The folks over at Not a Number dropped the dime on a graffiti vandal last night. From their blog:
While sitting in Wallingford Pizza House about 10:30PM last night, we noticed a stealthy figure climbing on the roof across the street. The figure had a can of spray paint and proceeded to graffitti the wall on the roof above Starbucks. We called 911 as we watched to report graffitti in progress. The figure climbed back off the roof walked away. About 2 minutes later the police showed up and began to patrol the area. They returned about 15 minutes later with a suspect, who they apprehended with a backpack with spray paint in it.
We encourage everyone to be vigilant for this sort of thing, and when it happens call 911. The 911 operators are trained on how to route non-emergency calls, so don’t worry about tieing up resources. Plus this is where the city collects data on how to assign Police resources throughout the city. So when you see something call!
Did the graffiti say “Get a free pastry on the morning of March 23 with the purchase of a handcrafted beverage”, because if so, I doubt they’ll press charges.
I’m actually pretty annoyed – SPD seems to have a random attitude towards showing up when called.
A young man and a young woman were in an escalating argument at a nearby bus stop in this ‘hood one recent mid-day. When it escalated to really nasty language and then hitting and throwing stuff I called 911; within 5 minutes 3 officers were here, two men and a woman, just after the woman ran away and as the man jumped on the bus. I was impressed at both the fast response and what appeared to be a team.
Hopefully something will come of the arrest. We have been told in the past, regarding graffiti incidents at the park, that arrests do not usually stick unless the perpetrator is caught by the police in the act, even if caught minutes later by the police with spray cans in the pack and paint all over their hands. It is still worth reporting taggers as getting busted can sometimes act as that short, sharp shock needed to snap someone back to reality, whether the charges stick or not.
art is not a crime.
Anonymous, it’s not a crime when it’s done on YOUR property. When you do it on someone else’s property without their permission, it is crime. I say, make them clean up all the graffiti with their toothbrush.
Used to be some graffiti was art. It was often fresh, colorful and lively.
Things seem to have degenerated greatly, however, so that most graffiti now seems to consist only of writing the artist’s name. Parks painters are kept busy full-time only dealing with graffiti – on benches, tables, walls, boulders, the gorgeous wood play equipment. Art became blight.
Seems a tremendous waste of very limited resources. Think of what those thousands of dollars could buy instead.
Most of the graffiti around here is tagging that was done by gang members or wannabe gang members. It is no definition of art!
They mark their territory just like my dog does, by pissing on everything he can find that’s vertical (or not!). And the more a place is already marked by others, the more they need to tag it, only gangs mark in a visible location with something gurarnteed NOT to wash off in the rain. Photos of ‘the projects’ are great reminders of the way their conflicts ruin the character of a neighborhood if it’s allowed to happen.
Many thanks to Jon and Kara for reporting to 911, we need to do that consistently along with removing or painting over tags promptly. Research shows it also helps to paint things green–for some reason the insecure little (insert expletive)s prefer to mark on other colors!