Vandals target metro subway lines nationwide

[gmat]

Apparently old news. Mentioned on TV a few week ago. Tokyo might be next.

 

http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/vandals-target-metro-subway-lines-nationwide

 

Best wishes,

Grant

[bikkuri bahn]

Once again in the comments you get the apologists for vandalism.  Some shit may smell like roses, but it's still shit.

[marknewton]

Some shit may smell like roses, but it's still shit.

 

LOL! You're not wrong, BB.

 

I was interested by the paragraph at the end of the article about "foreign nationals" being caught scribbling on trains in Osaka. This must be a trend amongst the graffiti vandals. A while back our transit police arrested a trio of these morons who were trying to decorate my train during a layover - two were from Denmark, and the other I think was French. Hard to believe that anyone would travel all the way to Australia just to practice their "art"...

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[The_Ghan]

Hey Mark,

 

I didn't hear about that accident.  Was it on the Illawarra line?  The sad thing about the vandalism is the way it has restricted the materials and finishes used on the trains.  I can understand the s/s finish when trains are being "tagged" daily because its easy to clean ... but it makes for boring trains.  The same goes for the anti-vandal seats, anti-flamable floors, etc.  You can imagine just how long a Tokyo train would last in Sydney with its hanging posters, etc.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[westfalen]

I've been noticing a bit of graffiti around Osaka (not on trains though), but I've also noticed some of the grafitti itself and the signatures seem to be in English letters making me wonder if it's foreigners who are the perpetrators.

[marknewton]

Nigel, here's a link to the write-up in the Leader:

 

http://www.theleader.com.au/news/local/news/general/man-dead-after-train-collision-at-allawah/2333670.aspx?src=rss

 

The guard and driver involved are friends of mine, both of them had a few days off the road after this incident, but they're back at work now, and as far as I can tell they're okay.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[The_Ghan]

Thanks Mark,

 

I never have time for the Leader.  The journalism leaves a lot to be desired in community newspapers these days.

 

Jake died doing what he loved.  So, apparently this guy had a family (presumably wife and kids) and a girlfriend in the St George area yet the thing he loved most was vandalising common property.  This defies logic.  

 

It reminds me of an incident near Kogarah Station in the 1980's where a local highschool boy was killed tagging the train he was travelling in.  It was one of the old red rattlers and he was hanging out the door with the spray can when he hit a column or catenary pole.  I happened to be in A&E at St George with my father, who had torn the tendons at the bottom of his bicep, when the doctors broke the news to the family.  There was plenty of wailing and crying from the imediate family, which I couldn't understand because it was in Arabic, and I felt genuine sympathy for the family, particularly the mother.  But some of the boy's close friends were there too and they started talking about how creative he was, how proud he was of his tags and how tagging boring trains was is contribution to making the world a better place.

 

I believe in Darwin's theory of evolution.  Those of us with fewer gene markers for cancer and heart disease are likely to live longer.  We could all die from a drug overdose, except most of us don't take drugs.  We could all die in a parachuting accident except that few of us ever take up skydiving.  Humans forget that the choices they make can have a grave effect on their chances of survival.  Things are different with animals where, as every springbok knows, you only need to be the second slowest in the herd to live another day.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[keitaro]

I am pretty vlunt when it comes to this.

 

Glad he died hope his mates do too.

 

If i were a cop id be pretty corrupt and belt the living shit outta them and say they triped on the tracks several hundred times....

 

My wall gets tagged often i cleaned it off and it got tagged the next night again same tag.

 

Im considering filling a balloon with bright red paint and camping out.

[cteno4]

Glad he died hope his mates do too.

 

i hope you dont mean this.

[bikkuri bahn]

I was interested by the paragraph at the end of the article about "foreign nationals" being caught scribbling on trains in Osaka.

 

Yes.  Don't know yet about the national origin of this group, but it seems curious that only subway trains are being targeted, given the greater amount of suburban stock running.  As the article says, perhaps they were hiding out in station toilets, and then using the tunnels to get to stock layover points.  In the incident that occurred up here in Sapporo, the vandals removed a metal panel that acted as a fence to a covered outdoor layover track at the Makomanai terminus.  So in addition to vandalism, they were breaking and entering.

[Martijn Meerts]

Graffiti can be real nice, but it should be in places where it's allowed, and not on trains and the like. Over here there's various places where they allowed (even asked) graffiti "artists" to paint some stuff, and some of them turned into amazing pieces of art.

 

Tagging on the other hand is rubbish.

[Guest ___]

We had an issue here just out side of DC, where a 34 year old woman visiting family from San Fran was arrested for doing about 12k in graffiti damage. After she was released she was nailed by the city police again day alter for the same thing. She had a long rap sheet back in CA which was she moved to MD, where she had some family. One would think by the time one hit's their t30's, they'd be long past such juvenile acts. Shame the Sheriff's office has not caught her yet, they're not as nice as FCPD is.

[The_Ghan]

That woman is wasting her life.  Compare her to my 21 year old sister-in-law who has raised $4000 to build a school canteen at a rural school in Thailand.  She'll be doing that project with a few of her friends during her university break.  I remember when I was living in Japan my class spent a weekend at a home for kids with down syndrome and we painted all the dorms.  It was a project over the summer break ... it was freakin' hot there too.

 

There are so many wonderful things we can do in life.  Community projects like the two I just mentioned can result in a euphoric sense of achievement and belonging.  It saddens me that anyone can be in a mental state whereby "tagging" is their thing!!!

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[westfalen]

I think a lot of people don't realise most graffiti vandals are not kids at a loss for something to do with their time but adults who should have better things to do. One of the trains I saw covered with graffiti from top to bottom and end to end here in Brisbane during the floods earlier this year when they were parked in unsecured areas to keep them above water had two names signing it off with a notation underneath saying "a married couple", I don't want to think about what their kids, if they have any, will grow up like.

