Graffiti taggers caught - redeux

It turns out that the graffiti vandals were not arrested and therefore are not going to court in the immediate future. The groundwork is laid for a case against them, but we have to be patient again. I thought I would share the Community Impact Statement I wrote for this case for when it finally does go to court. Note that there is not an actual Judge X working for Ramsey County, but if there were, that would be totally sweet because everyone would fear the X.

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Dear Honorable Judge X,

The past year has been long and draining on myself, my family and my neighborhood. The staggering amount of graffiti vandalism that has blighted our homes and public buildings has quickly eroded our sense of safety and pride in our community. Even after abatement, the scars of this act of urban terrorism remain as off-color patches and still legible gang tags just under the skin of fresh paint. My neighbors are often confiding in me their frustration at being victimized and their helplessness in not being able to see the perpetrators brought to justice. It amazes me at how quickly the work of only a handful of criminals cracked the stately foundation of our neighborhood. My hope is that they have not driven away potential home buyers, families that would be quality additions to this normally quiet spot on the East Side.

My family was the target of tagging just before Christmas; on that bitterly cold night, we stood with some of our neighbors, unable to keep warm, surveying the damage. Six garages—stucco, wood, steel—defaced, our property and community violated and our hands frozen through in the hours spent abating. Sadly, this was merely a fraction of the vandalism that has plagued my neighborhood this year. Since the night of February 4^th, , 2008, I have recorded over 300 occurrences of graffiti within a large section of Dayton's Bluff. I am saddened that the time I spend tracking criminal behavior means I'm not spending time working on our community garden or tutoring our youth.

Honorable Judge, I ask that you consider not only the direct damage caused by these individuals but also the indirect damage. Their tagging can be easily linked to retaliatory tagging by rival gangs and its spread has been cancerous. Ensure that their punishment befits their crime. In addition to financial restitution, I ask that they be sentenced to community service—cleaning up the neighborhood or abating the very graffiti they have helped spread.