going to be bad news...not only that, but they decided to tear down all the legal walls in Edmonton. I told him that it was a bad idea...I WARNED him. He simply replied by telling me that they would hold steadfast in their attempt to clean up the city of it's vandalizing, tresspassing scum and that we weren't going to stop him. So I sent him another reply saying one thing: "Watch Us." SEASE1 C.B.K.*F.T.L.
Guess what? He hasn't stopped us yet, we're still here in greater numbers. We get up faster than the city can counter it. We're bombing harder than they can imagine...and they're falling behind. 48 hours my ass! There are pieces that we've put up that have been there for over a month now.

Needless to say, I hope to whatever there is out there to hope on, that this law does not get passed. I also hope that you, my readers, agree with me. If you don't, you shouldn't be reading this publication.

(C) 2006 Sean Slater - All Rights Reserved, All Wrongs Justified. SEASE1 Productions.