[marknewton]

In the incident that occurred up here in Sapporo, the vandals removed a metal panel that acted as a fence to a covered outdoor layover track at the Makomanai terminus.  So in addition to vandalism, they were breaking and entering.

 

Doesn't surprise me. For a while here in Sydney the vandals were actually interfering with signalling equipment to stop trains in the section so they could vandalise them. But after a few crewmembers got out of their trains with a spare brake hose in hand and dealt with the offenders the practice seems to have stopped. Word obviously gets around in the vandal community.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[marknewton]

I think a lot of people don't realise most graffiti vandals are not kids at a loss for something to do with their time but adults who should have better things to do. One of the trains I saw covered with graffiti...had two names signing it off with a notation underneath saying "a married couple", I don't want to think about what their kids, if they have any, will grow up like.

 

If they survive their childhood, they'll probably grow up to be just like their parents. Feral f*ckwits. The station staff at Penshurst had a running war with a local couple who used to vandalise the station on a nightly basis. These two complete an utter idiots used to walk along the track with their daughter in tow, who was about 2 or 3 years old at the time. Responsible parenting...

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[westfalen]

In the incident that occurred up here in Sapporo, the vandals removed a metal panel that acted as a fence to a covered outdoor layover track at the Makomanai terminus.  So in addition to vandalism, they were breaking and entering.

 

Doesn't surprise me. For a while here in Sydney the vandals were actually interfering with signalling equipment to stop trains in the section so they could vandalise them. But after a few crewmembers got out of their trains with a spare brake hose in hand and dealt with the offenders the practice seems to have stopped. Word obviously gets around in the vandal community.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Happens in Brisbane too but if we went after them QR management would sit back and watch while the vandals charged us with assault then sack us for being on the track without authority. Word has gotten round up here that if we do anything to them we'll be in more trouble than they would be. If they are caught they should be charged with something more serious to do with interfering with railway signalling.

 

I often think about conducting an experiment with two identical perpetrators from identical social backgrounds, I'd get one to graffiti a train and station and the other to graffiti a politician's or judge's car and house, then see which one gets thrown in gaol and which one gets a slap on the wrist and told not to do it again. One of the problems IMHO is that those who make and pass out the law don't live in the real world.

[keitaro]

what a shame .... NOT

 

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8401651/teen-graffiti-artist-killed-by-train

 

i bet his parents will want some form of compensation for him being a retard

[westfalen]

The way it works is that if the train driver has done the slightest thing wrong anytime in the last thirty years it's his fault, and if he hasn't it is anyway.

[Mudkip Orange]

what a shame .... NOT

 

In Soviet Russia, train tags graffiti artist!

[marknewton]

"The male train driver and guard were breath tested and returned negative readings."

 

As if they were in any way responsible for what happened. While I understand why the Rail Safety Act mandates alcohol and drug testing for train crew involved in fatalities, it still pisses me off that on top of everything else, you're subjected to a breath test. FFS, at least be consistent, and test the idiot who was trespassing on the tracks for alcohol and drugs.

 

Mark.

(Tired, cranky and fed-up with vandals...)

[disturbman]

From what I've heard, in Paris, even for a suicide they have to test conductors simply because it's mandatory. That's unfair but it has to be done.

 

That said, I don't endorse the tone of some of the above messages. You might not like the attitudes and acts of those "vandals" but it's not a reason to rejoice over the death of someone. Doing so, you simply negate the human behind the headline stories. You have no idea who was this kid. To assume he was a dickhead because he got hit by a train while spraying paint inside a tunnel is simply presumptuous. Sure, teenagers often engage in stupid behaviors but that's not a reason. How do you think you would feel if that kid was yours? How do you think you would react if someone was simply saying "good riddance" and laugh at the tragic death of your kid?

 

There is other ways to condemn their actions...

[marknewton]

Vincent, I can only speak for myself when I say that my tone is the result of having been involved in a number of fatalities like this myself. This incident happened on the railway I work for, and I know one of the crew involved.

 

I don't "rejoice" when vandals are killed, but I certainly feel no sympathy for them, and I don't apologise for that. I suspect if you had ever experienced something similar, you would better understand my position. No-one wants to go to work and end their shift by having killed someone.

 

I agree that teenagers often act stupidly, but experience shows that a lot of our vandals aren't teenagers, but so-called adults. What's their excuse?

 

You say that there are other ways to condemn the actions of these vandals. What do you suggest?

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[The_Ghan]

This is the Darwinien theory of evolution at work ... the process of natural selection ... he should have run faster .. and I've covered this before, possibly in this thread.

 

My only gripe it the use of the term artist when describing this vandal.  Let me tell you something about artists: they do their best work at home.  Painters, photographers, writers, singers, poets, and musicians alike ... all do their best work at home.  If his own house, fence and car aren't covered by his own best work then he isn't wasn't an artist!

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[disturbman]

Mark,

 

I should have been more precise. I was actually not so much reacting to your comment but to Keitaro's "what a shame... NOT" and then it pilled up.

 

I for sure was never in your position and will never be. And I know that, even if I understand your position, I can't imagine how it feels to have killed someone by accident or because that person decided to choose your train to relieve him from a world of pain. In your position, I'll certainly feel the same way, be compassionate to my mates and feel no sympathy for those people that put themselves in danger voluntarily while being a nuisance. Even like that, I don't feel sympathy toward him but toward his family and for the train crew.

 

I don't feel there is a need to add injure to the pathos because we always are the dickhead of someone else.... I don't know, maybe I shouldn't have raised the point. It's kind of moot anyway.

 

The graffiti artist/vandal subject is simply too shallow on train related boards.