| I received so
many calls after my last graffiti article that I was
prompted to write a follow-up. One call from an
apartment owner really struck home because of its
negative characteristics. In general, the caller
was complaining that the Long Beach police didn't care
about the graffiti problem and didn't cooperate with
property owners. The caller did indicate
that the city has a free paint-out program, but
complained that the paint-out looked worse than the
actual graffiti as it didn't match this landlord's
building color or the others in the alley.
If there is anything that will make me see red,
it's the comment that graffiti painted out in the
wrong color looks worse than the actual graffiti.
I have heard that comment a few times over the last
decade. Once in 1992 I was in charge of a
Realtor "clean up day" and we had cleaned up
approximately five miles of Foothill Boulevard in the
La Crescenta/Sunland-Tajunga area. We were
covering over some graffiti on a liquor store and a
transient type person walked up and made the exact
comment, "This looks worse than the actual
graffiti." My answer was, "I
usually hear that comment from people like you who
have their hands in their pockets. If you are
unhappy with the color, why don't you improve on
it?"
My point is that the property owner would not be
unhappy with the city's free program if his apartment
manager were instructed to paint out graffiti on that
property with the correct color paint, every morning
if necessary. My point is, don't complain about
what others are doing if you could do more yourself.
The purpose of my previous column was to show how easy
it is to paint over graffiti. It is a cinch for
a property owner to have a gallon of the exact color
mixed for future paint-over.
The real problem with the comment "the wrong
color looks worse than the actual graffiti" is
that it is just plain wrong. GRAFFITI BREEDS
GRAFFITI. Painted out graffiti does not
invite graffiti: graffiti invites graffiti. |
There are
basically two types of graffiti. One is graffiti
identifying the local gang and, in fact, marking the
gang's territory. This is exactly the same way
that a dog or wild animal marks its territory (similar
upbringing). When gang members see some other
gang's mark, they cross that mark out and write the
local gang name over it. When a dog or
wild animal smells a different mark, it simply lifts
its leg and urinates over it. Therefore the
first type of graffiti is true gang territory
identification graffiti.
The second type of graffiti is commonly called
tagging. Tagging is done by a "crew,"
which is a group of vandals who consider themselves
budding artists. The crew itself has a
name like PDB, D4L, TLK, etc. These names
mean generally stupid things like TLK = Think Like
Kriminals, or D4L = Down 4 Life. The individuals
of this crew then mark their particular name under the
crew name. In my area one would see TLK with the
marking of MIST, EWOK, ENTER, ISN'T, etc. I am
happy to report that ISN'T was arrested last week and
ISN'T isn't any more.
The purpose of this follow up is to assure that the
only gratification that these taggers get is to see
their markings all over town. I further assure
you that immediate removal of that graffiti (in any
color) removes the gratification.
Therefore, if you paint out your graffiti (daily if
necessary), eventually the vandalism to your building
or block or area will stop or drastically decrease and
the taggers will concentrate in other areas.
Now let's talk about personal safety: Though
graffiti vandals don't appreciate erasure of their
marks, they are generally not congregating in you area
at 8-10 a.m. Once in a while someone is
attacked painting out graffiti, and in most cases they
were painting out the graffiti at night or interfering
with the actual vandalism. From a safety
point of view, the early morning hours are the beat
time to paint out. Hopefully, enough said on
this subject.
Peter Rosenthal
VIP Trust Deed Company |
