Graffiti isn’t political, it’s mindless (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Graffiti isn’t political, it’s mindless

8:43am Tuesday 7th February 2012 in Our View By Telegraph & Argus

The graffiti that has blighted the cricket club and shelters in Roberts Park is criminal behaviour of the most cynical kind.

The messages sprayed across the buildings purport to be “anti-fascist”, but that in no way differentiates this act from anything other than sheer vandalism. It is no better for being apparently politically-motivated than any number of mindless obscenities that tend to typify such rough-and-ready hooliganism.

Everyone is entitled to their point of view, but scrawling half-baked messages across public buildings is not the way to get them across. Indeed, defacing property that has been installed for people’s pleasure brings the perpetrators down to the level of those they wish to decry with their sloganeering.

It is particularly distasteful that this graffiti has been daubed around a park that has recently had more than £4 million spent on it to make it a brighter, more pleasant place for people to gather in.

And the cricket club is an odd target for such political messages – it is no bastion of white superiority, but a socially-inclusive club that has members drawn from ethnic minorities.

Club secretary Geoff Porter puts it best when he says: “We are against fascism and racism, but we are also against mindless vandalism.”

Anyone who truly harbours anti-fascist sentiments should be as disgusted by this behaviour as anyone else and might agree that the actions of these vandals have done little to advance their cause.

The old adage that actions speak louder than words rings true here. If you are against fascism, then stand up to it in more useful ways than scrawling empty words in the dead of night across public property.