# 'Art' in national parks **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 24, 2014, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-in-national-parks/702362 "2014-10-24T16:25:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-in-national-parks/702362/1 "2014-10-24T16:25:34Z")
IMO, The Pit should be for flaming Dopers and not for recreational outrage; so I’m posting this here. [Woman travels to national parks, painting graffiti](http://www.modernhiker.com/2014/10/21/instagram-artist-defaces-national-parks/) Casey Nocket has been visiting our national parks and tagging them with her cartoons. Not in chalk, which would be bad enough but at least will wash away, but in acrylic paint. Of course people have differing ideas of what constitutes ‘art’, but in my opinion Nocket’s amateurish scrawlings are nothing but vandalism. Our national parks belong to The People, and it is not up to an individual to decide to deface them. There is [a petition](https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/press-charges-casey-nocket-finesmax-community-servicejail-timeetc-httpgooglhy4yqj-defacing-np-nm/1y8xJBGm) at petitions-dot-whitehouse-dot-gov calling for the government to pursue charges against Nocket. I am not asking people to sign it, as I think that’s against board rules. I’m just providing information. But I do think that this woman should be criminally charged. I would laugh if someone found out where she lives and tags her car and home. ‘Two wrongs don’t make a right’, and all that; but I’d still laugh. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-in-national-parks/702362/2 "2014-10-24T16:32:44Z")
I’d say 2 years in prison for every piece of artwork would be an appropriate sentence. Or she could have 5 minutes alone in a room with a rabid boar. I’d even let her choose. I’m a generous guy like that. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-in-national-parks/702362/3 "2014-10-24T17:17:45Z")
though not as bad as Gutzon Borglum ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-in-national-parks/702362/4 "2014-10-24T17:28:57Z")
She’ll get caught and punished - it’s just a matter of time. The question is will the punishment fit the crime? Probably not, but she’ll get more than a slap on the wrist is my guess. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-in-national-parks/702362/5 "2014-10-24T18:27:27Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > The question is will the punishment fit the crime? Probably not, but she’ll get more than a slap on the wrist is my guess. Make her go and clean every one of them up and return the spots to their natural condition? Plus the same for any that other vandals made, that they happen upon? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-in-national-parks/702362/6 "2014-10-24T18:37:30Z")
Make her clean every square inch of her damage, then throw her in jail for 20 years. Right next to those [two assholes](http://www.adventure-journal.com/2013/10/scout-leaders-topple-200-million-year-old-rock-formation-then-high-5-each-other-in-glee/) who “improved” another National Park. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-in-national-parks/702362/7 "2014-10-24T18:40:02Z")
> **[Perspective | When a mystery mosaic turned up at a D.C. church, congregants...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/have-art-will-travel-a-dc-artist-installed-a-mosaic-without-churchs-permission/2014/10/20/d705e356-5873-11e4-b812-38518ae74c67_story.html)** > > The artist wanted to get attention. And when he put up his big mosaic at a D.C. church, he certainly did. Sounds like what this guy did, although at least his mosaic (which he installed without permission on a church’s steps) could be removed without damaging anything. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-in-national-parks/702362/8 "2014-10-24T18:40:18Z")
Tattoo poorly-drawn mountains on her face. ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-in-national-parks/702362/9 "2014-10-24T18:45:43Z")
Wow. The “art” isn’t even remotely good. It reminds me of the work of students who think they must be good at (and take) art just because they’re no good at other subjects. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-in-national-parks/702362/10 "2014-10-24T22:37:07Z")
A few years, two guys who called themselves the [Typo Eradication Advancement League](http://greattypohunt.com/) went around the country correcting typos on signs, menu boards and the like. (Often these were misplaced apostrophes.) Usually they did so after pointing out the error to the store owner and asking permission. But [they also corrected a sign at the Grand Canyon](http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2008/08/22/20080822grammarcops0822.html). The sign was more than sixty years old and a National Historic Landmark. For this crime, they were forced to pay restitution and were banned from national parks for a year. I think their crime was much less serious than what this woman is doing. She ought to be banned permanently from the national parks. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-in-national-parks/702362/11 "2014-10-24T22:57:26Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Often these were misplaced apostrophes. Or misplaced apostrophe’s. 😛 LOOK OUT ONCOMING ‘S’! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-in-national-parks/702362/12 "2014-10-25T01:09:58Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > … who “improved” another National Park. That was actually a State park (which certainly did not need improvement). ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-in-national-parks/702362/13 "2014-10-25T12:24:52Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I think their crime was much less serious than what this woman is doing. Much less serious than misplaced apostrophes or “emense”, too.