Graffiti is still blighting our towns and villages (From Swindon Advertiser)
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Graffiti is still blighting our towns and villages
9:00am Tuesday 11th November 2008 in News
VANDALS are wrecking the most beautiful parts of Swindon with graffiti.
As the authorities try to track down the latest persistent tagger, the Adver is relaunching our campaign to rid the town of graffiti.
The town’s police said criminal damage accounts for a quarter of all crime committed in Swindon and backed the Adver’s campaign to stamp it out.
This year, clearing up graffiti cost the people of Swindon more than £200,000. Between April 2008 and April 2009, the council budgeted to spend £210,700 on graffiti removal.
Supporting the Grass up Graffiti campaign, Swindon’s top cop, Chief Supt Paul Howlett, said: “The more that we can do to catch those responsible, the better.
“Graffiti is indicative of the problems we suffer with criminal damage and one-in-four crimes in Swindon is criminal damage, which is a disappointing statistic.
“We need to demonstrate that criminal damage, including graffiti and other damage is not acceptable and will not be tolerated.”
The most recent ugly graffiti tags have been found tarnishing the surroundings at Lydiard House.
The tags LOL, BCB and REMS have been sprayed on walls and a phone box in the area.
Swindon anti-social behaviour manager Cheri Wright said: “We are keen to track down and convict a persistent graffiti tagger in West Swindon.
“A £100 reward is being offered to anyone who can provide evidence leading to the conviction of the perpetrator of the graffiti tags pictured, found in west Swindon, in and around Lydiard House. The culprit has left a number of unsightly tags in this area, making a mess of the neighbourhood and causing concern to the police.
“The clean up of graffiti costs the taxpayer considerable amounts of money and the tags spoil the look and feel of local communities.”
Swindon Council will pay the reward to anyone who can provide information that leads to the conviction of the tagger.
If you have any evidence that could help, call Crimestoppers on 0845 555111. The Adver is leading the hunt for the town’s most prolific taggers. If you know who is responsible for any of the vandalism in Swindon call our dedicated hotline on 01793 501880.
Comments(19)
Donkey
says...
9:11am Tue 11 Nov 08
A suggestion of a twelve month custodial sentence for the first offence, not suspended, but with the wastrels being taken out of society, may deter? Two years ... second offence, and so on.
Of course, with the current Council Cabinet promoting this kind of blight at the old railway museum, it's no wonder these ne'er do wells are out in force again!
ourtone
says...
10:13am Tue 11 Nov 08
There is a world of difference between creating something artistic, (with the full permission of the owner,) and wandering around at night with a pocket full of stolen spray paint, mindlessly scrawling on any flat surface that presents itself.
Fact 1 – Most of these crimes take place at night. The scum that do this wander around until the early hours.
Fact 2 – Criminals can only be arrested by police officers on patrol and responding to complaints.
Based on the above facts, I would say that one answer to the problem would be for coppers to get off their lazy backsides, get out of their nice, comfortable, warm patrol cars, and start putting one foot in front of the other, and go walking round the place, trying to find these people.
If you have a group of yobs hanging around at three in the morning then stop them, search them, and take action.
If any have paints, markers or other graffiti equipment, arrest them and charge them with going equipped to commit a crime. It works for burglary.
If any have alcohol or drugs on them, arrest them and charge them with possession.
If any are under 18, take them home, and wake up their parents doing it. If it happens repeatedly, prosecute the parents for neglect.
Of course, these are just the legal options. If it was up to me, they would be put in the stocks and publicly beaten before being made to wear a pink jumpsuit and clean up the mess that have made..
PeeveD
says...
10:18am Tue 11 Nov 08
We should go back to the good old days of a Labour controlled council when there was no graffiti! Umm sorry.... that's not quite correct is it.
Maybe if the present government hadn't gone back on it's "tough on crime-tough on the causes of crime" policy we could do something to stamp out the ever increasing anti-social behaviour!
Worz
says...
11:50am Tue 11 Nov 08
I don't like the Rail Museum, but at least it was commissioned by the owner.
> Swindon’s top cop, Chief Supt Paul Howlett, said: “The more that we can do to catch those responsible, the better.
