Tag on Their Heads : South L.A. Church Offers $1,000 Reward for Capture of Graffiti Vandals

Once every few weeks for the last three months, the walls of the Southside Bethel Baptist Church in South Los Angeles have been marred by graffiti.

Members of the church on the corner of 104th Street and South San Pedro Street repeatedly painted over the boldly lettered gang tags, but to no avail. The tags soon reappeared.

Finally this week Pastor Allen O. Simmons took matters into his own hands. The pastor penned an item for the church bulletin, requesting congregation members to come forward with information leading to the arrest of the graffiti vandals.

“There are people who know who’s doing this,” Simmons said Wednesday as he looked at the church’s wooden signboard, which apparently had been broken late Tuesday night during the most recent spate of graffiti.

Witnesses may need encouragement to come forward, the pastor figured, so the church is putting up a $1,000 reward for information. “Most (witnesses) just don’t want to get involved,” he said.

Neighbors and congregation members, who attend monthly Neighborhood Watch meetings at the church, said the reward may be the best way to put an end to the sprayings--a problem that even police have not been able to curb.

“We’re not complaining,” said Edmond Emmett, 67, a church deacon who lives less than a block from the old two-story stucco church.

“The police have been trying to patrol the neighborhood, but they can’t be here all the time. It’s really up to us to fight this thing.”

A spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department’s Southeast Division said a state ordinance restricts the sale of more than six ounces of spray paint to those 18 or older. But vandals appear to have found ways to get around the infrequently-enforced law.

Neighborhood youths enlist adults to buy spray paint at stores that refuse to sell to the minors, said Clifford Spivey, who manages Andy’s True Value Hardware store across the street from the church.

“I see the church folks going through a lot of frustration lately,” said Spivey. The congregation has an account with the store and has made several recent purchases of wall paint, Spivey said.

“Used to be old vacant buildings that were marked up, then it moved to houses. Now it’s churches. It’s a simple lack of respect,” Spivey said.

Church members are expected to be out in force this week to once again eradicate the markings, Simmons said.

“Red,” he said, clicking his tongue and shaking his head in disgust as he pointed to fresh graffiti on the church’s facade. “That’s something new here. I imagine it’s going to be hard to cover.”