Before we begin, perhaps a chorus for the fallen.
"Oh, look what you've done
You've made a fool of everyone
Oh well, it seemed like such fun
Until you lose what you had won"
Hurhur. How apt.
While I found her actions amusing, not least of all because she painted the road right outside my workplace, the consequence was inevitable because someone had to pay for labour needed to remove her artwork.
Perhaps if she had applied to MICA and offered to decorate public property with her creative vision and pay all costs for its removal, they might have agreed. You only have to look as far as Singpost and how they defaced public letter boxes as part of a guerrilla marketing gimmick. But there was one big difference. The letter boxes actually belonged to them, so they could do anything they wanted with those. Anyway, I have it on good knowledge that most senior civil servants are not ready to embrace such radical change in any form, because they have sat in their chairs for so long their brains have atrophied.
Not least of all those in the LTA, the ministry that employs those uncompromising people who give you parking summons for parking slightly out of the designated parking lot. They wouldn't even give me a chance when I appealed saying that I only did so because the car beside me had also done so, only that when the summon auntie came around he had driven off so I had no proof of the dirty deed. Bastards.
And now, the article itself, atrocious grammar in full glory. The standard of writing in our newspapers is so bad these days, if I ever have a son I will teach him how to use the Straits Times to line the kitty litter bin before I ask him to read it. After all, now it is only good enough for wrapping shit with.
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Police have arrested a 25-year-old woman who is believed to have vandalised several roads in Singapore.
Between May 17 to 21 this year, the Land Transport Authority (LTA)
saw that the words "MY GRANDFATHER ROAD" were painted along Robinson
Road and Maxwell Road and reported the matter to the Police.
It also reported that circular stickers printed with captions (bad phrasing, it should be "with printed captions) were
pasted on a pavement around Lau Pa Sat and on a road traffic sign along
Robinson Road.
The female suspect was arrested at her residence in the eastern part
of Singapore on June 3. The officers also found several paint-stained
stencils and several pieces of stickers printed with captions. These
items were seized for investigation.
Investigation is ongoing. (woohoo, bad grammar in a national newspaper! the correct form of this should be investigations are ongoing or an investigation is ongoing, but I don't know who checks grammar in newspapers these days) The police are also working with LTA on
earlier reports of round stickers found affixed on other pedestrian
crossings at various places.
The case is classified as Vandalism under Section 3 of the Vandalism
Act, Chapter 341. A person who is convicted for the offence shall be
punished with a fine not exceeding $2,000 or to imprisonment for a term
not exceeding to 3 years and shall be liable to caning subjected to the
Criminal Procedure Code 2010.
The police warned that it takes (I believe the police should be a plural term, unless you state it is the police force) a serious view of such irresponsible actions and offenders will be dealt with severely.
Netizens have reacted to the arrest by calling for the release of the woman, whom they have dubbed 'sticker lady.'
The petition, started by Facebook user Stephenie Choy, is collecting
20,000 signatures to ask the Government to ease their restrictions on
public 'art' and reduce the arrested woman's charge from Vandalism to
Miscellaneous Offences.
"If you agree that the arrest of this particular artist is
unwarranted and that there should be less restriction in public art,
please join this event, and leave your name on the wall," the aspiring
future arts educator wrote.
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Just look at the shit this person is saying. Just because you are creative doesn't mean that the law is not meant to be followed, and it most certainly doesn't mean the arrest is "unwarranted". If you broke the law with full knowledge of doing so, then you deserve to be subject to the full measure of it. We are lucky in this case that the person who did so is actually someone with a sense of humour and a fair bit of artistic flair, but not punishing her would open the floodgates for other less talented vandals to go to town with public facilities.
And don't Singaporeans ever learn that nothing is achieved by collecting signatures and petitioning. Having 20,000 signatures and having 20,000 people baying outside LTA for the release of the artist has a very different effect. A piece of paper with 20,000 signatures is good for just one thing. Lining a kitty litter box.
It is unfortunate though, because the vandal is actually an advocate for aspiring local artists, as you can see from this outstanding website. http://www.rcgntn.sg/contributors/