COMMENTARY ON GRAFFITI : Tough Legislation Aims to Wipe Out the ‘Tagging’ Epidemic : Passage is urged for SB 583, which would stiffen conventional penalties for convicted offenders.

Not so long ago, the blight of graffiti was associated in the Southern California mind with the inner-city ghetto landscape. That is no longer the case. Like a deadly plague, graffiti have spread across the land with explosive speed and now scar virtually every community in our state.

Today’s graffiti vandalism isn’t limited to gang members warning others to stay off their turf. It has entered the realm of fad and recreation, engaged in by teen-agers calling themselves “taggers.” These young people are not necessarily gang members, and their destructive work does not necessarily delineate gang territory. What is in a way more disturbing is that they vandalize property simply for the sake of vandalism itself.

Sidewalk sociologists who say these are simply “misguided” youths “expressing their creativity” miss the point. They are juvenile delinquents perpetrating the reckless destruction of property, and they must be stopped.

Whether inflicted by gangs or taggers, graffiti carry a staggering economic as well as social price tag. The skyrocketing cost to financially strapped local governments alone gives pause.

Graffiti cleanups cost Orange County governments at least $1.8 million in 1990-91 and $2.6 million in 1991-92, and is projected to climb to more than $4 million in 1992-93.

Santa Ana alone expects to lay out $1.2 million in graffiti cleanup in 1992-93, double what it spent two years ago. Last year, Fullerton spent $132,000 on graffiti removal and the city’s public works department receives a new graffiti report every 15 minutes.

These figures cover public property only; the figures for private property are certainly higher. The total cost mounts when one considers the depressing effect of graffiti on property values: That is not merely a paper statistic, but a real-life loss of wealth for homeowners.

We must launch a multi-pronged effort to squash the epidemic of graffiti taggers. To this end, I have introduced tough anti-tagging legislation, SB 583, which would stiffen conventional penalties for convicted graffiti offenders, who would be required to perform a minimum of 40 hours of graffiti cleanup for a first offense and at least 80 hours for subsequent offenses.

SB 583 also incorporates some novel punishments. Minors convicted of graffiti vandalism will lose their driver’s license--or be prohibited from obtaining one--until they are 18. A driver’s license is the holy of holies for most teen-agers. The prospect of losing it for the sake of spray-painting a billboard is a sobering one for the adolescent mind.

In order to hit taggers where they live--literally--SB 583 also requires at least one parent of a convicted unemancipated minor to fully participate in their child’s cleanup sentence, or pay an additional $1,000 fine.

It is the parental responsibility portion that has attracted the most attention and generated the most controversy, but I believe it is necessary if we are to stem the tide of tagging. Much of the graffiti epidemic is caused by adolescents who don’t necessarily have a gang connection; it is these youths parents have the greatest impact on.

Most tagging is done late at night or very early in the morning, hours when adolescents are normally at home with their parents. If parents are unable to exercise sufficient supervision to prevent their children from venturing into the night to wreak their aerosol havoc on any unguarded wall, billboard or street sign, they should be held responsible for their offspring’s actions.

The prospect of spending 40 hours assisting with graffiti cleanup will surely encourage parents to exercise greater control over their children’s spare time.

Since I announced introduction of SB 583, many Orange County cities have passed similar ordinances holding parents of taggers responsible.

Fullerton, for example, passed an ordinance that not only sets $1,000 fines and jail time for offenders, but also holds parents of graffiti offenders financially responsible for damages. Garden Grove and other cities have enacted similar laws.

It is an idea whose time has come, and I urge citizens to contact their council members and state legislators to voice their support for SB 583.

We cannot afford to meet this threat with half-measures and stopgap measures. We all have to pull together on this.

If we are to maintain what is left of a free and orderly society, young people must be taught to respect private and public property. If that means they have to wait until their 18th birthday to drive, or endure the company of an angry parent for 40 hours of graffiti cleanup, it’s well worth the price.