Clown Town painted by Mau Mau

By now everyone should be aware of an event that is happening in London, in the year 2012, starting next week… 

If you’re not, you may actually live under a rock.

The London Vandal recently reported that a series of raids across London led to artist arrests during an attempt by the police to ‘sanitise’ London in preparation for the games.

We’ve seen similar articles all week, covering everything from Police having to put crisps into clear bags to avoid rival brands from gaining any exposure and various coverage on the Olympic ownership.

Now, we fully understand that brands pay to be involved with the biggest, greatest sporting event on this planet and we understand that when the world comes to visit, we want London and this country to look good but what the London Vandal reported is pretty ridiculous:

“It’s not uncommon for us to be contacted by respected ex-graffiti writers. That said, we certainly weren’t expecting the late night phone calls that we received from some past artists last night, who got in touch to tell us that they had been raided by the police yesterday (17th July). While graffiti writer’s homes being raided by the police is not a rare phenomenon, this series of raids came as quite a shock to many of the artists as most had given up painting illegal graffiti some 15 years ago”

You can read the full article over on their site, leave an opinion, here or there – what do you think?

NB: The New Statesman further reported that only 4 arrests had been made, not the initial 30 as expected.

• Tags: Graffiti, London, Olympics, Police, Street Art