| It's
cropping up all over town -- sprayed on the side of the Knights Inn
motel on Colonial Drive, a Walgreens drugstore on Lake Underhill Road,
the docks of an Orange Avenue feed store. It's graffiti -- some of it gang-related -- and county officials say it's on the rise. While gang membership and related crimes have never been widespread in metro Orlando, law-enforcement officers said, this summer more and more gang symbols, as well as "tags" by independent graffiti artists, are being spray-painted on buildings, walls, trash bins and signs. "It's happening all over, not just in one area. They're going crazy this summer," said Orange County Commissioner Linda Stewart, who will host a community forum in Conway Gardens tonight to discuss ways to fight back. Parts of Colonial Drive, particularly around the commercial district near Mills Avenue, have been hit by "taggers," graffiti artists with no apparent affiliation. They deface buildings with their street names or initials. But the symbols that recently began showing up more often in the Conway area are by local gangs, most often small groups that bear little similarity to the large, well-known ones found in major urban centers, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office. Some of the artwork is meant to mark territory. Some issue challenges when rivals cross out one name to replace it with their own. "It's the language of the gangs, the public record of what the gangs are saying," said John Moore, director of the National Youth Gang Center in Tallahassee. The Orange County Sheriff's Office and the Orlando Police Department have units dedicated to the groups. Frank Fabrizio, chief of the sheriff's special-investigations division, estimates that about 1,000 people are involved in gangs in Orange County. "Most are small groups of kids. We arrest three or four of them and the gang falls apart," he said. Officers track gang activity, and many are experts at interpreting graffiti messages. But because taggers are difficult to catch and would face only misdemeanor charges, law-enforcement officers focus on higher-level crimes. The county has an ordinance that compels private property owners to clean up graffiti. Orlando has no such rule on the books. Tom Pastore pushed the city to adopt an anti-graffiti program for years when he was paint supervisor in Orlando's facilities department. The effort went nowhere, and though Pastore was recently laid off with about 170 other city workers, he continues to worry about the increasing prevalence in his town. "The parks are riddled with graffiti -- we had pressure washers going constantly," Pastore said. "At some point, there's going to be so much of it people will accept it. I've seen it happen in bigger cities." Some jurisdictions have tried creative solutions. Possession of spray paint with the intent to deface property is illegal in Miami-Dade County and elsewhere. Several years ago, the Florida Department of Transportation began using a special coating that makes it easier to remove spray paint from overpasses. And chemists have begun developing paints that resist graffiti. At tonight's meeting, Stewart will encourage residents to report graffiti -- then promptly paint over it. "We're going to get more people out there cleaning it up, to make it tougher for them," she said. Mark Schlueb can be reached at mschlueb@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5417. |