Graffiti or Art?

I have been enjoying documentaries on the graffiti scene the past couple of days.  At one time I, young Fox, fancied myself a "tagger." I use the term tagger loosely because I really just spray canned pictures of this cartoon face I used to doodle on all my tests in school. But my fascination with graffiti never left.

Above is a mural the famous Banksy painted on Leake St. in London. It is no longer there but I think it really sums up the argument about Graffiti. Is it mere vandalism (the mural shows a street cleaner cleaning the graffiti from the walls) or is it art (notice the graffiti is the famous cave paintings in Lascaux, France).

I am torn. I believe artists such as Blek le Rat and Banksy create something that makes us as a society question the world around us, but they started off as taggers, randomly spray painting names and such on buildings.  To kill the tagger is to kill the artist. I find tagging very ugly and and it conveys an "image" of crime. But if the authority stops taggers are they crushing scores of future artists?

I always wanted to spraypaint a huge mural in my town that depicts Hitler shaking hands with Jesus. My artistic ability is not that good and the time it would take to finish such a project would surely get me caught. Oh well, Ill just settle for peeing in public as my act of civil disobedience.