Class Attack

Intellectuals and people who live in "nice" neighborhoods don't understand the inherent violence behind tagging, believes Frank Girardot, city editor of the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. He writes of visiting a bookstore in an upscale Los Angeles neighborhood,"one of those neighborhoods whose residents probably 'don't get' the San Gabriel Valley - or Whittier for that matter" and coming across a magazine dedicated to graffiti and tagging. What kind of person would publish such a thing, wonders Girardot. "It occurred to me that, maybe, it was some ivory tower sociologist's look at a foreign country or the take of a preening self-important East Coast artiste." [Pasadena Star News]