LOS ANGELES—A Los Angeles city council committee wants to crack down on vandalism by barring young people from buying spray paint and a type of acid used to etch glass.
The public safety committee directed the city attorney on Monday to draft an ordinance that would require people who buy spray paint or hydrofluoric acid to be 21 or older.
Any ordinance drafted by the city attorney’s office would need to be approved by the committee and the full council.
Councilman Dennis Zine says the committee is also considering penalizing the parents of vandals to help offset the cost of cleaning up graffiti.
Posts Tagged ‘New Graffiti Laws’
LA lawmakers seeking anti-graffiti ordinance
Saturday, July 11th, 2009New California graffiti law: Clean it up and keep it clean
Thursday, July 31st, 2008
Gov. Schwarzenegger signs a law sponsored by the city of L.A. It requires convicted vandals to remove their scrawls and keep walls clean for a year.
SACRAMENTO — At the urging of Los Angeles officials alarmed about graffiti defacing the city’s many murals, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a measure into law Wednesday that requires those convicted of the vandalism to remove the scrawls and, in some cases, keep the tagged surfaces clean for one year.
The law was welcomed by many officials as another tool to use against a recent explosion of graffiti, but some gang experts were worried that it might put the offenders in jeopardy if they had to cover up graffiti by other gang members.The measure applies to graffiti on any surface, including blank walls.
Los Angeles, which sponsored the legislation, has recorded a significant increase in graffiti in the last three years, from 25 million square feet of graffiti-stained surfaces in 2005 to 31.7 million in the year that ended June 30, said Paul Racs, director of the city’s Office of Community Beautification.
Last year, the city received reports of graffiti at 653,520 locations, 40,000 more than the year before, he said.
Racs said graffiti was increasing partly because it is celebrated on the Internet.
“There are video games where the good guy is the tagger and the bad guy is the cop,” he said. “Graffiti is also used in advertising, so young people are getting a dual message.”
Artist Judy Baca, founder of the Social and Public Art Resource Center, has seen graffiti nearly cover her mural “Hitting the Wall” on the 110 Freeway downtown.
Baca said the city had cut funding for the creation and maintenance of murals.
“These kids don’t have the possibility of being a muralist themselves,” she said, so they angrily ruin murals with graffiti.
The measure makes it mandatory, instead of discretionary, for a court to order a defendant who is convicted of graffiti vandalism to clean up or repair the property when feasible. A judge could decide not to order a tagger to risk his life by keeping graffiti off a sign that hangs over the freeway.
The court also could order the defendant or a minor defendant’s parents or guardians to keep the damaged property free of graffiti for up to one year.
“By having to clear up the mess, they would realize how much effort and cost is involved in tidying up after them,” said Assemblyman Mike Davis (D-Los Angeles), author of the law.
Some gang experts said the requirement that young offenders remove others’ graffiti could put them in harm’s way.
He said Homeboy Industries closed a program that put gang members to work removing graffiti after two young people were shot to death while cleaning walls.
Taggers lurk in the shadows at night – LOL
Monday, June 16th, 2008W. Richland set to enact graffiti law
Taggers lurk in the shadows at night, waiting to leave their signature on a blank canvas where it will draw the most attention.
But West Richland residents and business owners are tired of waking to find their city coated in fresh paint and ink, often flaunting a gang.
From bus stops and power boxes to storage buildings and a privately rented U-haul, nothing has gone untouched.
Now the city council is fighting back with a graffiti ordinance that seeks to “prevent the spread” by holding those vandals responsible with a gross misdemeanor charge for defacing property or possessing “graffiti implements.”
The new law, which the council plans to adopt Monday, also requires property owners to clean up the nuisance within three days or face civil penalties.
“It’s been proven all over the country that if you leave graffiti up it tends to invite more graffiti,” said City Administrator Dave Weiser. “And the sooner you can get it covered up or erased, it lets these ‘artists’ know that what they are doing is not an appropriate action, an appropriate behavior.”
West Richland has a law on the books for malicious mischief, but nothing specific to graffiti or graffiti cleanup.
The proposed law has been in the works for several months after police noticed “a dramatic increase” in graffiti described by Chief Layne Erdman as gang- and general tagger-related.
