‘Tagger Arrest’

In response to Robert A. Jones’ column “Requiem for Chake” (Part A, Dec.18):

It was irresponsible for The Times to publish Jones’ inane accolade to a “tagger.” There is a nauseating attitude of understanding in the article as Jones describes this graffiti writer as a sweet boy, with a great affection for his skateboard, whose acts of stealing paint have a “comic” aspect, and who is absorbed by a “quest.”

Perhaps, if the buildings in which Jones and his friends live and work were subjected to these acts of vandalisn, he might not have written this maudlin tribute to the destructive scrawlings of a teen-ager.

MEL STUART, Los Angeles