Vandals were painting across another group’s tags
Gilroy – Police nabbed two 15-year-old graffiti taggers Tuesday night as the vandals sprayed over another crew’s work. A Gilroy resident, victimized in a rash of taggings Sept. 21, spotted the teens and phoned the police.
“I told victims [of the first tagging] that if they didn’t get it covered, they’d be hit again,” said Officer Angela Locke-Paddon. “Sure enough, it happened … But because this victim called us immediately, and kept an eye on them, we arrested these juveniles, who caused hundreds of dollars worth of damage.”
About 60 locations were defaced last Thursday by a different crew, who worked after midnight, marking garage doors, garbage bins, walls, vehicles, fences and alleys on both homes and businesses, said Locke-Paddon. Most tags landed between First and Fourth streets, on the alleys alongside Miller Ave. and Princevalle St.; another was planted on the IOOF Avenue bridge, near South Valley Junior High School.
“I’ve never seen graffiti in this neighborhood,” said Al Navaroli, who lives on 4th St., “and I’ve been a resident of this area for 52 years. It’s startling.”
Navaroli recounted driving down the alley behind his home on Friday amid a hurricane of violent language and images. He’s lucky, he said: Vandals skipped his property, where he recently installed 75 feet of wooden fencing, to the tune of $3,500.
Locke-Paddon declined to describe the tags – “it just glorifies the tagging crew” – but she said the first round was not gang-related.
“The same things were tagged over and over again,” she said, indicating that a single crew made the rounds of the neighborhood. “The same colors, the same type of lettering, the same monikers.”
Though the tagging occurred mostly Thursday night, she said, most calls came in Monday, as residents and business owners began to notice the tags in alleyways. Many victims were elderly, Locke-Paddon said, and some hadn’t covered their graffiti by Tuesday night, when the second crew took to the streets.
The two 15 year old Gilroy residents crossed out and painted over the initial tagging with gang-related slogans, said Locke-Paddon, either to “mark their territory” or “disrespect the tagging crew.” Their painting spree was interrupted when police officers, phoned by a resident, arrived just before 6pm. Because the vandals were juveniles, their names cannot be released by police.
Locke-Paddon was grateful to the resident who made the phone call. Too often, she said, people witness vandalism, but fail to report it. Witnesses need not fear retaliation, she said, because calls can be made anonymously.
“People always think that someone else is going to call,” said Locke-Paddon. “We need that extra set of eyes out in the community.”
Last week’s graffiti epidemic followed a busy summer for the graffiti hotline, as warmer nights beckoned more vandals outside, said Sgt. Daniel Castaneda, Neighborhood Resource Unit. Castaneda was unable to provide specific numbers, but said graffiti calls had increased with the temperatures.
Even a few tags can come at a steep price: eight graffiti reports collected since Jan. 1 by the Gilroy Police Department totaled $3,350 in damage, said crime analyst Phillis Ward.
Police try to eradicate graffiti within 48 hours, said Castaneda, especially if it’s gang-related or racially-motivated. It’s not just an eyesore, he added: it’s a form of communication for area gangs.
“It’s like reading a paper,” Castaneda said. “This is the way that they get their news.”
Gang-affiliated graffiti is identified by specific numbers and slogans, said Locke-Paddon. It’s a way of claiming space, and, by covering another group’s tags, supremacy. Other tagging is indiscriminate, aimed at covering as much space as possible, while racial, ethnic or sexual tags may be targeted to specific sites.
“It’s an art form, I’ll give them that,” said Casteneda, “but when it’s on other people’s property, it’s a crime.”
