Battle against graffiti grows
Article Launched: 06/26/2007 08:32:22 PM PDT


SOMETIMES, San Gabriel Valley residents still need to be reminded how serious a crime graffiti really is.

The murder of Robert Whitehead, 44, is such a reminder. Whitehead, a resident of an unincorporated area near Industry, came upon two gang members spray-painting graffiti on a neighbor's block wall. When he confronted them, sheriff's detectives believe a third gang member came up behind him and shot him. Fourteen months had passed - long after Whitehead, who was living with his parents at the time, has been buried - and detectives had received no leads because witnesses were too intimidated to come forward. The neighborhood lives in fear of gangs.

Last week, that changed. A witness spoke to sheriff's detectives. Through a sketch artist, they released composites of the two gang members who are suspected of killing Whitehead back in March 2006. We published those drawings on June 22, and we urge anyone who knows anything about this murder to call the Industry Sheriff's Station.

Graffiti comes in two varieties. One is gang graffiti, which was at the center of Whitehead's murder. Sheriff detectives reported gang members from the Puente Trece gang were spray-painting graffiti - the gang members had just left the name of their gang on the residential wall before Whitehead confronted them. They were trying to expand into a rival gang's territory, detectives said. The only reason the graffiti lacked individual gang member names was because they were interrupted.
The second kind comes from taggers. These are gang wannabes, sometimes they are 13- and 14-year-olds out with spray paint or markers defacing street signs, walls and transit buses. They "tag" to gain recognition. Both are misdemeanor offenses, yet both kinds of graffiti are devastating to a community.

Graffiti lowers property values. The scribblings can chase away retail customers from a city's shopping district, leading to empty stores and economic blight. With gang graffiti, it is a sign of escalating gang activity, which usually means more drug-dealing and drive-by shootings.

Of course, erasing spray paint from a wall doesn't erase the gang problem. Gangs fill a social need of belonging, protection, even love, to teens who don't get that at home due to broken or dysfunctional families. Stopping gangs requires deeper, longitudinal programs that start with better family situations and include education, recreation, jobs and suppression.

But we're encouraged to see several cities in our area fighting graffiti - whatever the variety. For example, Monterey Park has paid a contractor $200,000 who must guarantee 100 percent removal of graffiti in 48 hours or less or face a fine themselves! Monterey Park has experienced a 60 percent increase in graffiti since January, or about 675 graffiti incidents every month.

In Uptown Whittier last week, police arrested Marcus Borjon, 25, on suspicion of felony vandalism after a witness allegedly spotted him using spray paint to tag buildings on Philadelphia Street. Whittier police detectives filed 10 counts of vandalism against Borjon. Detectives said Borjon told them that he wanted his tagging buddies to "have notoriety." Anyone in Whittier who reports tagging that leads to an arrest will get $500 from the city.

That program is getting law-abiding citizens involved in stopping graffiti in a safe way. The best response is to call police or sheriff's deputies if you see someone spray-painting a wall or building or have information that can help.

Because graffiti is a serious crime, we can't do nothing.