Libertarian ping! To be added or removed freepmail me or post a message here.
Posted on 06/08/2008 1:32:43 PM PDT by ellery
Motorists driving down Highway 40 under Tamm Avenue in the wee hours of July 19, 2007, reported seeing graffiti artists at work on the pristine white concrete of the overpass wall. Before fleeing the scene, the men left their trademarks, or tags, in big bubble letters.
Taggers decorated a wall that's visible from Vandeventer Avenue, near Highway 40. St. Louis police later caught two suspects north of the highway, and they also found backpacks loaded with sixteen cans of spray paint. Both men were charged with felony property damage. The incident set off alarm bells for south St. Louis Alderwoman Donna Baringer, who says she realized that the new overpasses and noise barriers going up along Highway 40 will be a prime target for vandals.
"Those walls will be seen as empty canvases to do artistic work," says Baringer, who serves the 16th Ward. "But we will have to have it removed and the state — us taxpayers — will end up paying for it."
After doing some research into the world of graffiti, Baringer learned that the ornate, multicolored art is known as tagging and that its renegade practitioners tend to be 18- to 25-year-old white men.
Baringer maintains that the best way to stop them is to enact legislation that will basically treat spray paint and markers like weapons: restricting who can buy them, requiring buyers to show ID, and introducing a new criminal penalty for illegal possession.
"Is it going to stop [graffiti] or end it or eliminate it? No," she says. "But is it going to enhance or make it easier for police to follow up and investigate? Yes."
St. Louis wouldn't be the first city to crack down on spray-paint sales. Minneapolis, Albuquerque and Memphis are among the cities that have adopted anti-graffiti laws in recent years, says Bob Hills, director of the Anti-Graffiti Project of the National Council to Prevent Delinquency. The most common approach, he says, is to ban spray-paint sales to anyone under 18 and keep it under lock and key.
Elected in 2003, the 45-year-old Baringer says she's following the Anti-Graffiti Project's lead. If her own bill passes, she plans to talk it up among mayors throughout Missouri. "I will turn it over to them. They're waiting for it," she says.
First, though, the alderwoman has to move her Board Bill No. 86 past the Board of Alderman Public Safety Committee, where she says several members support her. A hearing is scheduled June 5.
The core of the bill deals with "graffiti tools," which includes spray paint, paint sticks, fat-tipped markers and glass-etching devices. The bill bans sales to anyone under 18, and requires adults who want to buy three or more of the blacklisted implements to present a photo ID.
The bill puts the onus on stores to keep records of the sales and buyers' personal information for a year, and be willing to hand that information over to police. Shopkeepers would also have to put up signs, which the bill describes as "not less than 12 inches by 18 inches," that state: "It is illegal for a person to purchase or possess aerosol spray paint containers or any other graffiti tool for the express illegal purpose of graffiti per St. Louis City Ordinance."
Finally, Baringer's measure goes so far as to make it illegal to possess "graffiti tools" on public or private property without the owner's consent. Illegal possession would be a misdemeanor, punishable by a $500 fine or up to 90 days in jail.
Earlier this year Colorado police lobbied lawmakers to make possessing "graffiti tools" a crime, akin to getting caught with burglary tools. According to the Denver Post, the proposal died quickly, with one opposing legislator saying it would give "carte blanche for law enforcement to go after teenagers."
While Baringer cites "broad support" among her colleagues, the chairman of the public safety committee, Alderman Terry Kennedy, is not convinced that cracking down on paint sales is the way to go, and says the idea strikes him as "rather excessive." Kennedy, whose 18th Ward includes part of the Central West End, adds, "I certainly understand the concern and what they're trying to address. Requiring people to give them ID on three cans of paint isn't going to resolve it."
If the city regulates the sale of spray paint, Kennedy wonders, "What's next?"
Peat Wollaeger, a studio artist who makes graffiti-style stencils, doesn't see how a city can effectively ban artists' tools. He says taggers are always trying new things, the latest being water cannons filled with house paint. "That ban would do nothing to stop that type of activity."
While Baringer arms herself with statistics and anecdotes to prove that there's an escalating graffiti menace, Wollaeger sounds almost blasé. "St. Louis has such a small group of graffiti artists, it's not even worth it."
ping...
Everyone has the right to carry one — handgun that is.
how about banning the taggers.
I detest tagging as much as anyone, but hyperbole doesn’t make a good foundation for public policy.
Sorry, but I ain't buying it.
Is this true? I had always assumed it was mostly minority gangs.
After doing some research into the world of graffiti, Baringer learned that the ornate, multicolored art is known as tagging and that its renegade practitioners tend to be 18- to 25-year-old white men.
Really? White men are the ones doing the gang graffiti in minority areas? I don’t know the facts, but it seems odd that that so many white men are invading minority neighborhoods and covering every square inch of property with gang graffiti.
Then again, the race of vandals doesn’t matter. Whoever creates the eyesore of graffiti should be dealth with.
make the parents pay for it.
