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Speak Up! - View Question #622 |
 printer friendly version
Question: How can I be charged with Grafitti without the police catching me in the act?
Answer: Graffiti is more generally known as criminal damage. Damaging someones property can be a misdemeanor or a felony, depending on the dollar amount of the damage. (A.R.S. § 13-1602).
A charge of criminal damage can be made against you when the prosecution believes it has enough evidence to have a judge or jury convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that you committed the offense. The officer who arrests you does not have to witness the damage when you did it. In fact, there doesnt have to be an eye-witness to the offense at all.
It is possible, for example, that someone else saw you commit the crime and reported it to the police. It is also conceivable that the officer saw the graffiti on a wall, and when questioning you about something else, noticed that your notebook had similar drawings and sayings as the graffiti. The state would still have to be able to convince the judge or jury that you did it, however, for you to be found guilty. The charge, by itself, is not evidence.
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| 41 thru 45 of 49 comments |
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On 08/13/03
Honest Citizen from AZ said:
It sounds like you've been arrested a few times. If you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. If you want to tag things, spray paint your own house. I don't want to see it on my property. Go back to school, learn how to spell 'realize' and then maybe you will realize how to be a good citizen yourself.
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On 08/10/03
Mike from PA said:
I think grafitti artists should have more legal places too tag because its not going to be stopped so if the law wants to do somethin about it there should be more buildings and walls that can be legally tagged on. it wont stop all grafitti but it can decrease it. where i live grafitti can niot be stopped its part of peoples culture and pasttime,if there were more public laws i would not tag buildings and property.
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On 06/30/03
you cant ask name or ages from AZ said:
no i think you should not get charged for grafitti because us writers have been through so much, getting jumped by cops, getting caught then robbed by cops, getting caught going home and relized that cop just stoled your wallet and keys to the house you wanted to get into but relized you have been robbed by the so called law which goes down on crime but does it rite back at the same time... grafitti will never stop so why wont you go and break down on real crimes, if grafitti is a crime then shal god forgive me...
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On 06/23/03
Ann from AZ said:
If you did grafitti on someting that is not yours you should get it to some sort of trouble as it is agents the law if that was me ill tell on myself thank you
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On 06/23/03
Matt from Othe said:
The chances of you getting charged for that are slim to none. In order to be found guilty the crown would have to eliminate all doubts of you comminting the crime. If there isn't any physical evidence contained by the police you're pretty much safe.
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| Read more about the law and Vandalism and Property Damage |
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