Persuasive Essay: Laws on Graffiti

In 8th grade, English, we were assigned the dreaded persuasive essay. I always disliked this, not because I couldn't write persuasively, (I was good at that,) but because I could never think of a good topic. It was not my choice of 'creative writing'. This essay was done on the laws on graffiti. The essay recieved an 'A', but I have not reread it to filter any grammatical errors and have since lost the printed original.

Laws On Graffiti should Be Stricter
Heather Davis


Picture yourself in a beautiful town or city where each building is perfectly constructed and clear of any marks what so ever. The white bricks are as bright as snow and everything is so spotless. Now, just picture this to be your neighbourhood. What would your reaction be if one day you woke up and vulgar words and obscene pictures had been spray-painted everywhere? Someone has vandalised your neighbourhood. You wouldn't be very happy, would you? Fact is, this happens everywhere all of the time because people think that it is ok. It isn't. Laws against graffiti should be stricter.

Graffiti vandalises a person's property. Vandalising is not something that people should get away with. According to Webster's dictionary, vandalism is: "willful or malicious destruction or defacement of public or private property." That is exactly what graffiti is. People purposely spray-paint buildings of property that usually does not belong to them. When it doesn't, they are unlawfully vandalising it. Vandalism is a crime, but when it comes to graffiti, it seems that not enough is done. It is left ignored by people who shouldn't ignore it. It is allowed more than it should be. Graffiti is vandalism and people need to start looking at it for what it is.

As graffiti vandalises one's property, it destroys it. That's what makes it vandalism. How does it destroy it? While some people try to look at graffiti as art, the graffiti that is becoming increasingly popular is not art. It is simply words, usually offensive, scribbled on walls and the like that do not belong to the "artist". It is ugly, especially when it's not supposed to be there. Think of travelers riding through a neighbourhood and seeing such defaced buildings. It makes the place much less attractive, doesn't it? Sometimes, it can be offensive. Much of the content in graffiti today is anti-racial, vulgar, and much more along those lines. Content so offensive as that isn't very attractive, is it?

Then there is the financial side. Graffiti does indeed affect people financially. As mentioned before, travelers riding through a neighbourhood see the vandalisation. If they happen to be looking for a place to buy a house, they won't be too intrigued to buy a house there; not where people are easily getting away with criminal vandalisation like this. People will also move away from the area. This does not do the town's mayor or such people good financially or even reputationally. There is also the cost of money spent to remove the treacherous graffiti. Sometimes, it is so harsh that a place will be forced to remove it. It costs way too much when they do. Should such a costly crime be as tolerated as it is?

Things should be done to stop people from doing such things. For an act that not only destroys a person's property, but offends people and takes away from it's beauty until the owner pays money to remove it, you'd think people would have more common sense. Until they gain such sense, their acts should not be tolerated quite as well as it is. Better laws need to be enforced against graffiti. The wretched vandalism will have to stop, and stronger laws may be the only thing that can do that.