***”Is it going to stop [graffiti] or end it or eliminate it? No,” she says. “But is it going to enhance or make it easier for police to follow up and investigate? Yes.”***
Surely, she cannot be serious.
Agreed BS!
I keep my spray paint cans under lock & key. I wish everyone did. You never know where a rouge spray paint can may end up next. They are trying to ban spray paint can shows in VA. I hope they are sucessful.
I didn’t even notice the ‘white men’ part.
If anything, the white taggers make murals. Something like a dedication to somebody who died in the neighborhood, like some guys did for my friend’s brother.
Wal-Mart in SW Missouri requires ID to prove age when purchasing spray paint. I don’t know if it is law or company policy.
> St. Louis Alderwoman wants to treat cans of spray paint like they’re handguns.
Concealed carry, protected by Constitutional Amendment?
Speaking personally, I am in favor of outlawing the production, sale and possession of spraypaint. It is one of life’s little conveniences that carries far too heavy a cost to Society. In my (small) community of Waitakere City it costs nearly a million dollars per year to get rid of graffiti. Multiply that out nationwide and it is a horrific sum. We can do without spraypaint, thanks. Hobbyists and home handymen who want to spray paint can jolly rent a compressor and airbrush: they will be happier with the result anyrate.
Zero tolerance on spraypaint!
Public horsewhipping for these vandals.
Graffiti is one crime that begs for the Islamic hand-chop. It is an insult against all civilization. A few hand-chops would greatly reduce this epidemic of vandalism that degrades all civic places.
Why waste time? Let’s just execute everyone that upsets the middle class.
Spry can treated like weapons. What a loser society. LOL!
They are “Vandals” not “Taggers.”
“rouge spray paint”
That sounds very gay! Popular in San Fran no doubt!:)
My neighbor’s kid got nabbed for taggin’. 14 years old. White. When they put up one of these overpasses that is a prime target for taggin’ why not put up a camera too?
It would be nice if someone came up with an additive that paint wouldn’t stick to.
Apparently she is, and don't call me Shirley... :0)
After they cracked down on graffiti in NYC, kids started doing “scratchiti” with their keys, ie scratching their tag on the train windows.
Vegetable shortening can be treated like a weapon?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spry_Vegetable_Shortening
I’m gettin’ grumpy. Time for a Camo!
This will only create a black market (market of color?) for spray paint.
I think they tested that additive on a few auto modles at GM a few years ago!
Libertarian ping! To be added or removed freepmail me or post a message here.
Maybe “tag” the graffiti vandals Singapore style. Getting your butt whipped publicly (literally) might make the punks a little less likely to vandalize other people’s property. Then when they have a few weeks of not being able to sit down, they can spend time on a clean up crew.
I live in an upscale neighborhood about a mile from downtown Dallas and recently nearly everything is being tagged. It definitely makes you worry about your safety when you’re walking home from a restaurant or bar at night. You simply don’t know if gangs are marking their territory for criminal interests, or if its just young li’l thugs with no guidance. Either way, I would really appreciate the criminal justice system cracking these jerks with harsh prison sentences.
Public horsewhipping for these vandals.
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Naw, I prefer public repainting of the walls to a plain white at their expense.
Don’t call her Shirley
Good move by Baringer in taking action to stop the menace that is the 18-25 year old white male tagger. I also think they should consider nozzle locks so that these things don’t go off and tag something by accident.
And class-action suits against the paint manufacturers!
Arsenal.
Silencer.
Right. Send undercover agents to the spray paint can shows and have them identify the people who are buying the paint and then call their relatives and notify them that they purchased paint today.
0_o
A few years back there was a thread up here...there was a graf crew in NYC that was putting up stickers with the pix of an old iron bomb on it...some tinfoil heads became convinced that Al-Qaeda was “marking” neighborhoods or some other insanity.
More laws! More, More, MORE!!!
Till everything that everybody does with every waking breath is illegal, and THEN we can pick and choose who we want to punish, and who to let off!!!
YEAH, baby!
how about banning the taggers.”
From the start, over 30 years ago, the media and the elites have treated grafitti as tho is it some sort of “art form”.
It is expensive and very malicious damage to property none of these taggers own or ever will own.
I want to see some serious terms in hard time for these jerks.
I also do not agree that it is white kids doing it. Look to the Mexicans, please. Illegal intruders at the forefront. This is gangs== marking territory like my male dog.
Spry can treated like weapons. What a loser society. LOL!”
When it is on your property, then you can laugh at your own expense of removing it.
It’s certainly a good way of knowing whether you’re in a dangerous neighborhood.
Gotta question the claim it’s mostly white guys.
Crikey! Every company in Germany can be traced backwards or sideways to some other company or person who used slave labor or contributed to the war effort. They need to get over it.
Oh yeah. I have actually. It pissed me off but I’m not willing to make every offense a freaking felony.
Write your rep. Maybe you can get the death penalty for graffiti!
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