In March 2009, graffiti artist HERT was arrested in Pittsburgh on 69 misdemeanors and four felony counts of criminal mischief.

For the last several months, I’ve been working on an article about the increasing number of graffiti prosecutions in recent years. In the past, graffiti artists arrested for tags, pieces, and throw-ups were, moreover, fined and sentenced to court-ordered community service. But in recent years, astronomical restitution and prison time have become commonplace. For proof of this trend, consider the case of MF ONE in Pittsburgh; S******** P**** in Corpus Christi, TX; D****** B****** aka UTAH in New York City and Boston; A*** Ket in New York, and so on. All of this begs the question: Why has a nonviolent crime like graffiti become such a high-profile prosecution?

In an article titled “Art Crime: Graffiti Wars” that went live this morning over at The Crime Report, I take a look at this crackdown, examining it from the perspective of law enforcement officials, judges, lawyers, cultural experts, and of course, graffiti artists themselves. As often is the case, only about 20% of the information I gathered made its way into the article. So, as a result, I’ll be posting uncut interviews, photographs, and other related materials here on True/Slant all this week.