Johnston and his council colleagues are considering a beefed up graffiti ordinance that would...require property owners to remove the graffiti in a timely fashion or face fines..Yeah, that'll stop the problem!
Just like requiring gun owners to report stolen guns under penalty of law will put a stop to gang killings. Just ask the X-Men.
As for the "program [that] puts kids convicted of tagging walls to work cleaning up their handiwork," I'd want to first make damn sure the city had appropriate liability insurance coverage and some mechanism to keep anyone claiming an on-the-job injury from suing me.
[Via Jeffersonian]
4 comments:
After our garage was vandalized we discovered the hard way that Minneapolis has a similar ordinance. If you report vandalism (graffiti), the city notes the address and supposedly sends out a team to photograph it, and note the symbols. They then give a notification to the property owner that they have ten (10) days in which to clean it up, or they'll send out a city crew to do it, and charge you for their time and materials, and issue you a citation.
They've perfected way to turn the victims of a crime into criminals.
Guess what? The new ordinance works! Reports of vandalism have dropped like a rock!
Of course, ACTUAL vandalism is skyrocketing, but because reporting it makes you a criminal, the reports are down. I wonder how long it will take them to realize that this works so well, they should apply the principle to all other crimes. Report a mugging? Get cited for disturbing the peace. Report a murder? Get cited for littering.
What about vandalism of PUBLIC property like lampposts, park fences, street signs?
This city has had the same "tags" on such objects FOR YEARS.
Sovereign immunity.
Sovereign B-S.
I'd get some chartreuse or magenta paint and make a BIIIG rectangle to cover the graffiti.
One county business owner, informed that his choice of signage and/or exterior paint was unacceptable to the zoning board, then turned his building into a graffiti museum, every square foot of exterior wall. Then he sold it to a junk shop, I believe, depressing the area further.
You gotta get to the point where you just don't care.
San Antonio also already has this law that further victimizes victims of vandalism.
Because it's always easier to punish the law-abiding.
Our property ... isn't.
Not removing graffiti isn't good stewardship of the property we rent from the government with our taxes until they find a better use for it and buy it from us for what THEY think it's worth whether we want to sell or not.
Bitter enough?
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