Thursday, August 19, 2010

MRT vandal's jail term extended by two months to seven months

Oliver Fricker, 32, the swiss national that broke into an SMRT depot and vandalizing a train has had his five months jail term extended to seven months after the prosecution argued that his jail term for trespass should be increased.
Firstly, I feel that there is nothing wrong with graffiti. Graffiti is a beautiful work of art and is no different from wall murals. The only difference is that graffiti is not allowed in Singapore except for certain designated areas.
Graffiti is extremely creative and interesting and in fact, many consumers who saw the spray-painted train even thought it was part of some sort of advertisement or campaign SMRT was carrying out. Many did not think it was 'ugly' too. SMRT trains now are not exactly very creative, with them being either white with red lines or black with red lines. What I think SMRT should do is to perhaps designate a certain number of trains to be decorated with graffiti and the artists have to prove that they are capable of producing quality works of art. I feel that this will definitely be beneficial to many people as when they take the train to work early in the morning or back home after work late at night, the creativity of the graffiti on the trains will definitely catch their attention and lift their spirits.
However, I agree that Fricker's jail sentence for trespassing should be increased. His getting past the tight security at the depot may instigate greater treats than a graffiti artist. Already, there have been failed terrorist attacks on Singapore Changi Airport, including the plan hatched by the infamous Mas Selamat. By showing that as there is a way to get in, Fricker may have encouraged terrorists to try and carry out an attack on one of Singapore's major transport system, the Mass Rapid Transport system.

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