Forum - View topicNEWS: J-Pop Group AAA Apologizes for Graffiti Near Otakon
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GATSU
Posts: 15550 |
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That'd be hilarious if the members of a j-pop group was forced to personally clean the graffiti.
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BlaqNumbr9
 Posts: 155 Location: Bowing before the Master... |
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I think it's stoopid that AAA needed to apologize for this. It's even more ridiculous that ANYONE would make it an issue. Unfortunately, there are those, like that hiker guy with his "American nature," who like raising their blood pressure over minor things.
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LadySage
Posts: 8 Location: Los Angeles |
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Really? You think it's stupid? I don't. What they did was vandalism, whether or not they understood that their actions were a crime. They're not getting in trouble, they're not being punished; they're just making a public apology, which I think is completely warranted.
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W-General
Posts: 280 Location: Ithaca, NY, USA / Taichung, Taiwan |
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More like, who is this 'onsite authority'? That's the person who should be fined.
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starcade
Posts: 204 |
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I think it was stupid that they did it -- and they should've been expelled from the con and criminally prosecuted. (Just like anyone else who would've done similar around an anime con.) At minimum, they should be sued for the damages they caused -- and they should not have been allowed to perform. |
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Dargonxtc
 Posts: 4463 Location: Nc5xd7+ スターダストの海洋 |
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I agree, although I imagine in just about every country graffiti is illegal, so they should have known better. I wonder if one of the members eventually just felt bad about it, and fessed up to apologize? I am not very familar with the area, how far is High Rock from Otakon, and how many people saw them do it? I doubt people will know the answer to that, but I can't imagine them bringing a bunch of people along with them for a photoshoot. Which leads me to believe they fessed up even more. Which is actually a good thing if thats what happened. |
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jvowles
Otakon Representative
 Posts: 219 Location: Maryland |
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The last I heard, their planned offsite photoshoot -- which, I must stress, we had absolutely nothing to do with -- was supposed to be at someplace "barren and gritty". There are plenty of such locations with old, beat up buildings where one could find similarly vandalized rocks, and clearly the rock itself had been vandalized before they arrived.
In any event, the entire thing -- including shooting permissions and permits and coordination -- was handled by Avex's people. It wasn't done anywhere near the con, nor under our supervision, nor with any knowledge by anyone involved in the con. I will say this though -- from what I saw interacting with them directly, they would not have randomly vandalized anything. They were a very nice group of kids; I was rather pleasantly surprised. It wouldn't be in character for them to just randomly destroy stuff. Whatever blame there is for this belongs with their onsite coordinator --- and even THAT is assuming that this was done on public land rather than private land with the owner's permission. Assuming that there IS any crime here, they could simply pay to have the stone cleaned and move on with their lives. Whoever got all worked up about it in Japan launched a very tiresome campaign to complain about it. They spammed our board and my mailbox and seemed not to understand that this was not something that was part of the group's planned convention appearance. |
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HayateTokidoki
Posts: 37 |
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I personally hate graffiti and don't understand people that think defacing someone else's property should be considered "art". That said, it's also a bit ridiculous to cause such an uproar if they spraypainted over existing graffiti and act like they destroyed the rock. Yeah, they probably should've used better judgment, but is it really deserving of such negative attention?
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Riyousha
Posts: 817 |
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Mabey it's either because the rock is special or that graffiti on objects of nature is also prohibited. While graffiti on buildings, houses, and cars are pretty illegal and result in going to jail, I find graffit to be interesting. I know graffiti = vandalism and vandalism is a serious issue but I'm neutral about whether I'll allow graffiti on a certain place unless it's for hip-hop usage and there's lots of it on the ghetto streets.
Also, do not all J-Pop singers respect aniem fans? Because many J-Pop songs are heard in OPs and EDs in anime. It's a good thing they've apologized for doing something that's illegal in most places. |
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MeggieMay
 Posts: 607 |
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Spray painting graffiti is illegal, unless you are doing it on your own property. In many areas of the U.S. you now have to show proof of age to even buy spray paint , the problem of graffiti has become so bad. Throw in that cleaning up the graffiti costs state and local governments millions each year and that graffiti is directly connected to much of the gang violence in the U.S. and you should start to see why it is considered a problem and a crime
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That said, I could see why the band could be confused about whether or not they could do it. If you go by popular U.S. media (hit TV shows and the like) one might think it was legal and acceptable behavior in the U.S. to spray graffiti on stuff. It is yet another case of why people, no matter what country they are from, should not take what they see in another countries media (like TV shows, Movies, and anime/animated fare) as the gospel truth of how things actually work in the country the media comes out of. Things get skewed very fast if you use TV and Movies to go by and this is an example of that  .
That said, I think AAA has explained their actions and the apology should be accepted. They obviously didn't realize they were doing something wrong here or they wouldn't have ever posted the picture in the first place. So while someone on this photo shoot should have known better it was a bit late at this point to do anything more than apologize and try and remember not to do that again in the future  .
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mokitty
Posts: 106 |
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I have a feeling from the tone of this thread I might get flamed for saying this, and pardon me if the rock in question is somehow special but from where I sit, it's only a rock.... I don't know what the rules are in the U.S. as compared to here in Canada, and to be sure, graffiti is illegal here, but really... a rock. They didn't paint any profanity on it, no swear words, no obscene imagery. Guaranteed 2 in 5 kids in your own neighbourhood has painted much worse than their name and the year on something, and that something was almost assuredly more visible and profound than a rock. Sure foreigners should know better than to mess around in another person's country, but it just seems like the few here calling for prosecution and banishment from American events are overreacting just a tad. After all, they are rock stars.... 
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TSC
Posts: 38 |
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i saw this image on 2 chan and I cracked up. I don't know all the details here so I can make much of a comment but i'll give em balls for trying do it.
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FeralKat
Posts: 402 |
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Japan has their own share of graffiti problems--though not at bad at the US. I remember walking on a college campus in Fukuoka where there was construction being done. Someone had sprayed "guilty penis" on one of the temporary fences.
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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If they had just gone out and did that somewhere new it might warrant an apology, but if the rock already has a buch of grafitti on it, its hardly a big deal. From the picture it seems theres almost nothing there, but it makes it sound in the article like there was alot. Its far from the end of the world either way. I suppose apologising is a nice gesture though.
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Hon'ya-chan
 Posts: 973 |
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So they couldn't find a place like Cadillac Ranch or even get permission to do some graffiti, take some shots, and then just paint it over with some primer? heck, maybe do it as a community service type of deal?
Have one of the band guys act as the Deviant, and the others as good citizens?
Oh nononono, you ain't getting off that easy. See, you have deep pockets, and American Judicial procedures means your guilty until proven innocent!! It's your fault for not keeping those crazy foreigners from defacing sacred American Soil. Now say "I love Old Glory" 15 times and renounce Haruhiism. |
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