Eugene David<br>...The One-Minute Pundit

Graffiti, as so many news hacks have told us over so many years, is AHT.

It is also "vandalism, drug possession, narcotics for sales, weapons possession and other parole violations".

It is also everywhere:

"These individuals are responsible for tags not only in Los Angeles but Las Vegas and San Francisco,” said Sheriff’s Cmdr. Dan Finkelstein, who is chief of the Metropolitan Transit Authority police.

It is also, at its worst, environmental pollution:

“The Army Corps of Engineers estimates that removing the 'MTA' tag from the riverbed alone will cost $3.7 million.

And expensive. And labor-intensive to remove:

Officials use high-pressure water spray to remove the toxic paint.

But hazardous-materials crews must then dam and capture all the paint and water runoff to prevent it from getting into the river. The crew did an additional $20,000 worth of damage to transit vehicles and facilities. Finkelstein said the Los Angeles River "MTA" tag, in a vast industrial district east of downtown between two rail yards, took about 400 gallons of paint -- 300 gallons white and 100 gallons black. “It took them four nights to do it,” he said....

“Some of this group could face federal charges,” Finkelstein said. During the raids, Finkelstein said, investigators found customized high-pressure fire extinguishers that, when filled with paint, allow the tagger to hang upside down on the underside of a freeway and quickly scrawl massive graffiti. These taggers are not kids, he said.

It is also the province of professional crooks:

Most those detained are in their 20s; one of them drives a $60,000 BMW, and another member possesses a diamond-and-ruby-encrusted Metro logo pendant with paperwork suggesting it's worth $29,000, Finkelstein said.

"It's not art," says this blogger. "It's visual spam." And that, friends, is an insult.

P. S. There's a group trying to restore the river's habitat. Any way you slice it, these ahtists are schmucks.

P. P. S. Some of the commenters are aghast at the alleged $3.7 million tag. Well, yes, it's government; but it's also a not-to-distant cousin of asbestos removal, and paint is a hazardous waste.

And to those who say it's something to look at, somehow we lived without graffiti for decades. Why now?