Spray Paint Curb Works in Gardena

Gardena police staged an undercover operation last week and came away empty-handed.

They could not have been happier.

Wednesday’s operation involved visits to 16 Gardena stores by a 14-year-old student aide. At each store, the aide acted as a decoy to check whether store owners are complying with a state law that prohibits selling spray paint to minors.

The operation went like this: The decoy--wearing an untucked white T-shirt, baggy black pants and dark sunglasses--walked into a store, took a couple of cans of spray paint off the shelves and carried them to the counter.

When the decoy went to the counter at APW Knox-Seeman Warehouse Inc., manager Salvador Juaregui asked the Latino youth in Spanish: “You got any ID, man?” The decoy said no. “If you ain’t got no ID, then you ain’t got no business buying spray paint,” Juaregui said.

When Juaregui refused to sell paint to the decoy, Sgt. Jeff Finley and Detective Celeste Browning approached the counter, flashed their badges, and simply said thanks for not breaking the law. The store will soon get a letter from the chief of police saying the same thing.

Every one of the stores visited Wednesday said no to the Police Department’s decoy, and all of them will receive letters of commendation.

The last time Gardena police tried the decoy operation two months ago, they sent out letters of admonishment rather than congratulations: 12 of the 13 stores they visited sold spray paint to the minor. The 12 offenders were required to attend a counseling session at the district attorney’s office.

“I don’t think the stores were aware they were breaking the law,” Finley said, “because I don’t think they knew it existed.”

Gardena has since made sure the stores are aware. The Chamber of Commerce and City Council members sent letters to the stores reminding them of the law. The Police Department sent them signs warning that selling spray paint to minors can carry a fine of up to $500.

Many of the stores have taped the signs to their counters. One store manager said he has stopped selling spray paint altogether, and another said he won’t restock when the last of his supply has been sold. And another said on Thursday that the store would stop the sale of spray paint immediately.

Anti-Gang Program

The Police Department’s undercover effort is just one part of a year-old city program that aims to reduce graffiti and gang-related activities.

The program, Gardena Regional Anti-Drug Education, is a broad-based effort utilizing employees from the city’s Police, Public Works, Recreation and Human Services departments, city manager Ken Landau said. “It may be called anti-drug, but it could be called anti-gang just as easily,” Landau said.

The Public Works Department has one employee whose sole duty is to paint over graffiti. That can involve responding to as many as 20 tips a day from the public and police officers, officials from public works said.

Police officers and two human service counselors speak to health classes in the city’s elementary and junior high schools once a week to promote anti-drug and anti-gang activities.

“The result is public awareness is way up and graffiti is down,” Landau said. “Graffiti still exist in the city, but I can assure you there is less of it.”

10 Tips a Day

Finley agrees. “We can get up to 10 tips a day on where there is graffiti, and who’s doing it,” Finley said. “A year ago, no one did that.”

Detective Gina Zanone, who teaches once a week at Peary Junior High School, said concentrating on graffiti is the logical start “to get a grip on gang activities.

“If we cut down on the graffiti in the area, we send a real strong message who controls this area,” she said.

“Because that is what graffiti means. For a gang to have graffiti in a neighborhood, they’re saying it’s their turf. But if we keep it off, I guess that tells them whose turf it really is,” she says.

Results of the program are most visible along Gardena’s borders with Los Angeles and the unincorporated county area, Finley said.

Contrasting Walls

Along Vermont Avenue, the Gardena side of the street is graffiti-free, and the Harbor Gateway side is marred with graffiti for blocks. A similar contrast can be seen near the border of Gardena and the unincorporated area near Rosecrans and Western.

Before the program got under way, Finley said, one of the most popular Gardena sites for spraying graffiti was the southwest wall of Hashimm Jabi’s towing and auto repair business at Denker Avenue and 144th Street.

“It was terrible,” Jabi said. “Just about every day, I would see new graffiti on the wall. There was graffiti on the graffiti, it was so bad.”

But several months ago, the police set up a closed-circuit television monitor and taped the teens who spray-painted the wall. Finley said the parents were later fined to pay for the paint to cover the graffiti.

Now the wall is clean most of the time, Jabi said. Graffito is sprayed on as seldom as twice a month and the city quickly paints over it, usually within 24 hours, Jabi said.

“Maybe the new paint doesn’t match exactly with the old paint,” Jabi said, “but I love it.”