Graffiti Taggers Caught!

For the last year our neighborhood has been hit hard with graffiti. The incidents are frequent and multiple homes and other structures are tagged each time. The tags are usually symbols of the Surreno 13 or 18th Street gangs. While the police have been great partners in trying to catch the perps they have also warned us that these are some of the hardest criminals to catch - the crime of graffiti is just too fast and often happens in the dead of night when nobody is around. We understand the grim reality but we also refuse to let gangs have more control of our community than good citizens. Creativity and dedication are the key.

One neighbor in particular took the situation head on - I'll call him Good Graffiti Guy. He began to methodically document and report every incident of graffiti. He created a website of photos of each tag and a Google map with each incident marked. The police were linked to these online documents which they could use to recognize patterns which might help catch the criminals. It is frustrating that a citizen has to create and maintain such a system. One can't help but wonder why St. Paul doesn't take more advantage of technology in these ways. The city should also take note that the community quickly adapted to reporting graffiti directly to Good Graffiti Guy rather than DSI. I don't know why others did it that way but I did it because I knew Good Graffiti Guy would document it and track the abatement. There was an immediate response from him and follow up. Reporting directly to DSI feels like sending information into a black hole.

Good Graffiti Guy also keeps track of the abatement. It was frustrating at first to see how slowly tags were abated by the city. But we let the city know we were frustrated and even made some suggestions about how they could improve their service. We have seen improvement. Neighbors have also gotten quite proactive and abate tags as soon as they are reported. Sadly, Qwest has not been responsive to the reports of tags on their utility boxes. Rumor has it that some renegade neighbors had to abate it themselves.

In recent months neighbors started noticing some patterns which led them to believe that the perpetrators lived in two nearby rental properties. The neighbors tried to build positive connections with the youth but were rebuffed. Neighbors also tried to connect with responsible adults in the homes but these adults didn't intervene with the perpetrators. Neighbors contacted the city to see if homeowners could be "persuaded" to evict the problem tenants. Not only was this not successful but one owner sold the property to the renters! The police were put on notice about the two properties and their possible connection to gangs and graffiti. The graffiti continued and the community and the city grew more and more discouraged.

Apparently one neighbor had enough and installed some secret cameras. As luck would have it the perps chose to tag the property in direct view of the cameras! With video evidence in had the police arrested two youth, raided two homes and collected some valuable evidence! Success!!!! (Sort of...)

The next discouraging part of this struggle is that juveniles usually receive only a slap on the wrist from a judge. After all this time and effort on the part of the community and the city and they are basically just told "Don't do that again!" and released! Nope, not our perpetrators. Not if we have anything to say about it - and it turns out we do! Neighbors are drawing up impact statements to submit to the judge before sentencing. These statements reiterate all of the trauma from the tagging and the investment which has been made in catching the perps and ask that sentencing be as harsh as possible. Judges are often supportive so we await the outcome of this case.

In the meantime...We celebrate success and rejoice about a New Years reprieve from documenting, reporting and abating!

Special Appreciation goes out to Good Graffiti Guy for all his efforts - you rock!!