Defacing public and private property with graffiti is a crime that must be dealt with firmly by the police and the authorities. Graffiti damages property, especially when it is obscure or obscene.

Home-owners, tenants and authorities are burdened with the expense of cleaning up after those who can only be described as vandals. Walls often have to be scraped or repainted at significant cost.

Respect for other people's property, whether it belongs to the government, businesses or individuals, must be enforced by the police. The authorities in Dubai have succeeded in reducing the amount of graffiti on the walls of the emirate by clamping down on those guilty of vandalism. They must continue the campaign to keep the emirate's walls clean.

Those who wish to decorate walls could become painters or mural artists and earn their living by painting walls with the owner's permission.


Your comments


i think it would be intersting to arrest and detain these vandals with the police and actually see who they are, where they are from and who are their parents. the authorities may eventually realise that they have to include the re-painting costs.
Khurram Asif
Dubai,UAE
Posted: June 01, 2009, 17:20

There should be monitered dedicated blank public walls which should be allowed to be painted/grafftied on. This way, the graffiti artists wont have to use other walls to graffiti on, and, at the same time, graffiti-ism can be monitered. This would provide a bit more public art on the streets (at no cost). Besides, isn't graffiti just another form of art and of expressing one's self?
Malik Chabou
Dubai,UAE
Posted: June 01, 2009, 16:24

I think most of the vandalizings are done by teenagers who are trying hard to immitate rappers (hiphop). Why not placed some CCTV cameras on those areas frequently vandalized.
Abdul Taleb
Dubai,UAE
Posted: June 01, 2009, 11:31

Painting and vandalizing the walls. properties, and underpasses is not a work of art but mainly tarnishing the image of U.A.E. being one of the cleanliest country. I think those people who are doing this shameful work do not have good moral values within their family.
Elmer
Abu Dhabi,UAE
Posted: June 01, 2009, 10:45

I think that this is too harsh, I strongly believe that this could be the reason why they are labelled as "vandals". You can look at it this way (as mentioned in the article), or you can look at it in the sense that graffiti artists share different expressive techniques in designing and creativity. Instead of pushing them away so they can retaliate as an equal and opposite reaction, the authorities can donate some plots or sectors in abandonned areas in the city where graffiti designers can feel free to express themselves - of course avoiding explicit contents. This in return could be a real boost in social activities for the UAE.
Mousa Nimer
Dubai,UAE
Posted: June 01, 2009, 09:52