Free 10 Foot

For everybody who has ever cared, followed, wrote or loved graffiti, check this article out taken from http://www.thelondonvandal.com/ via http://www.thebench504.blogspot.com/

Simply, if you dont care then dont read any further...

10 Foot, for those that dont know, London's latest of great all city kings was sentenced to time in prison this month for many a petty crime that the justice system would much rather prosecute and sentence artists/writers to prison rather then real criminals.

We have some terrible news for you all today after 10Foot was sentenced on the 18th at Blackfriars Crown Court.
The 24 year old from the Isle of Wight, who we will only name by his tag out of respect (even though it is now being published on mainstream news/police sites etc.) was found guilty of causing over £100,000 worth of damage across 13 London boroughs,
10Foot pleaded guilty to 25 counts of criminal damage and was given 26 months inside, as well as an ASBO for five years. The ASBO makes it a jailable offence to commit the otherwise non-criminal acts specified in it, upon his release. For example, even after getting out, if he is found once with paint (any kind, not just spray) a permanent marker pen, shoe dye or permanent ink in any form, any form of grinding stone, glass cutting equipment, glass etching solution or paste, he could very well find himself back inside. Also, just “entering any depot, siding or other part of any railway operators property, or on any bridge or part of a bridge which is not expressly open to the public whether on payment or otherwise” could land him inside again too.
He was arrested in June after being linked to some bombing near to Hungerford Bridge in London and was released on police bail while the BTPigs investigated.
The police claim that he continued to bomb hard while out on bail, doing panels the very next month at Ealing Broadway depot and the Barking layup. They gave the usual speech of “Writing graffiti on the railway or elsewhere is not a harmless pastime and we will continue to work closely with train operating companies, Network Rail and other police forces to reduce these criminal acts”.
The instances of his tag that he was prosecuted for were ones discovered in the following locations. Beside them is the estimated clean-up cost, though some of these seem like they certainly have to have been plucked out of thin air. 31 grand to clean up King X tracksides? Might as well not bother then hey lads?

Barking and Dagenham:
* Barking, damage to train at depot – £1,242.37
* Barking, damage to train at depot – £1,242.37
* Barking, damage to train at depot – £1285.92
Bexley
* Plumstead station, damage to train in rail sidings – £9,228
Brent
* Kilburn station, damage to station building – £750.00
* Wembley Park station, trackside
Camden
* West Hampstead station, trackside – £750.00
* CTRL East Coast Mainline Bridge – £725.00
* Kings Cross station, multiple trackside locations – £31,434.00
* Regents Canal Rail Bridge – £2,500.00
* St Pancras station, trackside – £6,375.00
Ealing
* Ealing Depot – £1,270.24
Hackney
* Regents Canal, trackside locations, bridges and locks – £7,500.00
* Regents Canal Rail Line, trackside locations – £1,700.00
Hammersmith & Fulham
* Lillie Bridge Depot, trackside – £3,060
* Lillie Bridge Depot, trackside – £2,930
* Hammersmith station – £1,242.37
* Hammersmith Depot – £2,489.83
Lambeth
* Hungerford Bridge – £8,000
Lewisham
* Brockley rail bridge – £4,000
* New Cross Gate station – £900
Merton
* Wimbledon rail station, trackside and signal room – £2,200
* Centrecourt shopping centre – £700
Newham
* Stratford rail station, trackside
Southwark
* King James Street, Camberwell – £4000
* London Bridge rail station – £2,000
* Elephant & Castle station, trackside – £2,000
* Borough Market – £4,000
* Elephant & Castle shopping centre – £8,450
* Newington Causeway rail bridge – £10,000
* London Bridge (Spa Road), trackside – £2,000
Wandsworth
* Clapham Junction rail station, trackside
* Victoria to Brixton, trackside – £6188.00

We would like to send our thoughts to 10Foot at this time. He was not only the very most active writer in this city, he is a decent bloke who doesn’t take himself too seriously. If anyone has an address where people can write letters to him, email it over to info@thelondonvandal.com. We want to send him a few teeshirts.
On a side note, we would like to express our disgust with the judicial system including the Crown Prosecution Service over the sentencing handed down to 10Foot. Not only were the clean-up figures exaggerated to epic proportions by the rail companies (For what reason? Perhaps they have a motive to claim that they are spending more money than they actually are on clean-up, because since when did painting a wall shit-brown cost £6,188?), but spending tens of thousands more of tax-payers money to incarcerate a young, clearly ambitious, non-violent offender is clearly a waste. In an age of over-crowding in our prisons, are we really for putting people away for more than two years for graff when we are reading of perverts, murderers and other genuinely criminal people getting off with offensively light sentences every day? It’s a waste of resources and it ruins young, bright futures.
Mad respect for 10foot. Take care in there mate, over before you know it.