The new law requires a person convicted of tagging to clean up his or her mess. It makes clear that cleanup must be part of the sentence, unless the judge finds that it would be dangerous. Where appropriate, the offender could be required to keep the damaged property free of graffiti for up to a year.The hardest part is going to be catching taggers in the act. If they can catch and convict, then this sounds like a fair start. However, the cleaning has to happen soon afterwards to have the effect of preventing other tags.
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Monday, August 11, 2008
California Attempts to Fight Back against Tagging
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently signed a bill sponored by the City of Los Angeles representing an attempt to clean up graffiti and punish taggers:
Graffiti is increasingly becoming a problem in Sylvan Park. You're right that it is very hard to catch offenders in the act.
ReplyDeleteI agree that covering up the graffiti as quickly as possible is the right response because it can deter further graffiti.
My wife has also mentioned to me, based on what she has learned in her training as a social worker, that murals and other surfaces with various patterns and colors are far less likely to be targeted by graffiti artists because they aren't clean canvases.
Maybe the law would be best applied if tagging were immediately painted over and then the culprit had to paint a pattern over the surface in question later. That might strike the right balance.