One of the most diabolical advances ever perpetrated by man is graffiti.

But is it art or vandalism?

It depends upon your viewpoint.

To others, it is unsightly damage.

Graffiti has been around since ancient Greece and the Roman Empire.

Scratch marks on cave walls have evolved into elaborate drawings or messages on buildings, bridges and Dumpsters.

It is a crime that exasperates Carnegie Police Chief Jeff Harbin.

"It is very frustrating for me and my officers," he said.

Graffiti cheapens towns and businesses while emboldening the artistic misfits who carry out the misguided handiwork.

Last week, a suspect who goes by the tag "Enzo" was arrested for a graffiti spree in Carnegie that involved more than six businesses and resulted in thousands of dollars in damages.

Also, an art student has been charged in the City of Pittsburgh with 18 felonies, 64 misdemeanors and two summary offenses that could, in theory, amount to life in prison and nearly $500,000 in fines.

Daniel Montano, 22, of Highland Park, is accused of causing more than $700,000 in damage in more than 125 locations around the city. He is known to police and the graffiti community as MFOne or "King of Graffiti."

Rather than straightaway incarceration or even house arrest, punishment for a first-time offender should be in the form of community service. The guilty party should be made to clean up graffiti throughout the communities he defaced. He then should showcase his artistic bent by painting murals of historical high points in these communities on the sides of selected buildings.

In 2004 and 2005, a spray painter named "Soap" roamed the nighttime streets in Carnegie, Collier, Scott and Dormont for more than a year.

His slippery moniker was prominent in much of his handiwork. It was as if he was toying with authorities, daring them, taunting them.

Soap was an artistic random-acts-of-mischief spray painter who had dozens of ways of inscribing his nickname on a hard, smooth surface.

Not a bridge, overpass, underpass or Dumpster was safe.

Soap was a clever individual who committed his crimes as a juvenile and then stopped upon turning 18 because he decided the consequences would be more severe if he was an adult.

The Cook's Lane Bridge underpass was Soap's favorite target, for it was painted over more than 20 times.

Soap says he did it for "kicks, and the love of art."

There are far better ways to express such love.