Then get out there and catch them.
malkym1
says...
12:29pm Tue 11 Nov 08
Of course Top Cop has no chance of catching the little bar stewards in my neck of the woods -why??? because surprise surprise -we ain't got no coppers! Well technically we have one sgt & a pseudo plod PCSO BUT! PCSO is leaving and when sarge is off duty there is not a boy or girl in blue to be seen -well done Jackie Smith, John Reid & Blunkett for really giving every community absolutely farcical levels of police response. Graffiti Heaven awaits!
I Too
says...
7:23pm Tue 11 Nov 08
10:18am Tue 11 Nov 08
I agree with Donkey.
We should go back to the good old days of a Labour controlled council
............
Nice to see some agreement on these blogs
PeeveD
says...
8:52pm Tue 11 Nov 08
Looks like a Mandyism... you know... no policy,no idea,no original thought so misquoting (weakly i may add) shows a person akin to a failing government.
Quite sad really...
I Too
says...
9:38pm Tue 11 Nov 08
Did you strut up and down to the drinks fountain, stroking your tie?
PeeveD
says...
9:48pm Tue 11 Nov 08
I Too
says...
9:52pm Tue 11 Nov 08
Jiver
says...
10:04pm Tue 11 Nov 08
M4 Bypass
says...
7:51am Wed 12 Nov 08
Our MPS what have they done?
Our Judicial system, the sentences whatever they were, have not deterred or paid the community back.
The offenders have failed to understand this is unacceptable behaviour.
Why? because they can do it and do not suffer any real penalty.
A good use for ID cards maybe to produce these for all purchases of spray paint and record the purchase on the data base.
Donkey
says...
9:26am Wed 12 Nov 08
The pound shops, as useful to the lower income groups as they are, persist in stocking huge numbers of spray cans and they DO NOT check who buys them and for what purpose!
Do you know anyone who spraypaints their car these days ... there is no other real reason why spray cans are stocked and sold unchecked apart from the abuse of the material. Legitimate artwork excepted. It's a bit like the shelves full of lighter fuel ... how odd, one could sniff out an ulterior motive?
Wellfire
says...
9:51am Wed 12 Nov 08
Big Mac
says...
10:00am Wed 12 Nov 08
As with so many types of criminal behaviour that blight our communities, the ONLY thing that will work is to give these people harsher custodial sentences (and make prisons a bad place to be, rather than a fully funded holiday camp).
The problem is with our courts and their political masters (yeah, 'independent' my ar$e!). The judges don't live in the real world, especially a certain local judge, and the government haven't built enough prison spaces.
We all know how to stamp out graffiti, we all know how to stamp out criminal damage to property... as Donkey says: 12 months full custodial sentence for the first offence, 24 months for the second, and so on.
None of this 'suspended', 'conditional discharge' nonsense and certainly no 'community sentences'.
At the very least, the persistent taggers would eventually get locked away for a nice long time and therefore not physically be able to spray their childish names everywhere.
But, of course, it won't happen. Have people not yet realised that our judges simply do not care about anything or anyone but the criminals themselves?
Donkey
says...
12:16pm Wed 12 Nov 08
It's quite annoying when these topics of debate crop up on a regular basis, like the journalist reading through the journalists' calendar / diary as they search for something to write about. But, this is one where the solution is clear, yet the problem does not become solved.
The activity reminds me of a grandson of mine, he sees Eric Clapton majestically playing his Stratocaster, so he thinks if he obtains a guitar he will be able to do likewise! The scrawling paint spraying marker pen 'artist' (it makes me sick to call them that!) sees what the big boys have done, some of it legally, and wants to copy, on any surface not already tergetted.
Now, if the first instance resulted in proper punishment, the copyists may think twice?
Big Mac
says...
2:27pm Wed 12 Nov 08
And, of course, we're never allowed to comment on the articles that are.
Again, I agree entirely with your last paragraph above.
Donkey
says...
3:55pm Wed 12 Nov 08
Big Mac
says...
2:11pm Thu 13 Nov 08
Although I can't help but notice a coincidence between your uncharacteristically sensible view on punishing graffiti writers harshly with the fact that they, at some point, targetted your own house.
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