Missing the point.

I just saw on Facebook that some people are I know are "attending" this protest against removing a Banksy piece painted on private property in L.A.

This video gives the scoop:

Something about this makes me sick. I think the owner should paint over it if he wants to. It's better than any alternative: making it a tourist attraction or trying to sell the wall at auction (which has happened before). Doing that totally empties all meaning from his pieces. Other street artists do work that is just as good if not better than him but because they don't have celebrity status no one gives a damn. Street art is about the pursuit, it's all about the context. It occupies a space that is autonomous from higher institutions of art. It is temporary (uh oh, temporary autonomous zones). When you put Banksy in a museum, it's all over.